Buffalo Bills rookies got their jersey numbers for the upcoming season
The Buffalo Bills drafted eight players over the course of the 2022 NFL Draft and on Monday announced the jersey numbers for each one of their draft picks.
However, when looking at the numbers there were some notable players who had these numbers last year that are on the roster still.
Kaiir Elam, the team’s first round pick, is expected to have number 24. This number belonged to starting nickel corner Taron Johnson the past few seasons. According to Sal Capaccio at WGR550, Johnson will be changing his jersey number for the upcoming season to number 7.
Buffalo Bills’ new punter gets Isaiah McKenzie’s old number?
Another notable player who looks to be changing his number for the upcoming season is wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie. He has been with the team since they claimed him off waivers during the 2018 season and has been in number 19.
However, that will change for the upcoming season as he announced on Twitter that he will be using the number 6 this year. That number 19 jersey will now belong to punter Matt Araiza, who the team drafted in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
Araiza had one of the strongest legs in this year’s draft class and he now enters a training camp battle with veteran Matt Haack for the starting job.
James Cook’s jersey number of 28 hasn’t been used for a few seasons now with Kurt Coleman the last player to wear it back in 2019. However, this number is notable as C.J. Spiller, a former first round pick by the Buffalo Bills, wore that number during his time with the franchise.
The other notable number is Khalil Shakir, who will be wearing number 10. This was Mitchell Trubisky’s number last year but prior to that Cole Beasley wore it early in his career with the Buffalo Bills after changing to number 11 prior to the 2020 season.