Buffalo Fanatics Podcast: Buffalo Bills vs. Indianapolis Colts Preseason Preview

Rated Rev is back at it again! This time to break down the Buffalo Bills’ preseason matchup with the Indianapolis Colts! He is also joined by Evan Harrington later in the show.

Bills vs Colts Preseason Preview (54:00 – 57:27)

Getting into the matchup versus the Colts is very interesting because the Colts have decided that they will play starting quarterback Matt Ryan for one quarter this Saturday.

When looking at the Colts roster one player that really intrigues me is rookie wide receiver Alec Pierce. Pierce was selected with the 53rd pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. The Colts have invested a high pick in Pierce. Rightfully so, this guy is super talented and has the potential to be the wide receiver 2 in this Colts offense.

The Colts plan to unload their starters against the Bills for a bit of time during the game. The Buffalo Bills rookies and second, and third-stringers are up for a big task.

Do the Buffalo Bills play their starters? (57:27 – 1:00:27)

The Bills might unload their offensive line out for a few series to get them reps as they have not a lot of live reps together throughout training camp.

All five of the Buffalo Bills’ projected starters on the O-line are healthy and ready to go.

McDermott didn’t determine any playing time for the rest of the starters.

Rookies will get playing time most likely through the preseason.

The three rookies that will have potentially a starting role on this team are James Cook, Christian Benford, and Kaiir Elam.

Which Bills players should sit out this week?

Most of the time, teams don’t play their key starters in the first preseason game, so who should sit out for the Buffalo Bills this week?

Managing expectations vs. the Colts (1:13:45 – 1:30:22)

The Bills are coming into the season as the Super Bowl favorites. Adding guys like Von Miller, Rodger Saffold, and Daquan Jones to the roster has pushed the Bills over the top to become for the Super Bowl. Adding superstar talent to the roster will bring a lot of expectations for the upcoming season. The question now is how will the Bills manage these said expectations.

It all starts with the first preseason matchup against the Indianapolis Colts. The Bills have to start in that game by getting their young players reps. These young players the Bills have, may or may not have to play at some point in time this season. James Cook, Khalil Shakir, Terrel Bernard, and others will have to play meaningful reps in preseason because these players are going to be playing key roles for the Bills this season.

The Bills have high expectations for a lot of reasons. A way to key in on these expectations is to have all of your guys ready for any type of situation when game time arrives. Preseason is the best way to do that. Have the young guns learn. The veterans on this roster know what is supposed to happen in certain crunch-time situations. They have been around the league enough to know. It’s now up to the young players to get these meaningful reps to meet the expectations the Buffalo Bills have.

Now, this stretches over to the coaching staff. The Buffalo Bills have promoted some of the coaches up the ranks throughout the coaching staff. The two most notable coaches are Ken Dorsey (Offensive Coordinator) and Matthew Smiley (Special Teams Coordinator).

Ken Dorsey has been with the Buffalo Bills since 2019 as the quarterback coach. With Brian Daboll leaving to be the new head coach of the New York Giants. There was a whole to be filled for the OC position. The Bills promoted Ken Dorsey to OC this off-season.

The expectations with Dorsey as OC are very high. As Dorsey has Josh Allen as his quarterback, the expectations for this offense are through the roof. Preseason will be a good lesson for first-time OC Ken Dorsey as he gets to call plays for the first time in his career, but he also going to get live action as an OC, being able to view all the new talent the Bills have on offense.

Matthew Smiley is the Buffalo Bills’ special teams coordinator. He has been with the Bills now for six seasons but this is his first as special teams coordinator. For the previous 5 years, Smiley was the assistant special teams coach.

Smiley has a lot of expectations to meet with the special teams. Going through training camp and preseason there are multiple position battles on the special teams side of the ball. Whether that’s from punter or to returner. Smiley is going to have a busy next few weeks building this special teams to help the Buffalo Bills meet their expectations this season.