The Buffalo Bills began their summer training camp yesterday at St. John Fisher University under cloudy skies that featured rainy conditions. With Day 1 already in the books, the Bills still have six more open practices to improve on their areas of concern while continuing to strengthen their bright spots.
New head coach Joe Brady and his staff are committed to holding more up-tempo, challenging practices to help the Bills players stay conditioned for the pace they plan to run during the regular season.
As with any NFL team, they will focus on addressing key issues that plagued them last season and are ready to step up to fix them.
3 key issues Bills need to answer in training camp
1.) Joe Brady now has keys to the ignition
Despite the transition from offensive coordinator to head coach being very difficult in the NFL, the Bills organization, including general manager Brandon Beane, believes the young Joe Brady is ready for the role.
Brady is a young offensive mind who believes that practicing hard and fast, efficiently, and being tough and energetic sets the tone for how the Bills will play on gamedays. Last season, he was the offensive coordinator, and under former head coach Sean McDermott, practices were efficient and tough. Still, the team lacked the pace and energy that Brady will instill through a confident, motivating environment throughout the season.
While his first year may have some growing pains, look for the offense to be high-flying and fast-paced by the time December and the playoffs roll along. If their playoff defense improves, they will be a team you don't want to face in January.
2.) Defensive scheme change and attitude in stopping the run
After firing McDermott, whose calling card was defense, the Bills, despite hiring the young, fast-paced, offensive-minded head coach Joe Brady, sent a signal that they wanted a change in scheme and attitude for their talented but undercoached defense.
Having been under the Sean Payton coaching tree, Brady decided to pull another family member from Payton's tree in former Denver Broncos assistant head coach, defensive passing game coordinator, and former Buffalo Bills player Jim Leonhard as Brady's new defensive coordinator.
Much like Brady wants the offense to be fast-paced and aggressive, Leonhard wants his defense to be the same, but also to develop the toughness and relentlessness that will make it a nightmare for opposing quarterbacks.
His defense mirrors how Payton's defenses have played in the past: they are 3-4 or 4-3 based, but throughout the game, they change up quickly and play several different looks to confuse the offensive line's protection and force 2nd or 3rd-down and longs.
They also stay aggressive on third-and-long with 5-man pass rushes to sack the quarterback and force other teams to punt.
As for stopping the run, it requires a big nose tackle like Deone Walker in the middle to prevent running backs from getting into the second level. Then defensive end T.J. Sanders will need to sack the quarterback.
If the offensive play gets to the second level, this is where big power edge rushers like T.J. Parker, Greg Rousseau, Bradley Chubb, and Mike Danna come in to stop the ball carrier from breaking through for a long run.
They also have big stay-at-home linebackers such as Kaleb Elarms-Orr and Joe Andreessen to stay in position and lay the big hit on ball carriers.
The pass defense should be able to have more team sacks at the beginning of the year, while the run defense may struggle initially. Nonetheless, both units are expected to become more powerful by the end of the season, paving the way for a deep playoff run in January.
3.) Revamped wide receiver room lacks depth
Very few people in the Bills circle would argue that D.J. Moore and Khalil Shakir aren't their top two wideouts. Other players are still developing and will need to practice at a fast pace to make the big plays that Brady wants to see on game days.
2024 second-round draft pick Keon Coleman did start to show he's matured in the offseason. While he still has a lot to prove, Bills training camp will give him a great place to start. Year 3 is basically it for the former FSU receiver, or he may be on another team's roster come 2027 training camp.
Highly paid free agent Joshua Palmer initially showed promise in the first game of last year, when they defeated the Ravens. Still, after his injury on MNF against the Falcons, he didn't seem to come back right, as he just seemed to check out at the end of the season.
Hopefully, a fresh start under Brady's fast-tempo practice style will help Palmer feel like he still belongs on the team, which should help him bounce back from an injury-riddled 2025 season.
So far, it's been a nice start to the Brady era in training camp. Hopefully, players will buy in physically and mentally as the pace quickens until they feel they're ready for the preseason and then onto the regular season.
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