The safety's injury problems have curtailed his development, and it has led to a real concern for the Bills.
ORCHARD PARK - The question was posed to Sean McDermott Sunday night specifically with Cole Bishop in mind and whether he is concerned about the play of the young and oft-injured safety, but the Buffalo Bills coach, as he often does, generalized his response.
“I’m concerned about a lot of things coming off of tonight,” McDermott said after he watched his team stink out Soldier Field during a 38-0 loss to the Chicago Bears.
Fair enough, because when you lose the way the Bills did, a complete no-show in every phase, that’s going to get a coach’s attention, even if it’s a meaningless preseason game when only two projected starters saw any action.
But here’s the thing: One of those starters was Bishop, and among his 12 snaps came a brutal play where he got smoked in man coverage by Olamide Zaccheaus for a 36-yard touchdown on the Bears’ first possession. Bishop allowed Zaccheaus to get inside position and it was as easy a throw as Bears quarterback Caleb Williams made all night.
McDermott was asked again about Bishop on Tuesday, and he made a rather telling statement when he said, “I think we’re looking for that other safety to play alongside a T-Rapp. There’s been really good moments for all those guys back there, young and some of the more veteran guys that are back there that have played for us. But I think we’re still looking to find who is it gonna be, right? And how consistent can they become, and how quickly can they grow if they’re a younger player?”
That was a mouthful from the coach, and the first indication that his confidence in Bishop, the Bills’ 2024 second-round draft pick, is wavering.
The issue with Bishop has been injuries, and then the time he has missed has derailed his development which in turn has led to inconsistent performance when he’s had his opportunities.
Last summer he suffered a shoulder injury early in training camp and that set him way back as he did not play a single snap in the preseason, then played just 464 in the regular season and postseason combined across 13 games.
This summer, a quad injury cost him time at the mandatory mini camp in June, and that lingered into training camp and he missed multiple practices plus the first preseason game against the Giants.
“I really feel like Cole, from the time he’s come back, it’s just been a short runway to this point,” McDermott said. “He continues to improve. He has shown to this point that the ability, the skill level, can be there. We’re just not there yet. And so, his refining process, if you will, goes one day at a time, one rep at a time and again, we’re just kind of getting started because of what wasn’t with his availability.”
Bishop was drafted and Taylor Rapp was re-signed as a free agent prior to 2024 to become the replacements for the longtime safety tandem of Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. But those two stalwarts have not played a snap for the Bills since 2023 and McDermott still misses them dearly.
He said last week that, “To be a good defense, you’ve got to have that component of good safety play. It’s such an important position to a defense. That pairing up is critical, probably more than any position on the field, offensively, defensively. And I think the important piece is that we don’t lower our standards. If we want to be a good defense, you’ve got to have two safeties that can play football for you.”
The Bills may not have lowered their standards, but obviously they have not come close to replicating the - no pun intended - safety blanket that Poyer and Hyde provided for seven seasons. As for Bishop, the jury is still deliberating whether he was worth spending a second-round pick on, and his too-frequent unavailability has become problematic.
“I wouldn’t say behind the eight-ball, necessarily,” Bishop said when asked Sunday whether his latest injury is hurting his development. “Obviously I don’t want to be out, but doing everything I could have while I was hurt. I rehabbed as much as I could, did walk through with my coaches - me and Rapp doing extra work. Just trying not to fall behind at all.”
But clearly he is behind and there is only around 9 or 10 practices and one more preseason game before the Bills open the regular season with a massively difficult test when they host Lamar Jackson, Zay Flowers, Rashod Bateman, DeAndre Hopkins, Mark Andrews, Derrick Henry and the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night, Sept. 7.
Defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said Wednesday, “There’s a lot of different moving pieces right now but we’re seeing progress, delayed progress … but we’ll be good. I believe the best thing right now is to have Cole back in the flow of things .The best teacher is failure. The best teacher is scars.”
On the touchdown he yielded in Chicago, one that also saw Damar Hamlin react way too late while patrolling the middle of the field, Bishop relied on the old “gotta watch the film” crutch before adding, “Could have had tighter coverage and everything like that.”
The problem with the play was his lack of technique. Everyone gets beat, but that was not a particularly difficult play to defend and he simply bit too hard on a fake to the outside and allowed Zaccheaus to beat him to the inside.
“Obviously trying to get my feet back underneath me,” Bishop said. “I’ve only been back to practice for a little bit. Felt good to get back out there and knock off some rust. But, definitely some stuff to improve on.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, he has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Cole Bishop struggles as Bills look for answer at safety
Category: General Sports
