The Buffalo Bills beat the Carolina Panthers 29-14 in the first preseason game inside the new Highmark Stadium on Saturday afternoon, and the score was not indicative of how thoroughly the Bills dominated.
Staffer Sean Murphy wrote his stock up/stock down piece immediately following the victory. It’s very good. You should read it.
These were my takeaways from this convincing Bills win.
Joe Brady and Jim Leonhard are going to bring it
No one would’ve blamed Brady and Leonard for opting for the vanilla schematic route in their first exhibition games at head coach and defensive coordinator respectively.
The opposite was true in this game — and I gotta say, I loved it.
Brady didn’t shy away from deep drops for Josh Allen, even calling a few under center play-action passes. On those five drop backs, Allen was 5-of-5 for 100 yards and a touchdown. Brady prioritized pushing the ball down the field too.
Last season, Allen finished with his lowest average depth of target (aDOT) in his NFL career, at just 7.8 yards. Of course, we can’t draw distinct conclusions from the first preseason game, but Allen’s aDOT against the Panthers was 13.6 yards.
And Buffalo’s three blitzes on 31 Bryce Young and Kenny Pickett drop backs did not indicate the complex nature of what Leonhard threw at Carolina’s quarterbacks. There were a smattering of pre-snap blitz looks followed by post-snap rotations up front that confused the Panthers offensive line and led to four sacks of the three Carolina quarterbacks and a mere 4.9 yards-per-attempt average through the air.
It was close to as foot-on-the-gas as you’ll see an offensive and defensive coordinator in a preseason opener.
So is Deone Walker
The best player on the field in the Bills-Panthers preseason contest was the second-year defensive tackle, who looked ridiculously sleek despite probably still weighing somewhere in the 320s or 330s at 6’7”. On 10 snaps, Walker had two pressures, one sack, three tackles, and one tackle for loss.
He was lightning off the snap, then a bull in a china shop working his way through the interior of Carolina’s blocking unit. The 2025 fourth-round pick appeared on just over 47% of the defensive snaps in the regular season, yet never hit the rookie wall, and made his presence felt in both of Buffalo’s playoff games with six tackles, four total pressures, and an interception.
Walker is one of those top 1% of the top 1% type specimens, and on Saturday against Carolina he gave everyone the first notification of what the 22 year old is capable of at a new, slimmed down weight in his second professional season as the starting nose tackle in Leonard’s scheme.
The Bills back seven has legitimate versatility for the first time in a while
Every single coach in the NFL preaches versatility with their players. But hardly every team has it, based on the way it should be defined. Sure, a coordinator can place a safety in the slot. That doesn’t mean said safety is automatically versatile. Can he play both safety and defend the slot well? If so, then he’s legitimately versatile.
The Bills had a workhorse of a nickel in Taron Johnson for the bulk of the Sean McDermott era. He was versatile in that he could cover underneath at a high level and was completely unafraid to throw his weight around in the box as a run defender. In his prime, he was damn good. All Pro good.
But his size was always a hindrance to the Bills ceiling defensively. Now, the Bills have super-sudden Dee Alford as the classically built/skilled slot corner. And Jordan Hancock and Jalon Kilgore are two larger, explosive, and youthful safety-nickel hybrids who starred in this preseason opener and could very well give the Bills personnel-matching versatility in their back seven.
Even rookie seventh-round pick Toriano Pride Jr. is being crossed trained on the outside and in the slot. Maxwell Hairston has the juice to condense inside if needed. While versatile wouldn’t be the first word I would use to describe the 6’2” / 203-pound rookie Kani Walker, possessing that type of size — and burgeoning playmaking skill — behind Christian Benford was simply missing from the past few years of the Bills defenses when the likes of Dane Jackson and Co. were needed in key moments as injury reinforcements.
The plethora of plays made by Kilgore and Hancock together hint at what’s materializing for the Bills secondary by way of legitimate versatility.
Lloyd Cushenberry could become a low-key vital free-agent signing
In late March, a few weeks into 2026 NFL free agency, the Bills signed Cushenberry to a one-year contract. After two average-at-best seasons in Tennessee, it was easy to dismiss the signing as insignificant.
But now, we wonder — will Connor McGovern be ready for Week 1 against the Houston Texans? He probably isn’t even sure right now after suffering a leg muscle strain in the Blue and Red Scrimmage last weekend.
There’s a reasonable chance McGovern won’t be available for that regular-season opener against one of the most ferocious defensive lines in the NFL.
It appears Cushenberry would slide into the starting center spot if McGovern can’t go at any stage of the season. And it’s rather luxurious for Brady to have a backup blocker with 80 games of starting experience who he just so happens to be LSU’s center during the magical 2019 season.
Against the Panthers, Cushenberry rocked in pass protection, as he did not allow a pressure on 10 pass-blocking snaps, although he didn’t see Derrick Brown at the nose in this game.
Cushenberry isn’t an All-Pro caliber type. But offensive lines are weak-link systems. One liability can ruin the performance of the entire group.
And Cushenberry’s first showing in a Bills uniform, coupled with his familiarity with Brady, hint that he can be a glue guy up front who can help to keep the Bills super-sturdy line afloat if injuries keep McGovern out for a relatively long stretch at the outset of the season.