Depth.
It’s boringly repeated ad nauseam by GMs and coaches before and during every NFL season, and it’s easily dismissed as irrelevant coach or executive speak.
But for as much as it seems sensible to label the NFL as a “star-driven” league — and we certainly know the stars exceptionally well — in January and February, playoff games, and at times Super Bowls, often hinge on the specific play of a small collection of previously forgotten depth players forced into key spots in the aftermath of injuries. Football is the ultimate team game after all.
Depth.
Dull until you need it.
And the depth-cultivation process is never-ending. Technically, it starts every March during free agency. It’s added to in late April with the draft, and the infusion of that depth onto the roster takes the field in May with minicamp before kicking into high gear in late July and August at training camp.
But the preseason is the first opportunity for teams — and their fans — to take note of what stage of development depth is in with the regular season imminent.
Done are the theoretical placements of players in the pecking order on the depth chart. While game plans are vanilla at best, plays are available to be made in the preseason and ultimately decide where depth slots onto the roster.
For this Bills team, relative to the past coaching regime, there’s plenty of depth contributor roles up for grabs.
And Bills vs. Panthers inside the new Highmark Stadium this weekend marks the commencement of the evaluation of all those granular roles. There’s fun in that, the fresh start of determining hierarchies behind full-time players.
I’m most fascinated by who secures the wide receiver No. 3 gig, and that depth gig carries reasonably significant importance on the 2026 offense. Right now, it feels like Josh Palmer’s job to lose, but of course Keon Coleman lurks. So do Mecole Hardman and rookie Skyler Bell.
How about CB4? Christian Benford and Maxwell Hairston are the starting boundary cornerbacks. Dee Alford will be the club’s primary slot cornerback. Is CB4 rookie Davison Igbinosun, Buffalo’s second pick in the 2026 draft? Or will the comparably lengthy Kani Walker from Arkansas grab that title?
And what happens at inside linebacker? The two starting jobs are locked in, right? RIGHT?! How does Kaleb Elarms-Orr, the Bills true star at training camp outside of Josh Allen, fit into the defensive rotation? Does he begin his professional career as depth? Or does he immediately assume a more prominent role?
And there’s not much set in stone along Buffalo’s defensive line behind the likes of Deone Walker and Ed Oliver. Vital depth jobs galore in the trenches, where rotation is a must. There’s no real answers yet at safety behind Cole Bishop and CJ Gardner-Johnson either. Plus, Tylan Grable’s the new swing tackle, correct? We’ll see.
All these questions — and many more — can begin to be answered on the field against the Panthers to start the Bills 2026 preseason.