Buffalo Bills Announce Bold Decision for Starters in Preseason

There is a debate every year about how much the starters should play during the NFL preseason. With only three ramp-up games before the regular season now, every coaching staff has a different opinion on what to do. On Thursday, Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott revealed the plans for his team.

The Bills are scheduled to take on the Chicago Bears on Saturday afternoon. It could be the first time that we see No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams on the field as he didn’t play in the Hall of Fame Game that the Bears took part in against the Houston Texans.

If Williams does start, he will be facing off against the Buffalo Bills’ first-team defense. McDermott revealed his starters will be playing about a quarter in the first exhibition game of the season.

“It’s really, to me, it’s getting them ramped up and ready to go for the season,” McDermott said. “It’s an important step, hard to simulate the speed of the game and so getting that in preseason is important, going through warmups and the energy that comes with playing a game in front of fans, and being able to manage that. So, there’s a lot of reasons for it, like I said, it’s just another step.”

While many fans will be tuning in to see Williams play for the first time, this will be an important game for Buffalo. Josh Allen will be on the field playing with a revamped offensive game plan for the first time in years.

With Stefon Diggs being traded to the Texans and Gabe Davis signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Allen is surrounded by some new weaponry offensively. This is also a change in how things have gone during the preseason in the past, as Allen did not play in Game 1 last year.

“We’ll just take it one week at a time,” McDermott said on Allen’s preseason play time. “So, you know, there’s a number of new faces on our offense also, including his receiving corps and so some of that is baked into this. But the biggest thing is individually we’ve got to get ourselves ready to go and go from there.”

Getting into a routine is something that the preseason games provide players. It is something that younger guys certainly benefit from the most as it is their first chance to get into a live game against an opponent.

However, Allen is indifferent about playing in the exhibition games. Entering Year 7 of his career with the Buffalo Bills, he believes he is experienced enough to ramp things up when it counts.

“I don’t feel it makes a difference for me at this point in my career,” Allen said Wednesday on potentially playing in the preseason. “To get things rolling would be nice but I understand not getting out there and making sure that we’re being healthy and being protective. Again, it’s a double-edged sword any way you look at it. If I’m asked to play, I’ll play. If I’m told not to play, I won’t play. So, the competitive juices in me want to play, but I understand Week 1 — we still got some time.”

Getting his feet wet and building more chemistry and cohesion with his new weapons is certainly not a bad thing. With plans to play the first quarter, we could see Allen and the Buffalo Bills starters on the field for multiple series on Saturday afternoon.

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