Bills
Bills S Cole Bishop dealt with injuries to begin his rookie year, which played a role in his inability to secure the starting job over S Damar Hamlin . Buffalo DC Bobby Babich has been impressed with Bishop’s improvement heading into year two so far and thinks his lack of reps in camp last year hurt his early development.
“The jump we’ve seen from Cole from that first year as a rookie to this year has been really good so far,” Babich said, via Sal Maiorana of Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. “There’s a lot of room left, but it’s been really good so far. I think it’s just the comfortability of what we’re doing. It’s the more reps he gets of one call, that you just see him taking more control. You go back to it, he didn’t play in training camp, right, and that was valuable reps missed out. So I think just the comfortability and what we’re trying to do in the second year is tremendous for him.”
Dolphins WR Jaylen Waddle believes that the team’s defensive backs will rise to the challenge, with only three of them ( Kader Kohou , Kendall Sheffield , and Artie Burns ) having experience as a starter, with Sheffield and Burns not starting since 2020 and 2017.
“They look extremely good. I’m not going to lie to y’all, they are making it really tough on the receivers,” Waddle said, via ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques. “They’re playing true to their technique. I think they’re doing a good job of taking what they do in individual [drills] to when we go into team [drills]. We’re going to need them to step up and be key for us. I’m happy that they are doing extremely good.”
Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel notes that the offseason is giving the players experience and giving him a chance to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.
“Defensive back [play] is about the next play after you get beat. It’s not if, but when,” McDaniel said. “So we are getting major evaluation stuff that a guy might have a good day for two days. To me, that’s a setup at this stage in the evaluation for me. I’m waiting, OK, two good days? This is fantastic. I can’t wait till he gets beat, because now we’ve got action. Now we’re seeing who we’re dealing with, because the one thing that I can’t coach is that mental fortitude to bounce back, an inherent feature in the game, and that’s what we’re looking for.”
