With another week of practice in the books, the Buffalo Bills are now turning their attention to the preseason Week 2 contest against the Cleveland Browns.
The Browns and Bills met for a joint practice during the week and it yielded positive results. Both teams got a ton of work in against one another and fights weren’t an issue.
Last week, the Bills played Josh Allen and the starters in the preseason opener versus the Carolina Panthers, but can we expect the same this week?
Let’s dive into the details and come up with an answer.
Are Josh Allen, Bills starters playing in preseason Week 2?
Bills head coach Joe Brady wouldn’t commit to an answer during the week, but he did equate the joint practice to significant reps for his team, so those reps could replace preseason action.
“(Joint practice) is as regular season as it gets,” Brady said.
Browns head coach Todd Monken’s comments about the starters were much more telling. He noted that he and Brady did talk about it and agreed that if they see enough from their starters, neither team would play the ones in preseason Week 2.
“Well we both talked about that,” Monken revealed. “If we see out of our ones, our group, our older players, what we want to see on Thursday, they would not play in the game. We agreed upon that,” Monken said.
There hasn’t been any indication either coach was unhappy with the amount of reps or overall performance they saw out of their ones on Thursday, so chances are both teams will rest their starters.
Knowing that, we may have seen the last of the Bills’ starters in the preseason, as teams usually opt to sit their ones in the final exhibition game.
A golden opportunity
With the ones likely to sit, this presents a huge opportunity for the players who are vying for depth roles or roster spots in general to show their stuff.
It’s also another opportunity for the Bills’ rookies to further get their feet wet as they try and build confidence ahead of their respective first seasons in the NFL.
Buffalo and Cleveland will kick off from Huntington Bank Field on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.
After that, the Bills return to the practice field next week before the preseason finale on Thursday, Aug. 27, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is three days before cutdown day on Aug. 30.
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