On Towards the Regular Season
By Pat Freeman, The Mighty O’Ba
The final roster for the hometown team is in and it is forward toward the regular season. The Bills will enter this season with a lot of question marks at some key positions. Over the last seven years Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer kept those vital roles for the team on lock down but for the first time in a good while those are now question marks. Right now, the most experienced of that group are Taylor Rapp, Cam Lewis, and Damar Hamlin and none of those names equal the play of the two former all pro players at those positions. This is the one area of the defense that I am going to evaluate every game. After the final cuts, the bills brought in Brandon Codrington in exchange for a late round pick to add some needed depth to the defensive backfield.
Photos from BUF vs PAN game by Jerome Davis
The feel-good story of this year is Lancaster native Joe Andreessen making the 53-man roster at the position of linebacker and this young man deserves the opportunity based on his performance. Double digit tackles at this level will catch the eye of any NFL coach and it helps the head coach has a penchant for wrestlers and Joe Andreesen fits that perfectly. This is a position on this team that lacks size & depth and that is a bit troubling going into an extraordinarily long season. Honestly, I still think any McDermott/Beane team will be competitive its my belief on the defensive side of the ball is where the most questions lie as this season moves toward the first game on September 8, 2024