The Buffalo Bills have been reshaping their roster over the last 10 days, starting with shipping out starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor and left tackle Cordy Glenn before free agency kicked off. With the signings they’ve made in the last eight days, their roster has been transformed so it’s time to take a look at the updated depth chart.
Before we get into the depth chart, a few notes:
- Eric Wood is still on the Bills roster but is not on the depth chart at center since this is a projection of who would suit up if they played a game today. Since he can’t play a game, he’s not on the list.
- AJ McCarron gets the nod over Nathan Peterman based on experience.
- Taiwan Jones is ahead of Travaris Cadet because they had Jones on the roster through all of last year and added Cadet only after Jones was hurt. Last year, they had Jones ahead of Cadet and then Cadet dislocated his ankle so for now, he’s behind Jones.
- Ryan Groy is ahead of Bodine based on his experience with McDermott. They have the same contract. Ditto Jordan Mills over Marshall Newhouse.
- At linebacker, both Ramon Humber and Matt Milano played WLB in 2017 but with the lack of a current middle linebacker, we slid Milano over since he’d be the most likely to be on the field 100% of the time and call the defense at this point.
- We kept three linebackers and two cornerbacks as the base defense even though the Bills ran nickel more often than 4-3 last year. They don’t currently have enough cornerbacks to layout out the nickel defense as their base.
- The players noted with an asterisk weren’t on the Bills roster or practice squad last year.
Unofficial Buffalo Bills 2018 offseason depth chart
| Position | Starter | Backup | Reserve | Reserve | Reserve | Reserve |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Starter | Backup | Reserve | Reserve | Reserve | Reserve |
| QB | AJ McCarron* | Nathan Peterman | Josh Allen+ | |||
| RB | LeSean McCoy | Chris Ivory* | Taiwan Jones | Travaris Cadet | Marcus Murphy | Aaron Green |
| FB | Patrick DiMarco | |||||
| WR1 | Kelvin Benjamin | Andre Holmes | Malachi Dupre | |||
| WR2 | Zay Jones | Rod Streater | Brandon Reily | Quan Bray | ||
| WR3 | Jeremy Kerley* | Ray-Ray McCloud+ | Austin Proehl+ | |||
| TE | Charles Clay | Nick O'Leary | Logan Thomas | Khari Lee | Keith Towbridge | Jason Croom |
| LT | Dion Dawkins | Conor McDermott | ||||
| LG | Ryan Groy | Wyatt Teller+ | ||||
| C | Russell Bodine* | Adam Redmond | ||||
| RG | Vlad Ducasse | John Miller | ||||
| RT | Jordan Mills | Marshall Newhouse* | De'Andre Wesley | Josh James | ||
| LE | Jerry Hughes | Terrence Fede* | Marquevius Lewis | Owa Odighizuwa* | ||
| NT | Star Lotulelei* | Harrison Phillps+ | Rickey Hatley | Adolphus Washington | ||
| DT | Kyle Williams | Tenny Palepoi* | ||||
| RE | Trent Murphy* | Shaq Lawson | Eddie Yarbrough | |||
| SLB | Lorenzo Alexander | Tanner Vallejo | Deon Lacey | |||
| MLB | Tremaine Edmunds+ | Julian Stanford* | ||||
| WLB | Matt Mliano | Ramon Humber | Xavier Woodson-Lusten | |||
| CB | Tre'Davious White | Lafayette Pitts | ||||
| FS | Jordan Poyer | Siran Neal+ | Dean Marlowe | L.J. McCray | ||
| SS | Micah Hyde | Rafael Bush* | Kelcie McCray | |||
| NB | Phillip Gaines* | Taron Johnson+ | ||||
| CB | Vontae Davis* | Breon Borders | ||||
| K | Stephen Hauschka | |||||
| P | Colton Schmidt | Cory Carter | ||||
| LS | Reid Ferguson | |||||
| KR/PR | Jeremy Kerley* | Ray-Ray McLoud+ | Taiwan Jones |
The largest roster holes should come into focus when looking at it like this. They need a top-shelf quarterback. They need a wide receiver or two. They need a starting linebacker. They need a nickel cornerback and a depth cornerback. They need a young depth defensive tackle to add to the rotation. They need a punt returner who is not Micah Hyde.