Brandon Beane says LeSean McCoy is Buffalo Bills’ starting running back

The Buffalo Bills have overhauled much of their roster heading into the 2019 NFL season. Even at running back, where the team has an entrenched starter in LeSean McCoy, things have changed significantly since last season came to a close.

Thanks to McCoy’s age (he’ll turn 31 in July) and career-worst production last season, many have speculated that the Bills could part ways with the star running back prior to the start of the 2019 season. McCoy ran 161 times, his lowest total since his rookie year, for a career-low 514 yards and a career-low 3.2 yards per carry. He only managed three touchdowns on the season, the second-worst total of his career, and he only caught 34 passes for 238 yards.

While those numbers would seem to point towards a reason for moving on, the Bills seem intent on keeping McCoy around as the starting running back next season. General manager Brandon Beane spoke on Friday night about the running-back position following the pick of Devin Singletary. Beane said McCoy is “...still here...he’s still the starter. We roll the ball out, there’s no questions about that.”

The Bills have added plenty of new faces to the running-back room, signing veteran Frank Gore to a one-year contract and T.J. Yeldon to a two-year pact this offseason. They also drafted Devin Singletary with the first of two third-round choices in the NFL Draft. The team signed Senorise Perry, who has primarily been a special-teams contributor throughout his NFL career, as well, and they still have Marcus Murphy and Keith Ford on the roster from last year. Buffalo was also allocated Christian Wade, a British rugby player, via the NFL International Player Pathway Program.

Competition for carries and reps should be fierce this year, but it would seem that the Bills are content to give McCoy one more chance to prove that last season’s poor showing was more due to woeful offensive-line play than it was a loss of ability on his part.