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Bills training camp: Marquez Stevenson trending down

Matt Warren is Associate Director of NFL coverage for SB Nation and previously covered the Bills for Buffalo Rumblings for more than a decade.

Sixth-round rookie Marquez Stevenson was brought in to add dynamic speed to the Buffalo Bills’ wide receiver room and challenge for the punt return and kick return duties with the departure of Andre Roberts. Instead, he finds himself buried on the depth chart.

During his time as the general manager of the Buffalo Bills, Brandon Beane has only cut two draft picks and both were seventh-round selections. In 2018, WR Austin Proehl couldn’t crack the Bills’ roster and in 2020 it was CB Dane Jackson. Jackson was added to the practice squad and elevated to the active roster several times and is on track to make the 2021 53-man roster.

That’s a pretty solid track record of draft picks making the initial roster, but in 2021 that streak looks like it’s going to be shattered. With a more stacked roster than ever before, it’s going to be harder just to get a shot.

Stevenson hasn’t impressed in kick return and punt return, which was really his only shot at making the team. With Isaiah McKenzie leading that competition, Stevenson doesn’t really have a place on the active roster.

At the receiver position, Stevenson is low. On the first depth chart of the season released by the team, he’s listed with the fourth team at one spot behind Stefon Diggs, Jake Kumerow, and Duke Williams. Overall at the position, he’s running behind Diggs, Cole Beasley, Emmanuel Sanders, Gabe Davis, Kumerow, Isaiah Hodgins, and Williams at the very least.

Stevenson is going to have to ball out in the preseason in order to avoid becoming the third draft pick casualty of the Beane era.

2021 Buffalo Bills Offseason Depth Chart

Position Starter Backup Reserve
Position Starter Backup Reserve
QB Josh Allen Mitchell Trubisky*
RB1 Zack Moss Matt Breida* Taiwan Jones
RB2 Devin Singletary
FB Reggie Gilliam
WR1 Stefon Diggs Jake Kumerow Marquez Stevenson+
WR2 Emmanuel Sanders* Gabriel Davis
SWR Cole Beasley Isaiah McKenzie
TE Dawson Knox Tommy Sweeney
LT Dion Dawkins Spencer Brown+
LG Jon Feliciano
C Mitch Morse Ryan Bates
RG Cody Ford Ike Boettger
RT Daryl Williams Tommy Doyle+
LE Mario Addison Greg Rousseau+ Efe Obada*
NT Star Lotulelei Vernon Butler Harrison Phillips
DT Ed Oliver Justin Zimmer
RE Jerry Hughes A.J. Epenesa Carlos Basham+
MLB Tremaine Edmunds A.J. Klein Tyler Matakevich
WLB Matt Milano Tyrel Dodson Andre Smith
CB Tre'Davious White
FS Jordan Poyer Damar Hamlin+
SS Micah Hyde Jaquan Johnson
NB Taron Johnson Siran Neal
CB Levi Wallace Dane Jackson
K Tyler Bass
P Matt Haack*
LS
KR/PR Isaiah McKenzie Marquez Stevenson+