Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘According to the Bills, their Rivalries uniform, aptly named the “Cold Front,” was crafted over a two-year process in collaboration with Nike, intentionally designed to embody the city’s wintry spirit.’

‘With the initial 53-man roster announced, White is one of five boundary cornerbacks. He and Christian Benford are the starters while Ja’Marcus Ingram, Dorian Strong and Brandon Codrington are the backups. If White can’t play opening night against the Baltimore Ravens and one of them is chosen to start, that’s a bit of a scary situation for Buffalo’s defense.’

‘Poyer’s return is a full-circle moment for the longtime defensive leader who spent last season with the Miami Dolphins after being released by the Bills in March 2024. He has long expressed interest in returning to Buffalo.’

‘“They have everything – offense, defense, and playmakers on special teams,” he continued. “Now, when you get to the postseason, how do you close out those games against the boogeyman, which is Patrick Mahomes?”’

‘From Sean McDermott’s powerful pregame speech to Jimmy Ciarlo’s emotional performance and Frank Gore Jr.’ continuing an impressive preseason, Episode 4 gave a closer look at the final hours of summer football before the reality of roster cuts took hold.’

‘Now that the first iteration of the team has been decided, several of these players shouldn’t get too comfortable just yet because there will be tweaks made right up until the Bills open the regular season Sunday night, Sept. 7, at home against the Baltimore Ravens.’

‘Roster cuts were announced Tuesday and now that the Bills have reduced their roster to 53 men, we still don’t know who’s starting at cornerback thanks to injuries to both White and Hairston.’

‘The Bills brought in three veterans this offseason: Tre’Davious White (reunion), Dane Jackson (reunion) and safety Darrick Forrest (free agent). White is hurt. Jackson and Forrest were both released.’

‘For most of his career, Phillips has been a mediocre player. At 340 pounds he is someone who can hold up in the middle of the line and take on double teams as a backup to DaQuan Jones. And once in a while he’ll make a splashy play such as the sack he made late in the AFC Championship Game on Patrick Mahomes last January which was his only one across the 93 pass rush snaps he had in the 10 games he played after rejoining the Bills last November.’

‘By releasing these players now, it gives them a slightly better chance of perhaps finding their way onto another team, or at least a practice squad.’

‘I really like Elijah Moore, and the fact that he has 200 career NFL catches and has an intriguing skill set is intriguing, but the simple truth is that he didn’t perform anywhere close to Shavers, and it would be almost criminal not to keep Shavers, especially after he played 12 special teams and was in on two tackles.’

‘Bishop made quite a statement, with the caveat that the Buccaneers had no starters in the game.’

‘“At this point, I’m not too concerned with what the outcome is going to be,” Ciarlo said when asked about the impending roster cutdown next week. “I just want to put my best foot forward and work as hard as I can. Whatever the end result may be, I’m just thankful to be wearing an NFL uniform for the preseason because rewinding back to a few months ago when I was at home, I would have done anything just to be in the locker room for a day.”’

‘Cutting Samuel outright would be a strain on the salary cap because of the dead money the Bills would have to eat. But they’ve eaten money before, and they could always do a restructure of another active contract to create the space to absorb the wasted money on Samuel. He has been a non-factor throughout the entirety of his Buffalo tenure dating back to last year so my guess is the Bills would be willing to trade him to a wide receiver-needy team if a reasonable deal can be had, but that’s probably unlikely because it’s hard to envision any team taking on his contract, so he’ll be on the team.’

‘The game will be available locally via the following stations: WROC channel 8 (Rochester area), WIVB channel 4 (Buffalo area).’