Are the Buffalo Bills starting players ready for Week 1 after playing so little during the preseason?

It’s nearly impossible to criticize Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott’s decision to sit out starters for most of the team’s three preseason games in 2024. Preseason football doesn’t impact regular-season standings, but it serves as a dress rehearsal for systems to align and a chance for teams’ newest players to get up to speed.

Every NFL team wants to avoid unnecessary injuries, and throwing starters into meaningless football games increases the chance that players will get injured. The risk doesn’t change in the regular season, but the quality of play is very different.

While it may seem like McDermott was the obvious choice this summer, it’s worth asking whether that’s actually the case. We’ve highlighted that quarterback Josh Allen has an almost entirely new cast of receivers, joining wide receiver Khalil Shakir plus tight ends Dawson Knox, Dalton Kincaid and Quintin Morris.

Did OTAs, mandatory minicamps and training camps provide enough opportunities to connect them to the scenarios in the game?

In two preseason games, Buffalo’s offense failed to score a touchdown — instead settling for just five field goal drives. Of course, we can’t count every drive against the starters, since they didn’t play every snap. Against the Chicago Bears, Josh Allen completed 2 of 3 passes for 22 yards, adding one rush for seven yards. Almost immediately after that scramble drill, Allen’s day was over. That meant that after just three attempts, the Bills’ starting receivers had to catch passes from Mitch Trubisky. The results were mixed, as you might expect.

Sean McDermott decided to bench Allen from the start when he faced the Pittsburgh Panthers, after heavy rain and less than ideal conditions, combined with a less than favorable warm-up situation before the game. Sure enough, while he was in Allen’s place, Mitch Trubisky injured his knee during a scramble drill.

Whether it was injuries that kept them sidelined or coaching decisions, it was the second straight dress rehearsal in which Buffalo’s pass catchers were unable to make the most of their on-field preparations with Josh Allen.

Early in the week leading up to this Saturday’s preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers, McDermott declared that the starters would not be dressing, instead giving the players vying for a spot on the roster one more chance to prove that they belong on the initial 53-man roster. Such opportunities create moments like we saw with linebacker Joe Andreessen, who captured the hearts of every Bills fan this past weekend.

Still, I wonder if McDermott played it too safe this preseason, given all the changes on offense and with offensive coordinator Joe Brady just installing his own system. If we consider the team’s top five receivers as Khalil Shakir, Curtis Samuel, Mack Hollins, Keon Coleman and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, consider these stats:

• Shakir: Goals (4) / Receipts (4)
• Samuel: Goals (2) / Receipts (2)
• Hollins: Goals (2) / Receipts (2)
• Coleman: Goals (6) / Receptions (2)
• Valdes-Scantling: (2) / Receptions (1)

Much adieu about nothing, I suppose. You have to like the efficiency, with a total of 11 catches on 16 targets. It is essentially an irrelevant point. Or is it?

I would counter that most of the passes thrown to those five receivers were high-percentage vanilla plays — by quarterbacks not named Allen. You would be correct in saying that it is unlikely that things will play out differently with Allen under center; that vanilla is the only choice in the preseason.

That said, I believe there is little that can replace experience. I can’t help but question whether the offense has gotten into enough rhythm on the field against unfriendly fire to go into Week 1 with confidence.

Is it a problem that Allen has only thrown three passes to a revamped wide receiver room against opposing defenses, or does it not matter?

Once again, with so much news about injuries to expected starters this summer, it’s easy to sympathize with McDermott and his decision to bench key players. But the last thing the Buffalo Bills can afford is a slow start. On the surface, this season’s schedule feels like another gauntlet.

It is expected and wise to sit starters in the last meaningless game before the regular season begins. I wouldn’t expect McDermott to operate any differently. But what’s right doesn’t always have to feel right.

Should the Bills Mafia be concerned about chemistry issues entering the 2024 NFL regular season? We’ll begin finding out the answers to all that and more in a few weeks when the Buffalo Bills and Arizona Cardinals square off in Week 1.