Cole Bishop arrives at Bills training camp in a very different place than he was a year ago. The questions that followed him into 2025 were easy to understand: he had been banged up, he had been uneven, and the starting job at safety still wasn’t fully his. Now, after a breakout season, he’s walking in as the unquestioned starter in Buffalo’s secondary.
That shift matters because Bishop’s path to this point has been anything but smooth. The Bills took him with the 60th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft out of Utah, but a shoulder injury in training camp slowed his rookie year, and a quad injury last year cost him part of the 2025 offseason workout program.
Even before the regular season got rolling, the early signs weren’t especially encouraging. After a preseason loss to the Chicago Bears, Sean McDermott said the rookie hadn’t yet won a starting safety role.
Then the real games started, and Bishop changed the conversation fast.
He started all 17 regular season games and both playoff games, finishing with 99 tackles, four interceptions, eight pass breakups and two sacks. Pro Football Focus said he posted a 29.6 passer rating allowed in coverage, the lowest of any safety who played 300-plus snaps.
His PFF grade also jumped from 52.0 as a rookie to 70.7 last year, which ranked 24th among 98 qualified safeties. In coverage, he earned a 73.7 grade, the 16th-highest mark.
Now Bishop is heading into his third season with a different kind of confidence, even after dealing with a knee injury earlier this offseason.
“I’m excited,” he said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say more freedom, but this year I think Jim’s got a lot of good things.
I’ll be able to be down (in the box) and be back (deep). Definitely a lot more confident (in his third season), more so just comfortable.
Obviously we’ve got a new scheme and everything, but when you’ve already been here, I feel like it makes it easier.”
That versatility is the big draw. In Jim Leonhard’s defense, Bishop should have chances to move around and show more of the all-around game that made him such an intriguing prospect in the first place. If he keeps trending the way he did last season, the Bills may have something more than just a reliable starter - they may have one of the league’s most complete safeties.
There’s plenty more going on around Buffalo, too, including the Bills’ open practice on August 18 for non-season ticket holders, questions about rookie cornerback Davison Igbinosun and Maxwell Hairston’s future, the possibility of Khalil Shakir topping 1,000 receiving yards, the defensive line roster bubble, and one beat writer’s take on the Bills’ all-time Mount Rushmore.
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Bills May Have Found An Overlooked Answer For A Crucial Defensive Spot
Buffalos move from a 4-3 look to a 3-4 multiple defense under new coordinator Jim Leonhard has created a fresh opening in the middle of the field, and the Bills have already added a veteran body to help sort it out. The one-year signing gives the team another linebacker with experience in aggressive schemes, the kind of fit that can matter when a defense is being reshaped and every role has to be earned again.
The bigger question is whether he can do enough to stick once camp gets going. He is expected to compete for a rotational inside linebacker job while also helping on special teams, but he arrives with roster-bubble status and faces a crowded path as younger linebackers push for spots of their own. For Buffalo, the appeal is obvious: a low-cost chance to find a useful piece in a defense that is still being built on the fly. [Read more 🡒]