The Buffalo Bills are moving into their next major offseason phase in due time: Training camp.
The Bills will kick off their 2025 training camp on July 23 at St. John Fisher University. As with every offseason, Bills Wire will examine each position group ahead of this pivotal time on the football calendar.
Our 2025 safety preview can be found below:
At the top
The Bills have valued safeties who can play a hybrid type of safety: one who can complete the duties of either a free safety or strong safety on any given play. This helps with disguising coverages. Players may perform most of their snaps from one spot, but the staff emphasizes versatility nonetheless.
At this point, Taylor Rapp and Demar Hamlin have the inside track at the top of the depth chart. Each player started 14 games last year. Hamlin registered 89 total tackles and two interceptions, while Rapped totaled 82 tackles and two interceptions.
Depth chart
Cole Bishop is nipping at the heels of both Hamlin and Rapp. A 2024 second-round draft pick, Bishop went through a bit of a learning curve in his rookie season.
2025 fifth-round draft pick Jordan Hancock will be an interesting player to watch. He can play slot corner or safety, so his versatility may land him a spot on the roster.
Buffalo signed Darrick Forrest in free agency from Washington. Forrest saw most of his action on special teams last year.
UDFA Wande Owens rounds out the safety room.
In 2025…
Rapp is one of the hardest-hitting safeties in the league, and Hamlin is reliable and understands Sean McDermott’s system very well. McDermott’s defensive scheme puts a lot of pressure on safeties.
For Buffalo, their safeties must limit mistakes for the defense to have a successful season.
Many preseason pundits linked the Bills to the safety position ahead of the NFL Draft. There was a concern that the position could use an upgrade. In the end, the Bills brass primarily stayed with the status quo.
Still, there’s some worry that the unit will have enough athleticism to hang with some of the faster receivers in the game. In addition, their depth is questionable.
The hope is that this group will use their game intelligence to keep things under control in the back end. Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde set a high standard for this unit. Hopeful, for the Bills sake, the group will trend toward the standard.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Previewing the Buffalo Bills’ safety position ahead of training camp