The Bills released their first unofficial depth chart on Wednesday ahead of their season opener. Despite that, Buffalo still managed to find a way to not give the Jets a single inch ahead of this AFC East clash.
The biggest question mark on the Bills depth chart sits along the offensive line. Who’s starting on the right side? We still don’t have a definitive answer on that.
The highlighted portion of Buffalo’s depth chart comes in that area, where there’s no first, second or third stringer named. Instead we see right tackle with a listing of “Cody Ford/ Ty Nsekhe/ Daryl Williams” while right guard has “Cody Ford/ Daryl Williams/ Brian Winters.”
For reference on the difference in that area, here’s the official depth chart the Bills drew up:
Clearly there’s something funny going on there. The Jets, who released their depth chart two days before the Bills did, had “little surprise” found in it via our friends at Jets Wire.
To each their own…?
Aside from the offensive line intrigue, here’s a quick rundown of other interesting nuggets in Buffalo’s first depth chart of the season:
- No fullback listed post-Patrick DiMarco cut. Bills are still insisting that Reggie Gilliam, listed at the fourth slot on the depth chart, is a tight end.
- Expected, but it’s a quarterback note so worth mentioning: Matt Barkley is ahead of rookie Jake Fromm.
- Ryan Bates is the backup center. With Jon Feliciano out, that duty was up for grabs between him and Ike Boettger. Bates also lists as a third-string left tackle.
- Defensively, Trent Murphy is listed as a starting defensive end while Mario Addison as Jerry Hughes’ backup. Likely gamesmanship by the Bills.
- Second-round pick AJ Epensa is a third-string defensive end. There’s a rotation along the D-line for the Bills so we’ll see how much Epenesa plays. Darryl Johnson is ahead of Epenesa, last year’s seventh-round pick.
- Again, rotation, but Vernon Butler starts in Star Lotulelei’s vacant spot ahead of Harrison Phillips.
- Former UDFA Tyrel Dodson lists as the No. 2 middle linebacker behind Tremaine Edmunds, edging out Tyler Matakevich, who’s known as an ace special teamer but below average defender.
- Matt Milano doesn’t have a backup listed. That could be a variety of players such as Dodson or AJ Klein, who’s listed as the starting strong-side linebacker. Buffalo’s defense under Sean McDermott runs mostly two-linebacker sets (Edmunds/ Milano).
- Josh Norman is CB2 ahead of Levi Wallace.
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