Bills at Bears: 3 takeaways from preseason Week 2

The Bills traveled to Chicago for Week 2 of the preseason and looked as unprepared as a team could for a football game.

They lost 38-0 and produced only 180 offensive yards to the Bears’ 528. Buffalo went 0-8 on third down conversions and 0-2 on fourth downs. I could keep naming stats, but that would be redundant. This is all to say the Bills did relatively nothing well.

The Bills will be wrapping up their preseason this week against the Tamp Bay Buccaneers, but before we go there, here are the three most important things to take away from Week 2 of the preseason.

1. Elijah Moore is not a roster lock

While the first four wide receiver spots are locked down by Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Joshua Palmer, and Curtis Samuel, a poor performance from Elijah Moore might leave the gate to the fifth spot open for another player. If the Bills decide to only take five receivers, it could be possible that Tyrell Shavers makes the team for the first time after his strong preseason, or it could also allow for KJ Hamler to make his 53-man roster debut for the Bills. While Moore was expected to take this fifth spot, a couple drops against the Bears, which resulted in him receiving a PFF grade of 38.4, could change things.

Expect to see Kristian Wilkerson, Laviska Shenault Jr, Tyrell Shavers, and KJ Hamler all getting extra reps to fight for the final spots in the room.

2. The QB2 competition is coming down to the wire

Mike White led the Bills out of the gate against the Bears, and his performance was very bad. He went 4/11 and took two sacks, throwing for only 54 yards. Mitchell Trubisky was slightly more efficient but did little to differentiate himself from White, going 7/13 for 55 yards.

The quarterback play was nothing short of abysmal all night. The only real yardage the Bills could get through the air was through dump-offs to RB Frank Gore Jr. Tyrell Shavers made a few grabs, but outside of that, there is relatively nothing else that was done.

Trubisky and White have one more week to try and knock the other out of the competition with a strong performance. If neither of them can step above the other, I expect Trubisky to be named the QB2 because of his extensive experience.

3. The Bills have a safety problem

Cole Bishop is either rusty or bad. It could be a lack of experience, but the fact is that the safety play outside of Taylor Rapp is in question. Damar Hamlin played poorly against the Bears, failing to make open-field tackles and allowing easy completions down the seam. Bishop was not much better by any means.

Rookie DB Jordan Hancock out of Ohio State played safety against Chicago and looked good. The versatile and athletic DB can play all over the field and could be an option for the Buffalo defense.

Another option the Bills have is to look at the current free agents, which include names like Marcus Williams, Justin Simmons, and Jordan Whitehead. The Bills are known to lean on the people they have or have had before rather than looking outside for help, so I would not rely on them to pursue a free agent. However, if they choose to do so, they have some decent options available to them.

The Bills didn’t play well, that’s it. However, don’t put too much stock in a preseason game, especially one that featured only backups against a Bears team in need of a preseason boost. McDermott acknowledged that the play was not up to their standards and that things need to be fixed. Just remember that the real 2025 Buffalo Bills are still hidden away, waiting to be unleashed in Week 1.