Bills vs Broncos preseason preview

The Bills will host the Broncos at Highmark Stadium on Saturday at 1 p.m. for their second preseason game

Denver is coming off a 17-7 home win over Dallas last weekend, while Buffalo defeated Indianapolis 27-24 last week on a game-winning field goal by Tyler Bass. This Saturday’s game will air on NFL Network.

Many of us were wondering if we would see Josh Allen and the starters in this game. Well, this update from Joe Buscaglia should tell you all you need to know:

We are going to see Allen and the starting offense for at least one drive, depending on how much coach McDermott wants to risk it for Allen and other key players to shake the rust off.

I’m assuming we may see Allen get one or two drives depending on the length of those drives. However, similar to last year’s preseason, I’m sure the playcalling is going to be very cautious and conservative: run plays and short quick passes to get the ball out of Allen’s hands quickly.

For those of you nervous about seeing Allen out there, as well as the other starters, you should trust the coaching staff. They’re not going to do anything to put any of their players in jeopardy.

Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett has made it clear that he won’t let the Bills’ decision to play their starters affect what the Broncos do on Saturday. According to Aric DiLalla of the Denver Broncos media, “Hackett revealed that he expects to start Josh Johnson at quarterback before Brett Rypien relieves him on Saturday. Russell Wilson did not play against the Cowboys, and the team does not plan for him to play this weekend, either.”

It has been noted that Wilson hasn’t requested to play yet. So, it doesn’t look like Russell Wilson will play on Saturday, but the Broncos could be playing starters to some capacity. Hackett said that his starting-caliber players will see a “few” snaps at most.

I know many of you were ready to banish Case Keenum from Buffalo after his first preseason game. But, he will most likely be seeing a lot of playing time in this game as well. After shaking the rust off in the first preseason game, we all should be looking for Keenum to improve this week and get some momentum heading into the season. We can’t be so quick to judge considering he was playing with the backup o-line, backup receivers and going against the Colts first-team defense.

Aside from that, there are a couple other things we will have to keep our eye on for the Bills:

The punting battle between Matt Haack and Matt Araiza is one that is heating up. Haack hit the field first and notched a 38-yard punt to put the Colts at their 12-yard line to start their drive. The second and final punt of the game came in the second quarter when Araiza kicked an 82-yard bomb that traveled 78 yards in the air for a net yardage of 62 for a touchback.

If Araiza can lock down the placeholding aspect of his job, the punting job should be his. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m excited to see the Bills punt on Saturday.

The Bills rookies are looking to shine again. In the last game, rookie cornerbacks Kaiir Elam and Christian Benford each picked up a pass breakup in the first quarter, showing impressive awareness by both rookies. Khalil Shakir also was very impressive in his Bills debut, hauling in five receptions for 92 yards. He made some incredible catches and really impressed the coaching staff and is building a trust of his teammates early on. You can expect to see more from him in these last two preseason games.

Terrel Bernard is another Bills rookie who had a solid debut, as he played middle linebacker with the second-team defense. In the second quarter, Bernard recovered a sack fumble forced by Boogie Basham and took it 69 yards for a score. He’s another one to keep your eye on going into his second pro game.

McDermott said that we can expect the Bills starters to play a “healthy amount” on Saturday. We’ll see just how long he wants to keep his guys in there, but no matter who is on the field, the most important thing in preseason is to come away as healthy as possible after each game.

We are less than three weeks away from the Bills season opener in LA, so let’s hope the Bills stay on the right track.