After offensive lineman Alec Anderson was taken to a nearby hospital due to heat exhaustion during training camp, the Bills issued a statement.
The team stated, “Bills offensive lineman Alec Anderson is currently recovering in a local hospital after experiencing symptoms of a heat-related illness following today’s practice.” Alec was in good spirits when the Bills medical staff, general manager Brandon Beane, and coach Sean McDermott spoke with him over the phone a little while ago. Later this afternoon, he is anticipated to be discharged from the hospital.
After going undrafted in 2022, Anderson inked a contract with the Bills and has since been a member of their practice squad. He’s never participated in a game during the regular season.
A pair of Bills players on the bubble should do well in the preseason.
The Buffalo Bills are back in 2024, hoping that Josh Allen, in his seventh professional season, will be paired with the right player after losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round, winning the AFC East, and losing to the AFC in the Super Bowl.
Fans need to pay special attention to wide receivers since the team deliberately took a step back to pursue a longer-term strategy that will be more successful in the long run.
Buffalo will be closely observing to see who clicks with Allen and who doesn’t, as well as how they can decide on a 53-man roster that maximizes the passing game, with a number of new players now calling 1 Bills Way home for the 2024 preseason. These two players in particular appear to be competing for the same spot going into Week 1.
Two Bills prospects on the preseason bubble.
1. Scantling by Marquez Valdes
The Bills have adopted a bit of a scattershot approach to acquiring a new wide receiver after bidding farewell to Stefon Diggs in a deal with the Houston Texans. Rather than making a trade for a veteran or high on the draft to acquire a can’t-miss talent, they have chosen to take many chances at the position.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling, the two-time Super Bowl champion who split his professional career between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs before accepting a sub-$2 million contract with Buffalo, is one signing that doesn’t seem to have arrived as predicted, at least not yet.
Joe Buscaglia of the Athletic commented on the Bills’ wide receiver rotation throughout the first part of camp, pointing out that MVS has been the odd man out of Buffalo’s top-5, with the unit functioning more like a top-4 as a result.
The Bills’ top five wide receivers seemed to be very well-defined at the start of training camp. Among them were Mack Hollins, Keon Coleman, Khalil Shakir, Curtis Samuel, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, according to Buscaglia. However, as camp has progressed, it is becoming increasingly evident that Valdes-Scantling may need to fight his way back into the top four, leaving the top five at that. Valdes-Scantling has been less prominent in the past few games. His opportunities with quarterback Josh Allen and the starting unit have decreased, and he has failed to make an impact in the passing game during team drills.
Now that camp has begun, as Buscaglia subsequently pointed out in his own reporting, the decision to “demote” Valdes-Scantling to a reduced role may have less to do with losing faith in the former fifth-round choice out of South Florida and more to do with assessing other players. Though Allen needs to grow comfortable throwing to the 6-foot-4, 206-pound deep threat, wouldn’t they be giving the 29-year-old playmaker more outside looks rather than less if the club had faith in him? Overall, as we approach the preseason, this is a tale to keep an eye on.
2. Hollins Mack
There might only need to be one more shoe dropped in order to balance the roster if MVS is able to put it all together and start behind Coleman and Shakir.
Could the player who finally turned in his papers be Mack Hollins, through a trade to a team in need of wide receivers or a straight-up release?
Before truly breaking out in 2022 as a member of the Las Vegas Raiders, Hollins was originally drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles as a Day 3 deep threat. He has since bounced around the NFL, more than doubling his previous offensive snap total with 1,030 while catching a career-high 57 passes for 690 yards and four touchdowns. Despite not being able to duplicate that output in 2023 with the Falcons—ending the season with just 18 catches for 251 yards and no touchdowns—Hollins’s performance was evident enough to excite the Bills’ front office, as they immediately signed him to a one-year, $2.6 million contract at the beginning of free agency.
While Hollins is a good special teams player and has a fun personality that is well-liked by his teammates, he isn’t exceptional at any one aspect of the game and is unlikely to become an elite player before he turns 31 next month. Like MVS, Hollins is a tall, long, deep threat who can contribute as a WR3 on the outside. Hollins performs well enough on a value contract to warrant a late Day 3 flyer, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find another team interested in him if the Bills decide they can only keep one of the two guys and like Valdes-Scantling more for whatever reason.
