ORCHARD PARK — Cole Bishop isn’t spending his spring the way he’d like.
That’s because he’s spending minicamps watching practice rather than jumping into the mix. Entering his third season after being a second-round pick in 2024, the Buffalo Bills safety has missed portions of minicamp or training camp each season due to an injury.
This time Bishop has missed all of organized team activities after getting his right knee scoped after a flare-up during the offseason. During the last three sessions open to the media, Bishop has walked out to the field without a limp, brace or sleeve to watch 11-on-11 drills and he’s done it in good spirits.
“Obviously it’d be easier if I was out there getting reps,” Bishop told GNN Sports after practice Wednesday. “But I feel like I’ve done a great job of the mental reps aspect of it, being able to just try to visualize myself out there going through the plays, going through the film. I do feel like I have a really good understanding of it, but obviously there’s always going to be some things that you can clean up once you get on the field.”
Bishop knows that it’s easy to see other people’s mistakes, but he might make different mistakes once he’s on the field. But he’s also got experience in watching from the sideline and has enough experience to be comfortable in knowing he doesn’t have to rush back in June if it means jeopardizing his availability in September.
His rookie season was marred by shoulder injury that knocked him out for half of training camp and he missed a chunk of camp last year with a hamstring injury. But once he returned and became comfortable, Bishop was playing like one of the NFL’s best safeties by the time the season ended.
Bishop led the Bills in tackles (85), pass break-ups (7) and interceptions (3), while also making four tackles for a loss and two sacks. He also had the game-clinching interception against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC wild-card round.
“As competitors we’re always going to try to get back as soon as we can,” Bishop said. “… I’m arguing with the trainers, trying to speed this up as much as I can, because we’re always going to rush back. But it’s important to not get back too early.”
Part of the rush is Bishop is learning a new defense. His goal is to play without thinking about his responsibilities, which is what he was able to do during the second half of last season.
But chatter about learning a new scheme can sometimes be overblown. While there are certainly going to be new concepts and terminology under new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, the NFL’s transient nature doesn’t allow for schemes to vary much from team to team.
Bishop has the luxury of continuing to learn from safeties coach Joe Danna, who was hired by the Bills in 2023 and was retained by new head coach Joe Brady following Sean McDermott’s firing.
“There’s Cover 2, Cover 3, Cover 4 — there’s so many different variations of all of them,” Bishop said. “Just being able to have different techniques within them and stuff like that I’d say is the big difference. But being in the NFL already and learning one NFL playbook definitely helps the carryover. And I’m fortunate to have Joe Danna. He’s able to relate some of those terms to make that learning a little easier.”
When Bishop does return — and all signs point towards him being ready when training camp opens in July — he is going to be thrust into a veteran role of a revamped safety room. The Bills added experience in C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Geno Stone, while re-signing Damar Hamlin using a fifth-round pick on Jalon Kilgore. Jordan Hancock is also entering his second season after gaining experience last year.
Despite Bishop being among the youngest of the group, he had the most experience last year with the Bills and is familiar with Danna.
“Cole’s been in and out all offseason and he’s kind of rolling with it, but he’s in a really good headspace,” Brady said. “It’s unique for guys right now. We want everybody to be out there, but I want everybody out there for training camp too. It’s important for guys to get the mental reps of it if they can’t go and we got to be smart about how we’re going with some of the guys.”
NOTES: FB Jackson Ackers, WR Skyler Bell, Bishop, RT Spencer Brown, WR Tyrell Shavers and LB Dorian Williams were present but did not practice. … LB Michael Hoecht was limited.