ORCHARD PARK – Now that he has established himself as a legitimate starting safety for the Buffalo Bills, Cole Bishop will enter training camp at St. John Fisher University next month in a different light than his first two years with the team.
Last year, following a rookie season that was derailed by a training camp shoulder injury, there were some nagging questions surrounding Bishop when he suffered a quad injury and missed a portion of the 2025 offseason program. And when he played poorly in the preseason loss to the Bears in Chicago, former coach Sean McDermott came right out and said Bishop had locked up nothing.
For a player the Bills picked in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft, it was a stark realization that he was struggling to beat out Damar Hamlin.
Cole Bishop goes from question mark to key piece for Buffalo Bills
However, Bishop rebounded later in camp to earn the right to start next to Taylor Rapp, and pretty soon there was no doubt that he was the best safety on the team as he wound up starting all 17 games plus both in the postseason, totaling four interceptions, 99 tackles and two sacks.
This season, Bishop had another injury setback when he recently underwent a knee procedure, and the timing wasn’t great because the Bills are operating in a new defensive scheme led by coordinator Jim Leonhard.
But after the way he played in 2025, new Bills head coach Joe Brady is confident that Bishop will be ready to go at Fisher, and ready to take the next step in his development which could lead him to being one of the best all-around safeties in the league.
“You look at our safety room and there’s so much depth in there and the competition,” Brady said during the OTA portion of the program. “We brought in a lot of veterans from that perspective with Geno (Stone) and Chauncey (Gardner-Johnson) and Damar (Hamlin), bringing him back. It’s really good for (Bishop) because he’s always been the young guy, but now he’s the guy that’s actually the only one who’s been here in the starting role.
“Cole has been in and out this offseason, as he’s kind of rolling with it. He’s in a really good head space. We wanted everybody out there, but I want everybody out there for training camp, too. I think it’s important for guys to get the mental reps of it if they can’t go, and we have to be smart about how we’re going with some of the guys. We’re trying to build a tough football team, but we also want to be smart with some of the guys. Cole is a great example of that.”
Bishop said at the end of the mandatory mini-camp that he was staying in Buffalo to work at the facility with the trainers to make sure he’s ready to go when the team pulls into Pittsford to begin their abbreviated stay.
“Unfortunately, I was in the same situation in training camp and OTAs when I was out in the past couple years,” he said. “I’ve taken mental reps before, but obviously you’d like to be out there. I feel like I’ve got a really good understanding of the defense so I’m excited to get out there.”
Bishop said that one thing that has helped the transition for him is that Joe Danna is back as safeties coach, one of only a few defensive coaches that Brady retained from McDermott’s staff, so he has a familiar voice and teaching style.
“Having Joe here is great because being able to relate stuff to previous things, similar terminology, or for example, ‘This is this from last year’ and things like that,” Bishop said. “It’s super helpful. There’s a lot of carryover in all NFL defenses. Every NFL scheme has similarities, like everybody runs a version of cover three or quarters or cover two. So just different terminology and different techniques within it at times … some carryover and just big picture stuff.”
Bishop made plays in his rookie season, particularly in the postseason when he finally seemed to be finding his groove, but it wasn’t until Week 4 last year against the Saints when he showed just how good a player he could be.
The Bills were struggling that day and New Orleans was poised to take the lead right before halftime, but Bishop made a spectacular athletic interception at the goal line on a pass intended for Chris Olave to preserve Buffalo’s 14-10 advantage going into the break.
“I feel like that was my first interception, obviously, my first big splash play per se, but I feel like up until that point I was making progress every game,” he said. “Every big play you make definitely gives you more confidence.”
He took off from there and he wound up playing 91.1% of the defensive snaps plus every snap in the postseason.
Adjusting to new scheme becomes focus for Cole Bishop
While he’s mostly just been taking mental reps in the new defense, he knows his athleticism and versatility is going to come in handy because Leonhard will be moving him into different spots.
“I’m excited,” he said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say more freedom, but this year I think Jim’s got a lot of good things. I’ll be able to be down (in the box) and be back (deep). Definitely a lot more confident (in his third season), more so just comfortable. Obviously we’ve got a new scheme and everything, but when you’ve already been here, I feel like it makes it easier.”
His new partner in the back end, veteran CJ Gardner-Johnson, likes what he sees.
“It’s gonna be very, very similar to the duo I had with Reed Blankenship (with the Eagles), but on another level,” Gardner-Johnson said. “Being a little bit younger, a little bit more explosive, able to make crazy plays, play all around. It’s gonna be a great duo.
“I’ve played with a lot of phenomenal safeties with Kerby Joseph, Bryan Branch, Malcolm Jenkins, Kevin Byard – I’ve played with the best of the best safeties. So this is gonna just be another great duo, just feeding off each other, ready to make plays. I think we’re going to drive the defense, really, to do what we want to do this year, which is take the ball away and play aggressive over the top and be able to come down and fill that for when we need to.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills safety broke out last year, now he must back it up
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | USA TODAY Network
