The Panthers opened their preseason slate in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
In one of the most entertaining exhibition games in recent memory, Haynes King had a 5-yard touchdown run on the final play to beat the Cardinals 33-30.
Carolina’s starters did not play Thursday night. The Panthers will play their starters, including quarterback Bryce Young, on Saturday night in the Bills’ first game at the new Highmark Stadium.
“Yes, yes,” Canales said Sunday about the starters playing, via Anthony Rizzuti of USA Today. “We will play this week, for sure. We’ll take it week by week. We’ll get them out there, probably play something similar to what Kenny [Pickett] and that group played in the Hall of Fame Game. So it’ll be somewhere between 10 and 20 plays, depending on how those drives pan out, so we can just get some good work in.”
Bills Clips
The Buffalo Bills had a soft launch of their new stadium this weekend, with a practice there on Saturday night.
The team wore their new Nickel City Batman uniforms, which continue to be panned despite Josh Allen’s effort to give them a boost.
The best news for the players was the playing surface. The Bills opted to switch from artificial turf at the old stadium to natural grass at the new stadium.
Here’s the verdict from offensive lineman Spencer Brown: “Perfect. I love it. I might sleep out here tonight, actually.”
Some of the fans may not have loved the view from their seats. Consider this. Or this. Or this.
Then there are the video boards. They’re small. Which prompted one person on Twitter to compare them to Michael Scott’s plasma TV.
The Bills host the Panthers next Saturday for the preseason opener. The official regular-season christening happens on Thursday, September 17, when the Lions face the Bills on Prime Video.
The last of 10 head-coaching vacancies in the 2026 cycle arose when the Bills surprisingly fired Sean McDermott after a divisional-round overtime loss to the Broncos. Quarterback Josh Allen, who was heavily involved in the search for McDermott’s successor, still feels guilty about McDermott’s demise, seven months later.
“I think about that all the time,” Allen told Mike Silver of The Athletic. “There are certain plays throughout the game — and that’s going to be every game — where you’re like, ‘I could have done more.’ And I always feel like I can do more.”
Allen had four turnovers in the 33-30 loss at Denver.
If the Bills had returned to the AFC Championship and won, McDermott would still be there. Even if the Bills had lost in the AFC title game, advancing to the final four likely would have been enough to keep it from being McDermott’s final season.
The end result — a pink slip for McDermott and promotions for G.M. Brandon Beane and offensive coordinator Joe Brady — sends mixed signals to the Bills Mafia. And it puts even more pressure on Allen and the rest of the organization to finish the job of getting back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1993, and winning it for the first time ever.
Three high-end running backs got new contracts this week. The 2025 NFL rushing champion did not.
Bills running back James Cook, who rushed for 1,621 yards last season, has a deal that pays $11.5 million per year. With Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs resetting the bar to $22.5 million, Cook is sitting at nearly 50 percent of the total market.
He has made no public noise about getting a new deal. Then again, he doesn’t need to. The numbers speak for themselves.
Then there’s 2027, when Cook is due to make $9.72 million.
Presumably, Cook will make it known after the 2026 season that he wants a new deal. And if the Bills dig in, it could be a problem next year.
If, as it appears, 2027 will be the target for a new deal, the latter weeks of the 2026 season could get interesting. By December, no one is 100 percent. If Cook is rumbling through the holidays with a smattering of manageable bumps and bruises, at what point would he decide to protect himself in advance of negotiations in 2027?
It’s one thing to show up for training camp and cite an injury to avoid practicing until the contract is enhanced. It’s quite another to point to a legitimate injury through which the player is playing when the regular-season salary shifts to the far less lucrative postseason game checks.
We’ve mused in the past about the possibility of a player in the last year of his contract refusing to play in the postseason in an effort to get a new contract. The far more subtle (and possibly far more effective) approach would be to decide not to risk major injury by disregarding one or more minor injuries.
For the Bills particularly, whose overall anxiety level will skyrocket when the single-elimination phase arrives, the prospect of the workhorse tailback tapping out due to a legitimate injury (or two) becomes more than enough reason to consider fixing a contract that has quickly gotten out of whack, after the recent signings of Gibbs, Falcons running back Bijan Robinson, and Colts running back Jonathan Taylor.
Bills guard O’Cyrus Torrence was heading into the final year of his rookie contract, but now he has secured his future in Buffalo.
The Bills and Torrence have agreed to terms on a four-year contract extension, according to Mike Garafolo.
The deal totals $78.4 million with more than $46 million guaranteed, his agents said.
The Bills took Torrence in the second round of the 2023 NFL draft. He became a Week One starter as a rookie and has not missed a game in his career. Last year he played 100 percent of the Bills’ offensive snaps (a total of 1,129 plays) and was only called for one penalty.
Safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson was back on the practice field for the Bills on Thursday after missing a few days with a calf injury and continued good health will leave him on track to make his regular season debut with the team in Week 1.
That game will be against the Texans, which only adds to the importance for the veteran. Gardner-Johnson opened last season with the Texans, but was released after three games in the wake of a reported altercation with teammates in the wake of a 17-10 loss to the Jaguars in Week 3. Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans didn’t go into details about the reason for the move and said only that he thought it was best for the team.
Gardner-Johnson said this offseason that he felt an issue with “the GM’s friend” during training camp set the wheels in motion on his departure and there was other discussion about him not fitting what the Texans wanted defensively, so it’s clear that his time with Houston was both brief and eventful. On Thursday, Gardner-Johnson said the experience has added to his anticipation for the season opener.
“It’s a good team. Not saying nothing on the front office or the staff, but the players . . . they are good,” Gardner-Johnson said, via Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.com. “All the bulls—t that came out, it was lies, but whatever. I just can’t wait to see ‘em. . . . Be adults about the business. We here, we grown men, we all got kids. A five-second phone call don’t justify nothing. And I feel like I need some respect, but I don’t care for it no more.”
Gardner-Johnson will have another one of his former teams on deck in Week 2 when the Lions visit Buffalo for the first game in the new Highmark Stadium. A pair of wins would make for a doubly enjoyable way to start his run in Buffalo.
Safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s exit from practice on a cart last weekend caused a scare for the Bills, but word that he only suffered a calf strain allowed everyone a sigh of relief.
There was cause for another one at practice on Thursday. Gardner-Johnson was in uniform as the team took the practice field and reporters at the session share that he has participated without issue during the workout.
Gardner-Johnson is wearing a sleeve on his right calf for added protection.
Reporters also note that defensive tackle Deone Walker is taking part in practice Thursday. Walker has missed time with an elbow injury.
Linebacker Otis Reese spent some time on the Bills’ practice squad last year and he’s back in Buffalo trying to earn a spot on the roster this summer.
The Bills announced Reese’s signing on Thursday morning. Linebacker Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles was placed on injured reserve in a corresponding move.
Reese spent a couple of weeks with Buffalo last season and finished out the year on the Patriots’ practice squad. He remained in New England this offseason, but was waived at the end of last month.
Reese appeared in 20 games for the Titans in 2023 and 2024. He had 38 tackles and an interception.
Flannigan-Fowles signed with the Bills in May. He spent five seasons with the 49ers before playing for the Giants last year.
Before Eagles defensive end A.J. Epenesa landed in Philadelphia, he had a one-year deal worth up to $5 million in place with the Browns. Until he didn’t.
The Browns pulled out of the agreement, due to concerns regarding his physical.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Epenesa didn’t want to say much about the Browns. He made it clear that he’s happy to be with the Eagles.
“Cleveland, you know, it was a weird situation,” Epenesa told reporters. “But I don’t necessarily want to go back and talk on that in just a weird sense but I’ll just leave that in the past and just be happy that I’m not a Brown and that I’m an Eagle.”
Is Epenesa healthy now?
“Very healthy,” he said, “feeling good, and happy to be here.”
His contract with the Eagles pays much less than his contract with the Browns would have entailed — one year, $1.402 million.
A second-round pick in 2020, Epenesa spent his first six seasons with the Bills.
Bills running back James Cook led the league in rushing last season with 1,621 yards. It came after a hold-in during training camp as he sought a new contract that he received after more than a week of not practicing.
Last year, though, was last year.
“I don’t like to talk about last year, because last year is in the past. This year is a new year,” Cook said, via John Wawrow of the Associated Press. “Put last year behind me, and just come out here to do it again.”
Only two players since 2001 have won back-to-back rushing titles — Derrick Henry (2019-20) and LaDainian Tomlinson (2006-07).
“I expect James Cook to take another step this year in different elements of his game and continue to be the workhorse as a runner,” new coach Joe Brady said. “And he wants it, right? He had such an incredible season last year. And without diving into exactly what, this is what I told him: He has got to get better. We can’t take steps backward.”
Cook, 26, said he is “looking forward to doing even bigger things.”
He concedes his ball security has got to improve after losing four of seven fumbles last season, including one at the Denver 30 in a 33-30 overtime loss in the divisional round.
“I fumbled, so I just got to fix it,” Cook said. “The ball is everybody’s job, and that’s my job. I’m willing to protect it.”
The Bills are only 5-4 in the postseason in Cook’s four seasons, losing in the divisional round three times and the AFC Championship Game once. They are the first team in NFL history to win a playoff game in six consecutive postseasons without reaching a Super Bowl.
“It’s on us. The ball is in our hands,” Cook said. “We control our own destiny. So whatever we do is on us. Eventually, it’s going to happen.”
