Bills eschew orthodox positional roster quotas with 53-man decisions

Everyone tells you what they believe in, but actions speak louder than words.

In 2012, a film called “Would You Rather” released in select theaters. An independent psychological horror film, the movie focuses on a dinner party conducted by a wealthy “philanthropist” Shepard Lambrick who organizes a set of games to test how far his financially-strapped guests would be willing to go to obtain the money they so desperately need. In one notable scene, Lambrick tests the convictions of vegetarian character Iris (played by Brittany Snow) by offering her $5,000 to eat a steak and foie gras. When Iris (who attended the party to try to acquire money to help her ill brother) declines on principle, Lambrick ups the ante to $10,000. Iris caves, taking the money and eating the meat. Overall, I felt the strong premise of the film was damaged by the leaning towards gore and inconsistent character logic. However, it does do an excellent job of outlining the idea that people’s principles are far more fluid and situational than they will vocally acknowledge.

The Buffalo Bills have their initial 53-man roster and practice squad set. General Manager/VP of Football Operations Brandon Beane and Head Coach Joe Brady have spent a lot of time discussing their vision for the team since their promotions were announce early this year. Ultimately, none of that matters. What they actually did says far more about their principles than whatever they said. And principle spoke loudest above all when the dust settled: the Bills picked organizationally perceived talent over traditionally perceived roster quotas.

Armaj Reed-Adams. Kani Walker/Toriano Pride Jr. Ben VanSumeren. Mike Danna. In all three of these circumstances, players who the regime felt were roster-worthy players pushed the organization towards making a decision that pushed rigid positional numbers to the back burner.

Offensive Line

Reed-Adams played well in the preseason as a seventh-round pick, but as the likely 10th offensive lineman and a guard-only backup, traditional thinking would have meant he was destined for waivers and a practice squad spot. But the Bills decided to go heavy on the offensive line to keep him on the active roster and not expose him to other teams (an unorthodox stance for a player taken in the last 15 picks of the draft). Given the Bills have two players on expiring contracts that just finished a battle for the starting left guard position in Alec Anderson and Austin Corbett, having a cost-controlled player who’s been in the building developing as a potential option for a starting guard position in 2027 may be on the team’s mind as they elect to carry Reed-Adams.

Cornerback

Kani Walker and Toriano Pride Jr. were neck-and-neck when I most recently evaluated the positional battle. Where I (and others) got it wrong is in the assumption that there must be an outside CB4 from the two of them. Many, including myself, expected that for all actual logistical purposes, Dee Alford was your CB4. There was little change of having a situation come up on the field where Dee Alford would be in the nickel defender spot, Walker/Pride Jr. would be at outside corner, and second-year offseason star Jordan Hancock would be on the bench. In actuality, Alford would take on the outside corner spot if necessary and Hancock (who may be the team’s preferred dime defender) would slide in to play the nickel.

But surely after all that talk from Beane about cornerback depth being a concern post-draft (as reasoning for the surprise second-round selection of Davison Igbinosun out of Ohio State), they wouldn’t have just five corners, right?

They would, because talk is cheap, and they didn’t feel like Walker or Pride Jr. were rosterable NFL players at this time.

Fullback

Joe Brady said he wasn’t going to keep a fullback just to keep a fullback.

He apparently meant it.

The team released undrafted rookie Jackson Acker a few weeks ago, leading the roster down the path of “if they keep one, I guess VanSumeren.” They didn’t keep one, despite the Bills highly-ranked rushing attack featuring the league’s rushing yards leader employing a fullback in 2025. Despite the Sean Payton offenses historically (of which Joe Brady calls himself of “protege”) using the position. Despite the league-wide trend towards heavier personnel having the position (along with second and third tight ends) get a larger snap share than it did in the 2010s.

The Bills didn’t think VanSumeren was a roster-worthy player, so they didn’t roster him (he has since signed to the Chiefs practice squad, so they didn’t secure him there either); positional checkmarks be damned. The Bills elected to keep fourth tight end Keleki Latu (inarguably more effective player than VanSumeran as exhibited throughout both of their respective careers) and already had a very strong tight end room in the 1-3 spots on the depth chart in another move toward maximizing the perceived talent on the roster.

Edge Rusher

The Bills elected to keep six edge rushers, including May signee Mike Danna. For comparison, Bills defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard’s former team (the Denver Broncos) currently has four edge rushers on their active roster. The Baltimore Ravens have five, the New England Patriots have four, The Los Angeles Rams have five, and the Green Bay Packers have four (not counting All-Pro Micah Parsons, currently on the Physically Unable to Perform list).

Danna performed well this preseason after coming aboard later in the spring and has been a paid starter for a high-level defense in Kansas City previously, but the numbers weren’t in his favor as the team was always likely to keep Gregory Rousseau, 2026 free agent signee Bradley Chubb, 2nd round pick T.J. Parker, and Michael Hoecht coming off an Achilles injury but trending towards active roster status. Those four may have been where teams may have stopped, but Javon Solomon plays special teams and is a better fit in this defense than the previous one under former head coach Sean McDermott, so he had a chance if they kept five.

Danna, like Reed-Adams and Latu already mentioned, appeared to be the victim of the numbers game. But the Bills decided the best way to win the game was to not play in 2026. Danna proved to be a roster-worthy player, so he made the roster.

What seems so simple to many is actually a slap in the face on more traditional roster construction philosophies. This isn’t some magical or unique thing that Brady and Beane are doing, but it happened in multiple circumstances across the roster and creates a theme worth mentioning here.

Time will tell if Beane and Brady made the right calls in each of these situations. That’s why I specifically used the word “perceived” in the premise of this article. The organization thinks they picked player talent over traditional position allocations. Does it work? No idea. Does it even stand or do the Bills make a set of roster moves in the next week that completely blow this entire premise to smithereens? No clue.

But it’s something to put in the back of our minds as we have to partially reset our opinions of this partially new Bills regime.

...and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on the Rumblings Cast Network — see more in my LinkTree!

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