The next great Bills safety tandem may take shape at training camp
· Yahoo Sports
This is the ninth in a 10-part series of questions facing the Buffalo Bills as they head into training camp at St. John Fisher University.
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One of the many things the safety tandem of Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde delivered for the Buffalo Bills during their tenure together was their innate ability to make game-altering plays, namely in the area of turnovers.
They played side-by-side in Sean McDermott’s defense for seven seasons and during that time they combined for 38 interceptions, 11 forced fumbles and 10 recoveries, and there were another two picks, three forced fumbles and a recovery in the postseason.
This year, with veteran playmaker CJ Gardner-Johnson joining emerging Cole Bishop in the back end of new coordinator Jim Leonhard’s defense, the Bills are hoping they can get a few more big plays from the safety position.
Can Bishop and Gardner-Johnson become the Bills' next takeaway duo?
Bishop enjoyed a stellar second NFL season, his first as a full-time starter, when he made three interceptions, two sacks, broke up seven passes and was in on a team-high 85 tackles.
After an injury stunted his rookie 2024 season and then some early struggles in 2025, Bishop made an outstanding interception in Week 4 against New Orleans, the first of his career, and it seemed to catapult the former second-round draft pick’s confidence for the rest of the year.
Coincidentally, Bishop excelled once he was no longer bogged down with mistake-prone Taylor Rapp as his safety partner and once Rapp suffered a season-ending injury and Poyer replaced him, Poyer’s experience and guiding hand allowed Bishop to flourish, knowing he could take a few chances with the veteran Poyer covering his back.
Now Poyer is gone and Gardner-Johnson was signed to replace him, and besides a feisty attitude that has, quite frankly, worn out his welcome and led to him bouncing around the league these last few years, Gardner-Johnson should be an upgrade over the aging Poyer. Also, the addition of Geno Stone, the re-signing of Damar Hamlin, and the potential of what second-year man Jordan Hancock will provide gives the Bills plenty of options.
“You look at our safety room and there’s so much depth in there and the competition,” head coach Joe Brady said. “We brought in a lot of veterans from that perspective with Geno and (Gardner-Johnson) and bringing back Damar. 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.”
What Gardner-Johnson brings to the Bills
During seven seasons spread across the Saints, Eagles, Lions, Texans and Bears, Gardner-Johnson has 20 interceptions, three forced fumbles and a recovery.
“Ballhawk ability, physicality and ability to toe the line, but not cross it,” Gardner-Johnson said when asked what he’ll bring to the defense. “I think my experience and my productivity speaks for itself. This is gonna just be another great duo (with Bishop), just feeding off each other, ready to make plays. And really, I think we're going to drive the defense 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.”
What is intriguing about new coordinator Jim Leonhard’s defense is that he’s not going to just line up in a nickel defense with the same players in the same positions. Both Bishop and Gardner-Johnson will move around based on matchups because they each have the versatility to be deployed in different spots.
That’s one of the reasons why president of football operations Brandon Beane targeted Gardner-Johnson in free agency.
“I think those guys have skill sets that both of them can play deep, both of them can play up,” Beane said of Bishop and Gardner-Johnson. “CJ’s got really good ball skills, he’s a physical player, he’s not a traditional box guy, he’s not a traditional post safety. I think you can do different things. That’s what you’re looking for is as many players that can do more than one thing so that the offense can’t dictate to them.
“That’s the attractiveness to Jim for him is he can do different things with him and Cole back there. He brings a physicality and edge, clear ball production, and again he can match up on guys, too.”
Bishop missed time again during the offseason, a problem that continues to plague him, so training camp will be important as he and Gardner-Johnson need to develop a rhythm with each other.
“I was a very big fan of Cole coming out of college (in 2024),” Leonhard said. “The versatility that he has, he’s kind of a jack of all trades. He’s physical, he can play out in space, he can cover. He’s kind of the type of safety I tried to be myself. I definitely gravitated to his game when he was getting out of college. It was kind of awesome to see him go from year one to year two and you’re starting to see those flashes show up more and more as I expected through the evaluation process. Now, it’s just trying to find opportunities for him to continue to grow.”
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 [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: The next great Bills safety tandem may take shape at training camp