Bills release Hardman, hand the punter job to a rookie
Buffalo trimmed toward Sunday's deadline by waiving Mecole Hardman and handing the punting job to seventh-round pick Tommy Doman Jr., closing a competition that outlasted Mitch Wishnowsky.
Doman wins the punter job, and Hardman is out
Saturday was the day Buffalo's roster took real shape. Wide receiver and returner Mecole Hardman Jr. was released, per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, and punter Mitch Wishnowsky was informed the team plans to let him go, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero — with rookie seventh-round pick Tommy Doman Jr. now in line to punt for Buffalo. The Bills also waived linebacker Theron Gaines, center Sincere Haynesworth and cornerback D.J. Miller, all per a league source relayed by Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News.
The Bills informed veteran punter Mitch Wishnowsky they plan to release him, per source. Rookie seventh-round pick Tommy Doman Jr. is now in line to punt for Buffalo.
Doman's case built itself through August. He averaged 48.1 yards on seven preseason punts with four landing inside the 20 and a long of 59, and against the Steelers in the finale he boomed four punts for 208 yards, including a 49-yarder that pinned Pittsburgh at its own 10. It's the payoff for a competition head coach Joe Brady had been half-joking about needing at all — after the preseason opener, in which the offense never punted, he said, "I was hoping to probably get some punts today ... but there's just nothing in me to ever want that, right?"
Hardman's release also clears air in a receiver room that was already crowded behind DJ Moore and Khalil Shakir. He'd been fighting Trent Sherfield, Dante Pettis and rookie Skyler Bell for the last spot or two, and with Hardman gone and Ray Davis already handling punt-return snaps, Bell's case for a Week 1 jersey against Houston just got stronger.
Bell's 28-yard score closed out a 3-0 preseason
Buffalo finished the exhibition slate unbeaten, holding off Pittsburgh 28-27 on August 27 at Highmark Stadium to run its preseason record to 3-0. It's the third straight one-score finish for a team that beat Carolina 29-14 on August 15 and blew out Cleveland 31-7 on August 22 in the two games before it. Skyler Bell was the name of the night, catching seven passes for 49 yards and adding a 28-yard rushing touchdown, while Ray Davis stayed busy on special teams, gaining 11 yards on two punt returns but also losing a fumble.
Steelers28-27
Browns31-7
Panthers29-14The bigger names sat this one out on purpose. Tight end Dalton Kincaid, receiver DJ Moore and running back James Cook III were all held out of the finale, and receivers Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman weren't in uniform either — Shakir with an undisclosed issue and Coleman managing a right foot/toe injury, according to Alex Brasky of SI.com. None of it reads as a warning sign with the opener still two weeks out.
None of it should be read as a verdict on the season, either. A 3-0 preseason is evidence about who won a job and who looked ready — Bell, Doman, the punt-return battle — and nothing about how Buffalo's actual offense holds up once the games start counting.
The opener is a trip to a Texans team still looking for answers
Buffalo opens the regular season on the road, a Sunday afternoon in Houston against a Texans team that closed its own preseason 0-3, most recently falling 13-16 at Carolina. It's the first real measuring stick after a month of exhibition football that told Buffalo plenty about its depth chart and nothing about how it stacks up against anyone else's starters.
The number attached to it: Buffalo opened as 1.5-point favorites on the road, and the total was set at 44.5 — a line that reads as middling rather than a shootout or a slog. It's a modest number for a Week 1 road favorite, which says as much about the uncertainty around a winless preseason Texans team as it does about the Bills.