Bills Urged to Sign All-Pro Safety Who Started 16 Games Last Season

The Buffalo Bills for the better part of a decade had one of the best safety duos in the NFL, pairing two All-Pros in Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer.

The position has not been so stable since Hyde and Poyer left, with the team facing a big question mark on who will start this year opposite Taylor Rapp. One insider believes the answer is waiting on the open market.

While Rapp is slated in as the starter at free safety, the team has struggled in finding who will start at strong safety. Second-year Cole Bishop missed a long chunk of training camp and struggled in his return this week, while last year’s starter, Damar Hamlin, also had some rough moments in the loss to the Chicago Bears.

Reporter Randy Gurzi of SI.com suggested the team could look to free agency to add more competition, with former All-Pro Justin Simmons at the top of the list.

“Throughout the offseason, the Bills have been urged to sign Justin Simmons and it’s time they pull the trigger. Simmons was once considered among the best safeties in the NFL, making the Pro Bowl twice for the Denver Broncos,” Gurzi wrote. “Last season, he started 16 games for the Atlanta Falcons, recording 62 tackles, seven pass defenses, and two interceptions.”

Bills head coach Sean McDermott made it clear that the team doesn’t have an answer at strong safety, saying the team is not yet sure who will start.

“There’s been really good moments for all those guys back there, young and some of the more veteran guys that are back there that’ve played for us,” McDermott said, via SBNation’s Buffalo Rumblings. “But I think we’re still looking to find, ‘Who is it gonna be?’ Right? And how consistent can they become and how quickly can they grow if they’re a younger player. And so, you’re always looking to, you know, figure that other piece out. Right now, for us, we know who T-Rap is. We know what he brings to the table. It’s what other piece can go along with T-Rap.”

Justin Simmons Looking for the Right Opportunity

Simmons hit free agency after one season with the Falcons, saying in April that he wanted to wait until the right opportunity came along. He took a similar approach last year, waiting until mid-August before he signed with Atlanta.

In an appearance on Up & Adams, Simmons hinted that he could wait until training camps finished before making a decision for 2025.

“I think, yes, there’s pros and cons to training camp,” he said. “Cons is going through it, your body breaking down, the whole nine, especially as you get older. But a lot of the pros is building that rapport, especially when you’re not with the team and you haven’t necessarily played with a lot of those guys. I think it would have benefited me to go a little bit earlier. But it also just wasn’t in the cards. … We’ll see. We’ll see. I want to go to the best situation, and I want to go a team that’s gonna win. So, we’ll see what that looks like.”