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The Buffalo Bills enter training camp with real questions to answer on both sides of the ball, but two competitions stand out above the rest. The battle for the third starting job on Jim Leonhard’s rebuilt defensive line and the fight for the WR3 role behind the Bills’ top targets could each shape how far this roster can go in 2026.
The Nose Tackle Battle Up Front
Buffalo’s defensive front looks almost unrecognizable heading into this season. The unit finished 27th in pass rush win rate last year, and key veterans like Joey Bosa, A.J. Epenesa, Matt Milano and Shaq Thompson are all gone and unsigned. That overhaul has forced Leonhard to build a new 3-4 front largely from scratch, and nowhere is that rebuild more consequential than the open competition for the third defensive line spot.
TJ Sanders enters camp with the edge in that race. Buffalo traded up to No. 41 in the 2025 draft to select him, but a knee injury wiped out his rookie season and landed him on injured reserve in October. This camp effectively serves as his second rookie audition, and while the pedigree and long-term hope inside the building remain real, he cannot afford to assume the job is already his.
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Landon Jackson presents an unexpected challenge from a different direction entirely. Originally drafted as an edge rusher in 2025, Jackson has added size and is now shifting inside to a 4i-technique in Leonhard’s scheme, a move that might actually suit him better than his original projected role. His transition adds a layer of unpredictability to a competition that already features plenty of moving pieces.
Then there’s Zane Durant, a fifth-round rookie out of Penn State whose game closely resembles Ed Oliver’s: undersized, explosive and built to create disruption through athleticism rather than bulk. He may be labeled the backup on paper entering camp, but nothing prevents him from forcing his way into the starting conversation if his early practice reps translate to game speed.
Realistically, at least two of these three players will end up rotating regardless of who wins the starting nod, and all three will matter to how effective this new-look front becomes. But whoever claims the starting job will become a foundational piece of the identity Leonhard is trying to establish up front, making this arguably the most important defensive battle in Orchard Park this summer.
The WR3 Fight Behind Buffalo’s Top Targets
On offense, the most compelling subplot doesn’t involve the top of the depth chart but the battle for snaps behind it. Keon Coleman’s 2025 season captured everything frustrating about unfulfilled potential. He opened the year with an eight-catch, 112-yard, one-touchdown explosion against Baltimore, then largely vanished, finishing with just 38 receptions for 404 yards and four touchdowns on 59 targets over his final 13 games, with more attention paid to missed meetings than to production.
Despite fielding trade calls on Coleman this spring, general manager Brandon Beane turned them down, explicitly saying in April that he wanted to “hit the reset button” on the young receiver. That’s a significant vote of confidence from the front office, and with a new coaching staff carrying none of the baggage from the McDermott era, Coleman finally has a clean opportunity to make the WR3 job his own.
He won’t have an easy path, though. Skyler Bell, Buffalo’s fourth-round pick out of UConn, arrives with real momentum after setting a program record with 101 catches, 1,278 yards and 13 touchdowns in his final collegiate season. His 3.13 yards-per-route-run figure from 2025 is the kind of efficiency number that stands out in any draft profile, and it makes him the rookie most likely to force his way into meaningful early-season snaps.
Joshua Palmer rounds out the competition, and he remains very much in the fight rather than simply a name on the way out. His $11.8 million cap number theoretically makes him a trade candidate, but his inconsistent track record makes that contract difficult to move, which means he’s competing for real reps on this roster right now rather than serving as a rental piece for another team.
A proven-but-inconsistent incumbent, a hyped rookie and a displaced veteran are all chasing the same targets, and that combination makes this arguably the most fascinating position battle on Buffalo’s entire offense heading into camp.
Both competitions carry weight well beyond a depth chart designation. Whoever wins the nose tackle job will help define whether Buffalo’s retooled front can generate the pressure it lacked last season, and whoever claims the WR3 role will determine how many dependable weapons this offense can put on the field each week.
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