Revisiting 5 Buffalo Bills to watch vs. New Orleans Saints

The Buffalo Bills survived the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, winning a 31-19 contest that was much closer than most pundits assumed it would be. To channel our inner Sean McDermott, Buffalo did not play good complementary football, as the offense had far too many lulls, the defense allowed far too many big plays on the ground, and the special teams contributed to lots of plus-field position for the visiting team.

And yet, in spite of all that negativity, the Bills found a way to start the season 4-0, and they are one of two teams — the other is the defending Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles — to remain perfect thus far. Buffalo’s offense made plays when it had to, and the defense buckled down and bowed its neck in crucial situations. While Camerone Johnston buckled down after his knee bowed in a way it wasn’t supposed to, the special teams ultimately did enough to help the Bills to victory.

In a game like this one, there are always plenty of heroes who led the way to victory, but there are also plenty of players who left room for improvement. Here’s how our five players to watch performed on Sunday.

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RB Ty Johnson

Well, so much for that prediction. Johnson carried just once in the game for no gain, and he returned one kickoff for 13 yards. He played on just 20% of the offensive snaps.

In the early going this year, the offensive backfield has really been dominated by James Cook, and Week 4 was no exception. Cook played 73% of the snaps on offense, carrying 22 times for 117 yards and a touchdown as he set a franchise record by scoring a rushing touchdown in his eighth-straight regular season game. Cook also caught three passes for 18 yards. The Bills are playing Cook like a 26-year-old stud in his prime who just signed a lucrative contract extension.

Johnson, for his part, has been the clear RB2 so far this year, as he once again out-snapped Ray Davis by a considerable margin. The second-year man played only five offensive snaps in the game. Johnson will have chances, but on Sunday, the backfield once again belonged to James Cook.

TE Jackson Hawes

The lack of involvement from the tight ends in the passing game against the Saints was confusing to me. Coming into the week, I thought that the Bills would be able to exploit the middle of the field like they did against the Miami Dolphins in Week 3.

Credit the Saints for flooding the middle with some different fire zones and odd looks, forcing Josh Allen and company to throw the ball outside the hashes a little more than they have of late. Hawes still did his thing, blocking like a true pro and hauling in his lone target for a 15-yard gain. We’ll have to wait at least another week to see if the rookie can log his first multi-catch game of his career.

T Ryan Van Demark

We originally had Spencer Brown here, but we did note that the focus would shift to Van Demark if No. 79 missed the game due to the calf injury he suffered the week before. Well, Brown missed the game, and the Bills missed Brown. Badly.

Van Demark had his moments, but for the most part, he found himself abused by a good New Orleans pass rush. Veteran defensive end Cameron Jordan logged the 124th sack of his outstanding career, and Carl Granderson was able to generate plenty of push, as well. Brown’s absence seemed to impact right guard O’Cyrus Torrence, as well, as he had one of his weakest games of the year.

Van Demark’s lowest point was a complete whiff on a too-cute fourth-down play call, as he stumbled and missed a block that could have sprung wideout Khalil Shakir for the yardage necessary for a conversion. Instead, he missed the block and the Buffalo defense was faced with its fourth drive that started in their own territory.

I’ve written about how strong the Bills’ offensive line depth is multiple times in the last few months, but Van Demark made me look like a liar on Sunday.

DE Greg Rousseau

The stat sheet will show that the Bills totaled three sacks in the game, which is a pretty good effort overall. However, the game flow showed once again that the team’s pass rush isn’t as consistent as it needs to be.

Rousseau had three tackles, but he once again failed to log a sack. Joey Bosa, DaQuan Jones, and A.J. Epenesa each had one in the game (Bosa’s sack was the last one, a strip-sack that the CBS announcers initially credited to Epenesa).

Rousseau’s best play of the game came on the two-point try that would have tied the game. He worked his way across a ton of traffic, swooping in from the left defensive end spot to stop Spencer Rattler at the one-yard line.

Rousseau has just half a sack on the season, and with dates coming up against mobile quarterbacks in each of Buffalo’s next four games, the coaching staff needs to figure out a way to generate pressure without losing rush-lane integrity. Rousseau needs to win his individual matchups more consistently.

S Cole Bishop

A broken clock is right twice a day, and we were correct on at least one of our out-there predictions. Jackson Hawes may not have had a multi-catch game, but Bishop did indeed record his first career interception, and it was a beauty.

Bishop came all the way from Tonawanda to make a leaping, one-handed grab of a Chris Olave pass intended for Spencer Rattler, which certainly would seem like a typo if you missed the game, but it foiled a too-cute play-call on a Saints red zone chance at the end of the first half. It was a huge play at the exact right time, as Buffalo’s offense had been nonexistent in the second quarter, and the defense had allowed the Saints to run almost at will.

Bishop’s play wasn’t all good — he was late to break on a Rattler touchdown pass to Olave in the second half because he was peeking into the backfield — but it was another step in the right direction for the second-year man. Any time that a team can hold the opposing quarterback to such a low yards per attempt average (with apologies to the middle school math teachers in our readership, Rattler averaged just 4.67 yards per pass this week), something had to have gone well in the secondary.

Bishop has been playing much better over the last few weeks. Development isn’t linear, so he’ll likely have some other rough patches as we go, but it’s been an encouraging few weeks from No. 24 after a disastrous first game of the 2025 season.