One of the most surprising things that happened during Day One of the Buffalo Bills training camp Wednesday was Damar Hamlin getting opportunities to play with the first-string defense.

But there he was, perhaps the third-most famous player on the roster behind Josh Allen and Von Miller, the miraculous survivor of an on-field cardiac arrest back in January 2023 who, while he got into only five games in 2023, was still able to return to play NFL football which was a wondrous achievement.

Seeing Hamlin out there was just the latest intrigue surrounding a position group filled with question marks now that Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer - who played together for seven years on the back line of the Buffalo defense - are no longer with the team.

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“He came back hungry,” general manager Brandon Beane said of Hamlin, who is entering the fourth and final season of his original rookie contract. “One of the things he said to me, and I feel like he said it to others, is, ‘I got through last year.’

“Right now (last year) we were still talking about how it’s going to be different when he puts pads on, it’s going to be different that first hit. And then he got to get in a game in a stadium where that incident happened. No one’s talking about that anymore. His focus was like, ‘No, I want to go win a job. I want to show I can prove that I can start and help and make plays.’ And so that’s been his focus. ‘Micah and Jordan are gone, there’s new faces around, and don’t forget about me. I can still do it.’”

Anyone who has watched the Bills play defense knows how important the play of the safeties is to the success of the unit. Sean McDermott asks a lot of the safeties, and they have to be as in tune with the entire operation as any player on that side of the ball with the exception of the Mike linebacker, Terrel Bernard.

And now, McDermott won’t have two savvy vets to lean on as Poyer signed with the Dolphins, and Hyde is likely going to retire.

Though interestingly, Beane did not shut down the idea of a return by Hyde who said earlier in the summer that he hadn’t signed his retirement papers and was staying in shape. Oh, and he was doing that only if the Bills come calling because he has no interest in resuming his career somewhere else.

“I think Micah made some straight up comments around his softball deal about where he was at and we talked and he came out to practice one day and we had talked before that,” Beane said. “But I think Micah’s in a really good spot. He’s enjoying his family time, but he’s staying ready should the right opportunity come. But we haven’t done anything in addition to where we kind of left things off in June.”

It was presumed that Taylor Rapp and Mike Edwards were in line to be the safety duo, at least at the start of camp. Rapp re-signed with the Bills after playing with them in 2023, mostly in a reserve role, while Edwards defected from the Chiefs in free agency. However, Edwards missed almost all of the spring workouts with an injury, so when the Bills hit the field at St. John Fisher University, Hamlin was with the 1’s as McDermott will likely ease Edwards into action.

“He had the injury in the spring so he missed a lot of time there,” McDermott said. “So that’s huge for him getting up to speed, the intricacies of our defense. The intention was to have Mike out there with the first group through the spring, the duration of it. But he missed really most of the spring if not all of it.”

The Bills also drafted Cole Bishop in the second round, but given the complexities of the safety position, the rookie has a long way to go before he can seriously compete for a starting job.

“He’s got to come out and get off to a good start,” McDermott said. “I think really mastering the defense, which is hard to do in the first season, or mastering parts of it to where he can help us, maybe in certain packages - starting there and then moving into the starting role is the vision.”

Which is to say, if anyone is going to threaten Rapp or Edwards, it’s Hamlin because he is actually the longest-tenured safety on the team.

“I would say quarterback, middle linebacker and safety, probably,” McDermott said when asked what are the toughest positions mentally, especially for young players. “Being in different schemes or systems, I would say largely those are the main three that carry the most volume, the most responsibility.”

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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills open training camp with Damar Hamlin on first team