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Injuries have created an early crisis at safety. Here's how the Bills are coping

The Buffalo Bills have an early crisis at the safety position, but you couldn’t tell by the vibe defensive coordinator Bobby Babich was giving off Thursday morning.

Before Babich headed out to practice at St. John Fisher University, he met with reporters and didn’t seem all that concerned that he’d be conducting a workout that will feature two newly-signed safeties - Kareem Jackson and Terrell Burgess - because of the injuries to Mike Edwards and Cole Bishop.

“This is the NFL,” Babich said matter of factly. “Next man up, that’s what it is.”

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Well, OK, but that doesn’t mean losing Edwards and Bishop for what is believed to be several weeks in both cases isn’t something to be concerned about.

Bills rookie safety Cole Bishop suffered a shoulder injury and will miss multiple weeks of practice.
Bills rookie safety Cole Bishop suffered a shoulder injury and will miss multiple weeks of practice.

Edwards suffered a hamstring injury on the second day at Fisher, and on Tuesday, Bishop, the team’s rookie second-round pick, injured a shoulder. Both were vying to start alongside Taylor Rapp in the back end of the defense, but that competition is now on hold indefinitely.

Could the Bills bring back Micah Hyde to shore up the safety concern?

Interestingly, the Bills have not brought in Micah Hyde and instead, general manager Brandon Beane signed Jackson, a 14-year veteran who played for the Broncos and Texans and has 22 career interceptions. And Wednesday they signed Burgess, a 2020 third-round pick of the Rams who has also played for the Giants and Commanders.

“When I was coaching the safeties, things like this happened all the time,” Babich said. “You guys might not remember, but guys would be in, guys would be out. Next guy in, that’s why we get paid. We’re going to take great pride in really weighing ourselves as coaches on the development of the guys with less repetitions, or the opportunity for a backup to come in and play when things like this happen, and play at a high level. That’s what our jobs are as coaches. So no panic, no nothing, next guy up, and we’ll move forward. Whoever’s available on the days we practice, we won’t flinch.”

Whether Beane contacted Hyde is unknown. If he did not, it might mean the Bills have turned the page. Or, it could be that Hyde has decided he doesn’t want to play. A third scenario could be that Hyde knows he doesn’t need to be sweating his brains out at training camp and if he’s still needed, could join the team later in the summer.

For now, he’s unsigned, so the Bills pivoted to Jackson and Burgess and Babich believes there’s plenty to work with there.

“Brandon’s looking to fill our roster in the right way,” Babich said. “I’ll be honest with you, Kareem specifically is a guy that I’ve admired from afar, all the years of me in the secondary and the way he plays the game and the way he goes about his business and those type of things. So that’s kind of a side note on my view of Kareem. But in the end, Brandon’s going to make the decisions that are best for us and we’re going to support it.”

Babich said that even though both Jackson and Burgess are NFL vets, his approach to teaching them the Bills’ defense is essentially like “kindergarten” meaning he has to start with the basics and build.

“You start at the base level and just see how quickly they pick that up,” he said. “And it’s just a feel, it’s like a teacher, right? You get a feel for your classroom and we can move on when the pupils are really understanding what we’re talking about. That’s part of the process and that’s part of what Sean believes in. It’s not just teaching, but we gotta check for the understanding first before we can move on.”

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Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Cole Bishop, Mike Edwards injuries create crisis at safety for Bills