The Buffalo Bills came into their final regular-season game against the New York Jets with a playoff berth clinched. The Bills were guaranteed a wild card spot, but whether they would end up the five, six, or seven seed was still up for grabs. After the Houston Texans came from behind to beat the Indianapolis Colts during the early games on Sunday, Buffalo knew they could only be trendy and end up the six or seven seed.
Well, thanks to a loss by the Los Angeles Chargers and a dominant victory by the Bills, we now know that Buffalo is the six seed and heading to Duval County, FL to face off against the Jacksonville Jaguars next Sunday afternoon. The Bills didn’t play most of their starters in Week 18, instead letting the reserves do the heavy lifting. The Jets were no match for Buffalo’s backups, as the Bills racked up 470 total yards while allowing a season-low 122 yards to a Jets’ offense playing plenty of backups, as well.
Our five players to watch not only played on Sunday, but they played well. Here’s how our five players to watch performed in what will likely be the final game ever played at Highmark Stadium.
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QB Mitchell Trubisky
After Josh Allen took the first snap, extending his league-leading consecutive start streak to 135 games (122 regular-season games plus 13 playoff games) by handing off to James Cook III, he jogged off the field and ceded the reins to Trubisky. The backup delivered one of his finest career performances against an overmatched Jets defense.
Full disclosure: I couldn’t watch much of the first matchup between these two teams. I was coaching my eight-year-old son’s soccer team in the fall, and we had a game at the same time as the first matchup.
Watching on Sunday, I was stunned by just how bad the Jets are. Trubisky moved Buffalo’s offense like Shakira — wherever, whenever — throwing for 259 yards and four touchdowns while completing 76% of his passes. Trubisky threw a few near-interceptions, which would have broken the Jets’ season-long streak without one, but New York was unable to secure any of the “turnover-worthy plays.”
Trubisky showed off his mobility, as well, scrambling once for nine yards, but also in moving in the pocket to buy time for his receivers to separate. His touchdown passes went to tight end Dawson Knox, running back Ty Johnson, wide receiver Gabe Davis, and running back Ray Davis.
Is Trubisky someone who can lead a team to contention over the course of a 17-game schedule? Perhaps not. However, he proved once again that he is more than capable of stepping in and leading an offense in the short term when called upon.
RB Ray Davis
What a day for Buffalo’s third running back. Davis has had a difficult season, with a far more limited (read: nearly non-existent) role on offense this year. However, he had a career day on Sunday.
Davis handled the vast majority of the offensive snaps, carrying 21 times for a career-high 151 yards in the game. While he didn’t manage a rushing touchdown, he did find his way into the end zone via a two-yard reception in the second quarter. He also gained 21 yards on a catch earlier.
Davis has carved out a role as a kickoff returner this year, as he led the NFL with 30.4 yards per kickoff return. However, it was nice to see him do some damage as a runner, too. With starter James Cook having a career year, leading the NFL in rushing yards with 1,621 yards, there were fewer touches for Davis and fellow reserve running back Ty Johnson this season. Given Johnson’s success in the passing game, Davis has been the odd man out of Buffalo’s three-headed attack.
Even though it was against a Jets team that looked completely checked out, it was still nice to see Davis have a big game.
WR Keon Coleman
The second-year man saw four targets in the game. He made some nice grabs, including a sliding catch near the front pylon that nearly resulted in a touchdown. He also did a nice job securing a grab on a two-point conversion, toe-tapping in the front corner of the end zone to convert just the second successful two-point play of the season for the Bills. While the game was run-heavy, it was perhaps a little disappointing that Coleman only had those two catches and four targets.
Coleman was unable to secure a pass that, while behind him, hit him in the shoulder. He also broke wide open for a 37-yard catch and run, which was a season-long reception for No. 0. Buffalo also used Coleman as the punt returner, as Khalil Shakir dressed for the game but did not play. Coleman returned one punt for just two yards.
It was good to see the Bills try to give Coleman something to build on heading into the playoffs, but his play did nothing to show that he needs to be active for the team on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Barring injury, Coleman has likely played his last snaps of the 2025 season.
C Sedrick Van Pran-Granger
I had a hunch that the team would rest some offensive linemen, and given the expiring contracts they have along the interior offensive line, I was particularly interested in watching SVPG to see if he would play a bit. Not only did he play, but he acquitted himself extremely well on Sunday.
Buffalo’s offensive line cleared the way for a 211-yard rushing performance. Trubisky saw little to no pressure up front. When the Bills were stuffed on some short-yardage plays, it was more an issue of the play call being obvious than it was a missed block.
What was really cool to watch was Van Pran-Granger running up to serve as each ball-carrier’s personal hype man after a big gain. On more than one big play, I saw the second-year center run up and celebrate.
With both Conor McGovern and David Edwards set to hit free agency in March, this was a test to see if the Bills can try to replace one of those players with an internal promotion. Van Pran-Granger passed the test with flying colors, with the obvious caveat being that the quality of opponent wasn’t exactly anything great.
DB Jordan Hancock
The rookie defensive back played like a man possessed, flying around on defense and throwing his body around to dole out punishment time and again. On more than one play, Hancock came in and finished off Jets ballcarriers. He seemed to be lined up mostly at safety, as the Bills went with Hancock and Darnell Savage for most of the game, but he played a few other places in the secondary out of necessity, as well.
Hancock saw some slot snaps in place of Cam Lewis, who played right around half the team’s defensive snaps. When rookie Maxwell Hairston suffered an ankle injury in the fourth quarter, it was Hancock who kicked outside to play corner. Special teams ace Sam Franklin came in to play safety at that point.
If Buffalo wanted to have a look at Hancock to see what kind of role he might play next year, Sunday was a good reminder that he can do a whole lot of good things for this defense. He finished the game with five tackles.
