Buffalo Bills Training Camp Spotlight: Running Backs
When a team comes off a deep run in the NFL playoffs, typically there aren't a lot of starting jobs available the next summer.
That certainly is the case with the 2021 Buffalo Bills, who feature what they all believe to be a championship-caliber roster.
However, the running back position group could feature a whole different pecking order by the time they open their season in September against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
What happens in training camp with their three top candidates, Devin Singletary, Zack Moss and veteran newcomer Matt Breida, will go a long way toward determining who gets the most work, at least at the beginning of the season.
Or the Bills could just go with the hot hand, as general manager Brandon Beane suggested at the start of camp on Wednesday.
Singletary was the starter in 2019 and throughout last season, but had lost so much ground to Moss by the start of the playoffs that Moss was getting more touches until suffering a season-ending injury during the Bills' wild-card round playoff win over Indianapolis.
That thrust Singletary back into the spotlight, under which he melted with a crucial dropped pass as the Bills were trying to add to a lead over the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game. The Chiefs went on to win to gain their second straight Super Bowl berth.
But Singletary went through an intense offseason training regimen both on and off the premises in an attempt to make himself more explosive as well as more reliable.
His work has not gone unnoticed.
"As we all know, Devin had a great first season," coach Sean McDermott said at the start of camp. "Last year there were some times that I'm sure he would say that he'd like back. So I'm seeing a young man who has taken the offseason and attacked it head-on. He's in a great spot physically, it looks like at this point, and I'm anxious to see him out here.
"But from what I saw at the tail end of this spring, I was impressed with. ... He said he was trying to be intentional about working on his weaknesses, and I think that says a lot about the young man."
Moss is embracing all that comes with the competition against Singletary.
"We both are really cool," he said. "... We're just competitors. We're both from South Florida so we both kind of mesh automatically. So it's not like I'm trying to outdo him or he's trying to outdo me. We just come together, we work, because we know what the end goal is, right?
"If he's the starting running back and we win the Super Bowl, fine. If I'm the starting running back and we win the Super Bowl, fine. Either way, we know what the end goal is, and we just want to help this team get better every day."
The more experienced Breida is helping with that process too after spending time with the San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins.
"He's really quick and he's a vet," Moss said. "He has a lot of tips for us on and off the field. ... So just having a guy like that who's vocal and has really brought our group together a lot more than last year -- being two young guys and having Matt come in and being more vocal has really helped us as a group, from the first guy all the way down."
Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
