Bills Training Camp: Terrel Bernard and Starting WR2 Job Both Under Threat

Buffalo Bills training camp is winding through its second week at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, and the depth chart is starting to firm up. Most of it, anyway. As a veteran-heavy team coming off back-to-back deep playoff runs, Buffalo doesn’t have many open jobs. But two starting spots are genuinely up for grabs, and the players on the roster bubble are making sure everyone notices.

Ten of 11 starting offensive spots look settled, with left guard the lone question mark after David Edwards left in free agency, a battle ClutchPoints called the biggest of camp for protecting Josh Allen. The defense carries more uncertainty. New coordinator Jim Leonhard is scrapping Sean McDermott’s longtime 4-3 look for a 3-4, and that shift is putting real pressure on players who fit the old scheme better than the new one.

Here’s a look at the two Bills starters with the most to lose before Buffalo opens the season against Houston.

LB Terrel Bernard

Bernard entered the offseason as Buffalo’s presumptive starting inside linebacker, a role he’s held since 2023. That’s no longer a given. Fourth-round rookie Kaleb Elarms-Orr has been the story of Bills camp through its first two weeks, and Leonhard’s new defense may fit him better than it fits Bernard.

Elarms-Orr, a TCU product who slid to pick No. 126 despite leading the Big 12 in tackles as a senior, opened camp as Buffalo’s starting off-ball linebacker while Bernard and fellow incumbent Dorian Williams worked back from offseason procedures — Bernard from ankle surgery, Williams from a bilateral knee fracture suffered during OTAs. Yahoo Sports reported that defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard has already praised the rookie publicly, and that Elarms-Orr took full advantage of the extra first-team reps.

The absences didn’t last. Bernard made his camp debut in 11-on-11 work over the weekend, pairing directly with Elarms-Orr, according to ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg, as relayed by Yardbarker. Williams remains limited to 7-on-7 drills and hasn’t progressed to full team periods. That gap matters. With Williams still sidelined from full contact, Elarms-Orr keeps banking valuable reps regardless of what Bernard does.

The rookie has flashed the aggressive, downhill style Leonhard wants running his defense. Buffalo Rumblings described him directing teammates pre-snap like a veteran through his first four days of practice, and the site’s Bills beat writer said he holds a first-round grade on Elarms-Orr from before the draft. That aggression has an edge to it. During a Tuesday practice, Elarms-Orr made contact with tight end Dalton Kincaid after Kincaid had already secured a catch and gone to the ground, and it touched off a scuffle involving multiple players on both sides of the ball, per ESPN’s camp notebook.

“Well, I didn’t enjoy hitting our guy after the whistle, but I enjoyed punching him in the face a couple times and choking him out,” offensive lineman Alec Anderson said of the fight, per ESPN.

Bernard’s issue isn’t just health. He’s an undersized coverage linebacker who thrived in McDermott’s zone-heavy, discipline-first scheme. Leonhard’s 3-4 asks different things of its inside linebackers, and that stylistic mismatch is part of why a fourth-round rookie has a real path to snaps ahead of a two-time defensive captain.

None of this means Bernard is losing his roster spot, or even his role entirely. Buffalo’s 3-4 uses two off-ball linebackers at once, so Bernard sliding to LB2 would still technically be a starting job. But if Williams returns healthy before Week 1, he could be the one occupying that second spot instead — and if Bernard picks up any further injury in camp, Joe Andreessen is the next man up to push for reps, according to SI’s early roster projection out of camp.

WR Keon Coleman/Josh Palmer

Buffalo’s receiver room has its top two spots locked. D.J. Moore, acquired from Chicago this offseason, is the clear WR1, and Khalil Shakir returns to the slot role he’s already earned. What’s unresolved is who lines up as the boundary WR2 opposite Moore in Week 1, and that battle has been building since before camp opened.

Josh Palmer and Keon Coleman are the two veterans in the mix. Palmer was in line for the role a year ago before injuries wiped out most of his 2025 season — he finished with just 22 catches for 303 yards and no touchdowns, per Yahoo Sports’ camp preview. Coleman tried to claim the job himself last season and instead battled inconsistency, immaturity concerns, and an in-season benching tied to missed team meetings. Buffalo Rumblings noted Coleman opened 2025 with an 8-catch, 112-yard outburst against Baltimore, then managed just 38 catches for 404 yards over his final 13 games, with more headlines about missed meetings than production.

General manager Brandon Beane fielded trade calls on Coleman this spring and turned them down, saying publicly in April that he wanted to “hit the reset button” on the receiver’s career in Buffalo, per that same Buffalo Rumblings report. That’s a real vote of confidence from the front office, and it gives Coleman a fresh runway under a new coaching staff with no history with him.

Both veterans are currently the presumed favorites for that WR2 job. But fourth-round rookie Skyler Bell isn’t waiting quietly. Bell set a UConn program record with 101 catches for 1,278 yards and 13 touchdowns in his final college season, numbers Buffalo Rumblings flagged as standing out even in a strong draft class. Beane specifically pushed back on the idea that Bell’s smaller frame — 6-foot, 192 pounds — limits him to the slot, saying at the time of the pick that he believes Bell can win on the outside as well.

Bell has backed that up early in camp, forming a rapport with Josh Allen and consistently making plays through the first two weeks of practice. Buffalo Rumblings called him a legitimate threat to leapfrog Coleman as the first receiver off the bench, even while cautioning it’s still early with players not yet in pads.

What the numbers say so far

Buffalo has real depth at both spots, which is exactly the problem for Bernard, Coleman, and Palmer. None of these jobs are being handed out. They’re being won, day by day, at St. John Fisher — and Buffalo has three preseason games left before any of it gets settled for real.