RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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CLEVELAND, OH - AUGUST 22: Buffalo Bills defensive end Mike Danna (51) leaves the field following the National Football League preseason game between the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns on August 22, 2026, at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland, OH. (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Buffalo Bills ended their 2026 preseason 3-0 with a dazzling comeback win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night, and now have 53-man roster decisions to make ahead of Sunday evening.
Which roster-bubble players made a final push to make the team with their performance in the preseason finale, you ask?
My answers below.
EDGE Mike Danna
I’m a staunch advocate of Bruce Nolan’s WAWW philosophy in the preseason, and Danna played a whopping 43 snaps, most of which came in the second half and well into the fourth quarter, so the writing may be on the wall regarding his future on the Bills.
But it would’ve been nearly impossible for Danna to do more with his time on task late in this trio of Bills preseason games. Danna added three tackles, two more pressures, and another tackle for loss to his stellar preseason against the Steelers.
I have no idea if the Bills will have room for Danna on the 53-man roster, and he feels like a potential poaching target on the practice squad. If I was the GM, I’d very much like to have a wily, versatile, thick defensive linemen with gobs of deep playoff experience in my back pocket, and that’s precisely what the 29 year old Danna is.
LB Keonta Jenkins
Am I the only one who visualizes Tremaine Edmunds when watching Jenkins in the Bills No. 49?
In actuality, Edmunds was a first-round pick and stood at 6’5” and 250 pounds. Jenkins was undrafted out of Virginia Tech and is only 6’2” and probably in the 220-230 pound range now. But the long hair out of the back of his helmet and the way he effortlessly glides to the football is very Edmunds-esque.
Jenkins had six tackles against the Steelers, one of a which was a thudding tackle for loss and tacked on a sack in his 24 snaps. Joe Andreessen did not play defense against Pittsburgh, which hints that he’s a lock to make the 53-man roster as the primary inside linebacker contingency plan. But Jenkins put quite the emphatic stamp on a summer in which he demonstrated that his arrow is pointed decidedly upward.
RB Frank Gore Jr.
Gore Jr., now three years into his professional career — it seems less than that, doesn’t it? — feels like a real pro’s pro at this stage, even though we’ve almost strictly seen him in training camp and the preseason.
Making cornerbacks whiff in space on catches in the flat or screens, knifing his way through small crevices between the tackles, and morphing into a small cement wall in pass protection against an A-gap blitz, for the third-straight preseason, Gore demonstrated that he does everything well that teams ask of modern-day running backs albeit not against first-teamers.
And he put multiple exclamation points on film against the Steelers to prove his well-roundedness. The two long gainers on short throws from Shane Buechele, a stick on a pass-pro rep that allowed Buechele to deliver a strike on a deep over, and gritty, just-take-what’s-there runs between the tackles. It was all there from Gore Jr. in this game.
On 15 touches he totaled 72 yards from scrimmage and scored a touchdown.
If Buffalo wants to take the precautionary route with Ty Johnson to begin the season — see: short-term IR — I believe Gore Jr. has done enough to earn an opportunity when the games count.
OG Ar’Maj Reed-Adams
Reed-Adams isn’t going to make the 53-man roster. But I can’t quit him. And that’s partly due to my affinity for him as a prospect. But he was an old-school workhorse MLB pitcher this preseason — the rookie guard logged another 67 snaps in the preseason finale against the Steelers.
And once again, Reed-Adams did not allow a single pressure.
It capped a debut preseason for Reed-Adams without surrendering a single quarterback pressure — he did have a holding call that negated one but otherwise was not flagged.
The nearly 6’6” and 315-plus pounder has absolutely done enough to secure a spot on the practice squad, and I’m incredibly into his upside as, first, a deep-depth option, and eventually, a starter at either guard position on this team.
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