Buffalo Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid didn’t realize it at the time, but he was providing a little inside info that may have paid off for the team last winter.
Kincaid remembered the Week 4 game his rookie 2023 season when the Bills eviscerated the AFC East-rival Dolphins 48-20 and at one point during the game, Miami outside linebacker Bradley Chubb asked him a peculiar question.
“I remember my rookie year, Bradley Chubb lining up opposing me and he was like, ‘Do you like it here in Buffalo?’ and it was like the oddest question to be asked of a rookie,” Kincaid said with a smile. “I was just taken back by it because it’s usually trash talk coming from those guys and obviously I knew Bradley Chubb coming in as a rookie and it was pretty cool coming from that
guy. And yeah, I told him I loved it, it’s the same answer everyone gives, a little recruiting pitch.”
Who knows if Chubb remembered that answer, but he did sign with the Bills as a free agent and as Kincaid said, “You flash forward 3-4 years later and he’s on our team. It’s pretty cool, him coming in and seamlessly becoming a leader on this team.”
Chubb is a key piece in the Bills’ transition to an odd-man front because it’s a defense he has played in for most of his career with the Broncos and Dolphins. But beyond playing and performing, Chubb has naturally taken on a leadership role as a ninth-year veteran.
“Just being me, honestly, what's got me here,” he said. “I've been doing the same style of leadership since I was in college, and I feel like it's carried over. Just being the true version of myself each and every day. I feel like people respect that, especially when they see me go out there and do the things I do on the field. I try to just be the best version of me, and that brings everybody else along with you. It's not, ‘I’ve got to do this to make guys like me.’ It's just being myself.”
Interestingly, he does have one regret in that he won’t get to be on the home side for a game in the old Highmark Stadium, which these days is becoming a pile of rubble across the street from the $2.2 billion palace that is the new Highmark Stadium.
“I'm going to miss the old Highmark Stadium,” he said. “That old, grungy feeling of just old-school football. That's going to be always something that you remember coming up to Buffalo and playing them. Everybody shares the same tunnel, the locker room's not super updated, the shower's cold, even when it's cold outside. Just stuff like that.
“Not talking trash about it, but you know, just stuff like that you’re like, ‘OK, we're here to play a football game.’ But change is good, new is good. I had a lot of change this offseason so being in the new stadium with this team, I know it's going to be different for a lot of those guys. But it's gonna be good for us.”
Here are a few other observations from the rain-soaked practice Monday, Aug. 3:
Phidarian Mathis is getting his chance
Perhaps the most unsettled position group in camp is interior defensive line and that has been evident by all the different combinations defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard has used thus far.
He’s trying to figure out who fits where, and what each players’ strengths are in the defense, but one player has stood out a bit and that’s Mathis. He has been getting work with the first unit, particularly with Deone Walker sitting out Monday’s practice.
“There’s a number of guys, Phidarian Mathis, and a lot of guys that are going to be moving around,” Leonhard said the other day. “You'll see them at different places during camp. You just want to see how many snaps we think they can function in different roles for us. I am excited about the group.”
Mathis was a 2022 second-round pick of the Commanders out of Ohio State but he never really made an impact in three seasons. The Bills signed the 312-pounder prior to their 2025 practice squad and he wound up playing in six games, plus one in the postseason.
If we can assume Ed Oliver, Walker and TJ Sanders are the first three linemen in the base defense, Mathis seems to be firmly in the mix for a backup role and he’s battling a few of the Bills’ own draft picks in Clayton, DeWayne Carter, Landon Jackson and Zane Durant, plus veteran Zion Logue.
“We're challenging guys, putting them in different positions,” Brady said. “There is a lot of different techniques that we're asking and seeing who can handle some of the techniques. We put in a lot of volume purposely, right? And I think you put a lot on them and you can see what the guys can handle, then we dial it back as we get tighter to the season.”
Bills dodged a bullet with C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Joe Brady confirmed Monday that the calf injury the safety suffered Saturday was not serious and that he’ll be back practicing eventually.
“We're fortunate,” Brady said. “Anytime you see a lower body extremity injury and in the manner in which some of those happen, there's always a bad possibility with it right? But we got good news, and we'll see how his body recovers.”
Brady stopped short of saying when Gardner-Johnson would return, but in the meantime, it’s more reps for backups like Damar Hamlin, Geno Stone and most notably rookie Jalon Kilgore.
“I'm not really big on expectations or timetables,” Brady said. “I also think it's something you say day-to-day and it becomes two weeks, and it's like, ‘Oh, is there a setback? What's happening?’ When guys are ready to practice, they're going to practice. Let's let the recovery kind of start and kind of see how that unfolds.”
Rookie DB Jalon Kilgore has flashed
The Bills are always excited about every player they draft, so when Brandon Beane was gushing about Kilgore, you took it with a grain of salt. But at the time Beane said they loved Kilgore’s versatility and he’s showing some of that early in camp, especially with his play at safety.
He had a big showing on Saturday, Aug. 1, when he seemed to be around the ball the entire practice as he made two picks and broke up three others. Granted, a lot of that came against the backup quarterbacks, but having a nose for the ball is important in the NFL and Kilgore seems to have that knack, similar in fact to Gardner-Johnson.
“Yeah, he has been showing up,” cornerback Christian Benford said. “We work together and it's like what happens in the dark is going to come to light. And right now it's coming to light. All the work that he’s putting in when nobody's seeing it, when nobody's looking, it's showing. He's studying, he's smart, he's putting in the work and he's shining.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills linebacker says he's going miss this in Buffalo
