Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment,
we focus on Cole Bishop, the Bills’ second-year safety who had the best game of his NFL career against Buffalo’s bete noire — Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
Sunday’s matchup between the Bills and the Chiefs was among the Games of the Year as it is in most regular seasons, and the 28-21 result, which had Patrick Mahomes hurling a possible tie-making pass into the end zone with three seconds left, lived up to the hype.
There were two very good things to be taken for the Bills out of this game: The resuscitation of Josh Allen as a deep passer (thank goodness), and a defense that has been up and down all season, but really pressed Patrick Mahomes and his crew to the maximum.
Per Next Gen Stats, Mahomes was pressured on 20 of his 38 dropbacks (52.6%) and sacked three times in his fifth consecutive regular season loss to the Bills. It was the first time Mahomes faced pressure on a majority of his dropbacks since Week 5 of the 2020 season, and just the fourth time in his career. The Bills forced Mahomes to hold on to the ball, leading to his longest time to throw in a game over the last two seasons (3.37 seconds). This helped boost the Bills’ pass rush, who had just two of their 20 pressures come under 2.5 seconds.
This is also what happens when you tie pressure to coverage, and safety Cole Bishop was the main man in that department. I was a fan of Bishop and his NFL potential when he came out of Utah for the 2024 draft, and evidently so was general manager Brandon Beane, who said that he would have traded up for Bishop in the second round, but he ultimately didn’t have to.
The Chiefs decided to target Bishop more in a game than he’d ever been targeted in his NFL career, and they really regretted it at the conclusion. On seven targets, Bishop allowed two receptions for 18 yards, seven yards after the catch, no touchdowns, four pass breakups, a couple of near-interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 39.6.
If you want to know why Mahomes completed just 15 of 34 passes for 250 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, and the third-worst passer rating of his career (57.2), you can start there.
Bishop’s deflections came from everywhere, and they hit all levels of the Chiefs’ passing game. From his attack and near-pick of a potential swing pass to receiver Xavier Worthy with 4:18 left in the first half to his denial of the aforementioned Hail Mary that ended the game in Buffalo’s favor, Bishop was everywhere, all the time.
“I felt Cole out there,” head coach Sean McDermott said postgame. “He could make big plays, you could sense his speed, and he was popping some people out there. That’s a journey of a young player who is taking steps in the right direction, and it’s because of his preparation more than anything. I think when you get more and more experience, like anything in life, you start to understand what it’s going to take, what the job description is. So, he’s going to continue to grow for us here.”
“Just chasing the motion, being able to anticipate the ball might go there and just get downhill on it,” Bishop said of the Worthy breakup. “Guys were saying that maybe if I got my head back that’s an interception opportunity, but just run it after the man and hopefully maybe get your head back next time.”
“Next time” comes against the Miami Dolphins and their broken offense next Sunday, and if the 6-2 Bills want to step further up in the AFC East and postseason standing, they’ll hope that Bishop’s hard work to adjust to the rigors of the NFL holds up. Based on what happened against the Chiefs, there are reasons to be rather optimistic.
And who knows… maybe a postseason rematch against the Chiefs could find some of those Mahomes passes winding up in Bishop’s hands?
