ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Rookie safety Cole Bishop is happy to be back on the Buffalo Bills practice field.
"It's good to be back out there," Bishop said. "Third day back, today was kind of a lighter day, but past couple of days felt really good."
The Bills second-round pick returned to individual work this week with a red non-contact jersey after a shoulder injury in late July forced him to miss a significant portion of training camp.
"Not ideal, nobody wants to get hurt, but learn from it and try to capitalize of it," Bishop said. "Obviously I'd rather be out there playing but it's a good opportunity to get more mental reps. That's kind of a different persepective when you're standing on the sideline, you're able to see more, so you start anticipating and being able to see what we're going to check to and things like that."
Those mental reps, Bishop says, have been particularly helpful in allowing him to continue grasping a better understading of the defense.
"Just with my knowledge of the playbook," Bishop said. "I'm a lot more confident now than I was during OTAs. I was really confident when I got hurt and everything so trying to just keep that momentum."
The rookie has also been leaning on Taylor Rapp, one of the presumed starters for the Bills at the safety position, as Bishop gets adapted to Buffalo and the NFL.
"Super helpful," Bishop said of Rapp's guidance. "Whether that's with the playbook, he's the guy I text with questions and stuff. Just being a professional. He's got a good routine he sticks to and everything so kind of just trying to learn everything from him. Try to absorb as much knowledge from him as you can."
The Bills will play their third and final preseason game here in Orchard Park on Saturday against the Carolina Panthers.
The starters won't be seeing the field, and neither will Bishop nor fellow safety Mike Edwards, who's coming back from a hamstring injury.
With who starts at safety alongside Rapp already a question coming into the season, the limited availability from in that room has made Sean McDermott's job evaluating that position even more difficult.
"Just really trying to do the best we can evaluating and helping those players, the new ones in particular like Mike (Edwards) and Cole (Bishop) through extra walk-throughs as much as we can to capture the mental reps," McDermott said.
"As we all know, it's not the same though as when you're getting real, full speed reps where there's pressure on you to communicate, to diagnose and process what's going on, so the sooner we can get those guys in that type of environment, the better."
With Bishop making positive strides this week in practice, he's working hard to make sure he can back on the field not just practice, but for games.
"I'm just kind of trusting the trainers," Bishop said. "What they tell me to do, I'm going to do. I'm eager to get back as soon as I can so as soon as I'm cleared to do certain things, I'm ready to go with it."