After a few key pieces from last year departed, the pathway to playing time is suddenly very clear for the former UDFA
The Buffalo Bills have been a strong team for developing defensive backs. This reputation has gone on for quite some time, at least as long as head coach Sean McDermott has been in town. The Bills have taken veterans cast off by other teams and made them better, but they’ve also found plenty of late-round gems in the draft.
Another thing the team has done is find undrafted players in the defensive backfield who fit the team’s defensive scheme well. This is risky business, as there’s often plenty of good reasons why a player goes undrafted. However, sometimes, it’s just a matter of circumstance. In a defensive back-friendly scheme like Buffalo’s, often all it takes is finding someone who does one thing particularly well in order for him to be a great fit.
If a corner is going to work his way on to the back end of the roster, it’s also mandatory that he contribute on special teams. In today’s edition of “91 players in 91 days,” we discuss one such defensive back.
Name: Ja’Marcus Ingram
Number: 46
Position: CB
Height/Weight: 6’2”, 190 pounds
Age: 26 (27 on 9/2/2024)
Experience/Draft: 1; signed with Bills as UDFA following the 2022 NFL Draft
College: Buffalo
Acquired: UDFA signing
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Ingram signed a reserve/futures contract with the Bills at the conclusion of the 2023 NFL season. That two-year deal is worth $1,952,500 overall, of which just $7,500 is guaranteed. That figure represents the dead-cap charge Buffalo will carry if Ingram is released prior to the start of the season. If Ingram makes the team, he’ll count $918,750 against Buffalo’s 2024 salary cap.
2023 Recap: Ingram once again spent the year on Buffalo’s practice squad, and he once again saw action in a few games thanks to injuries ahead of him. During the preseason, he logged seven tackles and an interception. During the regular season, he saw action in only three games without recording a statistic. He played eight snaps on defense, all of which came in Buffalo’s 25-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London. He was also active the following week when the Bills beat the New York Giants 14-9. The next time he was active was for Buffalo’s 37-34 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Positional outlook: Ingram is one of quite a few corners in camp right now. Rasul Douglas, Christian Benford, Kaiir Elam, Kyron Brown, Dee Delaney, Te’Cory Couch, and Keni-H Lovely are the other outside corners, while Taron Johnson, Daequan Hardy, and Cam Lewis are corners whose primary role is in the slot.
2024 Offseason: Ingram is healthy and he’s participated in offseason work to date.
2024 Season outlook: While wideout has garnered most of the attention in terms of positions of need this spring, cornerback is another spot where I view the Bills as being too thin. Given that Benford hasn’t shown that he can stay healthy for a whole season, Elam hasn’t shown that he can earn playing time consistently, and Douglas is limited in what he can do schematically, this is a group that gives me some worry as it relates to competing with the other elite AFC clubs.
It’s safe to say that Ingram has a good chance at not only making the roster, but at taking Siran Neal’s place on special teams as the primary gunner — and also as being CB4. If Benford goes down and Elam continues to find his way into McDermott’s dog house, we’re not too far away from Ingram playing significant snaps against a team like the Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs, or Miami Dolphins — all teams with elite passing offenses and elite receiving options.
If there’s a position on the roster where we should “trust the process” of development, it’s definitely the defensive secondary. However, this is also a spot where I’d like to see the Bills add sometime this summer.
At the moment, I’d have Ingram on the roster. He’s also the guy I’d look at as my weakest link if I were the coaching staff, so I’d be out trying to find someone who can relegate Ingram back to the practice squad.