Sean McDermott praises Super Bowl champion’s replacement in Bills’ secondary

The Buffalo Bills will rely on a rookie in the secondary during Sunday’s AFC Championship Game, but the head coach sounds confident.

Instead of being able to start a Super Bowl champion, the Buffalo Bills must rely on rookie safety in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

A hip injury to Taylor Rapp forces rookie Cole Bishop into a starting role for the most important game of the year. Bills’ head coach Sean McDermott ruled Rapp out on Friday while also showing belief in the team’s second-round draft pick.

“It’s high,” said McDermott of his confidence level in Bishop. “He’s a young player, but at the same time, he’s grown. He went through an injury in training camp, missed a lot of time. That set him back, set his growth back, delayed it at least. He’s grown through each experience. I’m confident he’ll continue to do that moving forward.”

Bishop, the No. 60 overall draft pick, missed out on a bulk of preseason practices and did not appear in a preseason game. He was inactive for the regular season opener, but appeared in the 16 subsequent games albeit sparingly at first.

The Bills gave Bishop three starts in December as both Rapp and Damar Hamlin were banged up. He totaled 18 tackles over that span.

Bishop came on to relieve Rapp for 39 snaps during the 27-25 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on January 19. He was credited with three stops while seeing his first career playoff action on defense.

Rapp picked off Lamar Jackson prior to being carted to the locker room in the second quarter last Sunday. He has been a stabilizing force on the back end in his second season with the Bills. Prior to arriving in Buffalo, Rapp was a contributor on the Super Bowl LVI champion Los Angeles Rams.