Buffalo Bills Rookies Claim New Numbers

If you've been watching the Bills for a few years now, this year might take a few games to get used to.  The numbers continue to shuffle for Bills players.

Last year they changed the rule about who could wear specific numbers.  You used to be able to tell which position a player played based on their numbers, but now they're all over the place.  Wide receivers can now wear single digits which hadn't happened for years in the NFL.

When I was growing up numbers looked like this:

• Anything in the single digits were punters and kickers.
• Numbers in the teens and below were kind of used for quarterbacks.
• Numbers in the twenties and thirties were mostly for running backs and defensive backs.
• Forties were fullbacks and a few more defensive backs.
• Fifties were linebackers.
• Sixties and Seventies were for offensive and defensive linemen.
• Eighties were for receivers and nineties were for the big boys up front on the defensive line.

That's kind of where they all fell.  That's not the case anymore.

Numbers change every year when you get new players in, but I can't remember the last time that we had so many current players wearing new numbers.  That also means that the numbers of the veterans become available for the rookies.

Now that we have a bunch of new players, the Bills are going to want to start selling jerseys as soon as possible.  That can't happen until they've got numbers assigned.  Now we've got them (at least for the first 4 picks of the 2022 draft):

Kaiir Elam will be taking the number formerly worn by Taron Johnson with #24 after Johnson changed to #7.  Duke Johnson was #28 last year, this year it will be James Cook.  The number 43 was unused last year.  Wide Receiver Khalil Shakir will take over the #10 that was worn by Mitch Trubisky last year.

It'll be confusing...but just for a little while.