BEREA, Ohio — For the third year in a row, the Buffalo Bills made it part of their preseason plan to hit the road early and partake in a joint practice with their upcoming exhibition opponents. After heading to Pittsburgh in 2024 and Chicago in 2025, the Bills went to the Cleveland Browns’ practice home to take on an eager group looking to measure their progress against the Bills, a perennial Super Bowl contender.The allure of joint practices for NFL teams is a pretty easy sell. Although it raises the risk of a more intense practice than they would have if the Bills stayed in Orchard Park, it gives both teams a chance to call their real offenses and defenses without the entire NFL world seeing it, and to control the contact as best they can to protect their players. In preseason games, teams generally don’t use their full playbooks and every play is live.The other piece of joint practices, for an expected playoff team like the Bills, is that it may give them all the work they want against an opponent while resting their most important players for the upcoming preseason game. When Bills head coach Joe Brady was asked if that was his plan, he certainly left the door open to sitting his stars Saturday against the Browns.Most of the talk about who plays Saturday revolves around star quarterback Josh Allen.Although production wasn’t the top draw, the Bills’ first-team offense looked polished all day against a well-respected Browns defense. To no one’s surprise, Allen was the best player on the field as he ran six different sets of 11-on-11 team drills.In Allen’s opinion, the energy from the offense and defense was high during the session, which could be a hint at how the Bills are leaning on Saturday. For reference, in the Bills’ last two joint practices in 2024 and 2025, Allen did not play in the following preseason game against the Steelers and Bears, though he played the middle when asked about playing Saturday.“Whatever coach asks me to do,” Allen said. “Whether I play or not, I’m going to be happy with the decision.”Here are four takeaways from what might have been their most important practice of the summer.Kincaid TD was the highlight, but it’s the cherry on top of his entire campIf you spend any part of your day scrolling through social media, odds are you saw the very open Dalton Kincaid rope on a 54-yard touchdown on the second play of their two-minute drill. No one was home for the Browns on the play, but it underscores his explosiveness and downfield potential in the Bills’ offense.The last two seasons with him have been frustrating for him, the team, fans and fantasy football managers alike. The talent is obvious but injuries have weighed him down so much over the last two seasons that he’s missed nine regular-season games; even worse, his playing time dipped to 50 percent in games played in 2024 and 39 percent in games played in 2025. The injuries, plus his blocking concerns, made the Bills a highly predictable team when Kincaid was on the field, and they were very likely to throw the ball. All of it made some wonder if he’d ever be more than just an important bit player on a good offense.However, this camp and preseason have looked and felt a bit different for Kincaid. He’s been at practice every day, he looks stronger and he’s playing with more physicality in the blocking game. Most importantly, his usage during camp practices has seen a bit of a bump — even with tight ends Dawson Knox and Jackson Hawes fully healthy. It’s not to say that he’s on the precipice of playing 75 percent or more of the team’s offensive snaps, but Kincaid’s health, summer usage, and ability are all trending toward an enhanced role in 2026.“It’s no secret that we’re a better offense when he’s on the field,” Allen said of Kincaid. “He opens up so much. He’s a tough matchup for linebackers, and I think he’s a tough matchup for cornerbacks, for that matter. He just continues to make plays and be elusive without the ball in his hands, and when he gets the ball in his hands, he just finds a way to keep moving forward.”For tight ends who appeared in at least 14 games, Kincaid led the league with 2.73 yards per route run, having been targeted on 24 percent of all his routes. The next closest player was Chicago’s Colston Loveland at 1.98 yards per route run.Skyler Bell takes a big step forward. What’s his timeline?After the Bills’ preseason opener, Brady gave a somewhat encouraging update on rookie wide receiver Skyler Bell, saying they hoped to get him on the field for practice this week. The practice week is now over, and Bell didn’t get back the way they hoped. However, with the entire team on the other field, Bell snuck out of the locker room and began running drills in the distance with the strength and conditioning staff.This was the first time we’ve seen Bell since he suffered what the Bills termed a “lower body injury.” After the practice concluded, The Athletic caught up with Bell, and he explained what he’s dealing with and where he is in his recovery.Rookie WR Skyler Bell works puts in work on the sidelineJoe BuscagliaBell disclosed that he suffered a groin injury during the team’s first practice in Highmark Stadium on Aug. 8, and Thursday marked the first time he’s been spotted during a practice working with staff since.“Man, it just felt good to get these pads on,” Bell said. “I actually wasn’t supposed to put them on, but since they said I was running a little bit fast, I wanted to get used to putting them back on.”In addition to rehabbing the injury, the rookie receiver said a part of the rehabbing process was in the mental battle.“I was super, super frustrated,” Bell said. “You dream all the time to be in this position, and you work so hard to get here, and it’s taken away from you. So you just try not to take things for granted. I was glad to be back out here running a little bit with the pads on, having my helmet on in here. So, it felt good.”Bell admitted that he probably won’t play on Saturday against the Browns, but said his goal is to play in the team’s final preseason game against the Steelers on Aug. 27 if all goes well.Hairston’s struggles against Boston underscore ongoing CB discussionThe Bills just welcomed projected starting cornerback Maxwell Hairston back to practice this Tuesday for the first time since he suffered a groin injury. Before the injury, Hairston was inconsistent in coverage throughout training camp, especially when he had to deal with a physical receiver.Heading into the joint practices, I was especially interested in how he would fare against rookie wide receiver Denzel Boston, who by most accounts in Cleveland has been a standout performer. Boston is a physical, 6-foot-4, 215-pound receiver matching up against the much smaller Hairston. To Hairston’s credit, he broke up a pass to end the Browns’ two-minute drill after the Browns scrambled to get to the line and did a last-second heave to the end zone. The rest of the day was a clear and consistent win for Boston in the matchup. They targeted him successfully several times throughout the day, and even when they weren’t, Boston was winning the matchup. If it were a one-off, that’d be one thing, but dealing with physicality has been a consistent battle for Hairston all summer.The Bills also haven’t brought back Hairston in full just yet. Before the injury, he was taking most of the initial first-team reps during team drills. Upon his return, there has been more mixing and matching of team drill reps, with rookie second-round pick Davison Igbinosun getting first-team time. That could be because they want to work Hairston back in slowly, but with Hairston’s struggles, the door is open for Igbinosun to fight for the starting role.Either way — even with moonlighting boundary corner Dee Alford on the roster — the Bills need to weigh all options ahead of the regular season and decide soon if signing a veteran for insurance will help secure one of the biggest questions on their defense.Cushenberry settling in at centerIt was a slow start to training camp for veteran backup center Lloyd Cushenberry III. It seemed like he was on the wrong side of reps once the pads went on, which landed him squarely on the roster bubble.Since then, Cushenberry has shown rapid improvement, and it’s become even more obvious against other teams. Cushenberry had a solid game as the starting center against the Panthers in place of the injured Connor McGovern, and in one-on-ones against a good Browns defensive line, he won all of his matchups.Since McGovern’s injury, in every Bills open camp practice and during their preseason game with the Panthers, Cushenberry has been the only center to take snaps with Allen. In the NFL, actions speak louder than words, and that’s especially true for anyone who works directly with Allen, the Bills’ North Star. As long as this holds, Cushenberry seems primed to make the 53-man roster and potentially force the Bills into a tough decision on their young offensive linemen investments.