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Mike White and Josh Allen warm up before a Buffalo Bills game.

The Buffalo Bills added some insurance to their quarterback room last season, signing veteran signal-caller Mike White before the start of the season to add more depth behind Josh Allen.

But White could face a big challenge in trying to make the active roster this summer, with one insider predicting he will land on the wrong side of the roster bubble after a battle with Mitch Trubisky. The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia predicted that the Bills will follow their trend of recent seasons and keep just two quarterbacks on the active roster, leaving White as the odd man out.

Bills Bring Rare Quarterback Competition to Training Camp

As Buscaglia noted, the Bills have shied away from quarterback competitions in training camp in recent seasons. The team has identified veteran quarterbacks to back up Allen, with another camp arm added as a practice squad candidate.

But the addition of White last season brings real competition for Trubisky, who first backed up Allen in the 2021 season then returned last year.

“Unlike previous seasons, the quarterback group isn’t as decided before training camp begins,” Buscaglia wrote. “The Bills insinuated after the spring that the backup job would need to be earned, and given Mike White’s starting experience, that isn’t just talk.”

Buscaglia predicted that Trubisky would have the edge in the competition thanks to a skill set that matches Allen better than White.

“Trubisky and White will likely go head-to-head this summer, but for now, Trubisky gets the leg up due to his partially guaranteed salary and the fact that he has more of a mobile element to his game than White,” Buscaglia wrote. “Having a rushing element mirrors Allen’s game a bit more, and that could really help Trubisky win the job. However, make no mistake, this competition appears wide open.”

But White could pose a real challenge, coming to training camp with seven career starts between the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. White has completed 61.4% of his passes for 2,247 yards with nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions over his career. He saw time in last year’s season finale, going 3-for-11 for 28 yards.

Bills Rolling With MVP Josh Allen

The Bills likely hope that neither White nor Trubisky sees much action in the coming season, relying instead on the durable Allen. The Bills quarterback has been an iron man, not missing a game since his rookie season despite playing through nagging injuries several times over the last five seasons.

Allen has cut back on the number of hits he has taken to preserve his body, but spoke out in favor of one of the most physical plays in his repertoire — the tush push. There was an NFL proposal to ban the popular short-yardage play, which the Bills often run with Allen under center, but Allen said he was glad they ended up keeping it.

“I’m a big believer in if you can’t stop it, keep running it, right?” Allen told Sports Illustrated.

“I think that there’s a few teams that do it better than others, but then you look at a few teams that try to do it, and it doesn’t have the same success. Because, one, they maybe don’t practice it enough or, two, they don’t have the guys to do it. And just because a couple teams do it better than others, I don’t feel like it should be banned.”

Nathan Dougherty is a sports reporter covering the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins. Previously he wrote for the Rochester Business Journal and served as the assistant editor of athletic trade magazines Coaching Management, Athletic Management and Training & Conditioning. He is based out of Rochester, New York, and loves everything football. More about Nathan Dougherty