After the 2024 season, Josh Allen had 4 wishes. Massive extension! 6-year, $330 million with $250 million guaranteed, the largest ever guaranteed amount for any NFL player. MVP! He achieved that. Marriage to his Hollywood girlfriend, Hailee Steinfeld! Both exchanged vows in May. Now, the last wish remains, the Super Bowl. But for the coaches and front office, they need only 1, not 4. A backup! They have three QBs on the roster, just in case Mr. January goes out wailing in pain. But after the first preseason game, it has become a 2-way competition between Mitch Trubisky and Mike White.
On paper, the August 9 action against the Giants was close. Trubisky went 9-for-13 for 138 yards, one touchdown, no picks. White? 8-for-13, 112 yards, two touchdowns. The numbers say call it a draw. But anyone who watched it will say it’s more complicated. Trubisky knows the first drive didn’t help his case. “I thought it was solid. I wanted to be a little bit better on third down and obviously start faster,” Trubisky said.
But he went on to admit his mistake. “I didn’t want to start with a three and out, but put a good drive together to go down and score. Just wanted to start a little faster and be better on third down.” He got the yards, he got the rhythm eventually, but in this kind of competition, the time he got feels like a luxury.
Mitch Trubisky and Mike White both threw 13 passes. Any thoughts on the backup QB competition? I think Trubisky has the edge, but it’s certainly not over. pic.twitter.com/2d22ANyDTH
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) August 9, 2025
Mike White, meanwhile, sounded less like a man chasing a stat line and more like someone staring at the unpredictability of the gig. “Yeah, anybody, any one of us is anxious to get out there, right? But that’s the nature of the beast, especially as a backup. You don’t really predict when you got to go in, so that’s something you kind of got to get used to.” Anxious isn’t the right word it’s more of a quarterback’s readiness tic.
The mental pacing by the sideline, helmet in hand, because when your boss is Josh Allen, you’re either watching him work or walking into chaos mid-sentence.
When you stack them side by side, the experience gap is impossible to ignore. Mitch Trubisky has lived an NFL starter’s life. 78 games, 57 starts, a 31–26 record, nearly 13,000 passing yards, 74 touchdowns, and a playoff resume that at least exists. He’s recorded 129 sacks, run for over 1,100 yards, and been in enough two-minute drills to know when the clock’s lying to you.
Mike White? Fifteen career games, seven starts, a 2–5 record, and just over 2,200 passing yards. His flashes, like the occasional 300-yard Jets outing, are real. But they’re not the moments that count. White’s thrown nine career touchdowns, been sacked 13 times, and has yet to experience the full grind of being QB1 for months on end.
While the talk is focused on them, there is another QB who also wants to prove his worth silently.
3rd QB racing alongside Mitch Trubisky and Mike White
Shane Buechele’s name doesn’t pop in the QB room the way Mitch Trubisky’s does. But if you watched the Bills’ preseason opener against the Giants, you noticed him. How could you not? Ten completions on twelve attempts. Ninety-one yards. Clean, efficient, no touchdowns but also no mistakes.
The kind of outing that makes a coaching staff put out a good word. It’s not like he’s a stranger to quarterback competitions. At Texas, he was the hotshot freshman who broke records, only to see Sam Ehlinger take over. At SMU, he turned a transfer into a revival tour, throwing for almost 4,000 yards in 2019. The arm? Accurate. The poise? Always there. But the NFL is a different animal.
He went undrafted in 2021, fought his way onto the Chiefs’ roster, wore a Super Bowl ring in 2022, then got waived. Buffalo scooped him up, and last year, a neck injury robbed him of the season. Now he’s here, healthy, with maybe one last real shot. He knows he’s not a big name. But every rep in August is a job interview.
The Bills’ QB2 race is crowded, with Mitch Trubisky and Mike White flashing their own case. But Buechele’s lane is different. He’s not trying to wow with a cannon arm or bulldoze a linebacker. He’s trying to be that steady, dependable hand who doesn’t lose games if Allen’s sidelined.
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