Bills HBO 'Hard Knocks' 2025 Best Fan Tweets, Memes from Episode 3

The Buffalo Bills are undoubtedly Super Bowl contenders.

But it's largely been a preseason to forget to this point.

That much was clear during the start and end of Tuesday's episode of HBO's Hard Knocks, which is chronicling training camp for the five-time reigning AFC East champions. The meetings and practices took on an extra sense of urgency at the start of the episode following the loss to the New York Giants in the preseason opener, but the end result was yet another loss to the Chicago Bears.

It wasn't all bad news in the middle of the episode, though, as HBO captured when the Bills signed running back James Cook to a four-year, $48 million contract extension with $30 million in guarantees.

General manager Brandon Beane celebrated and joked with Cook that he was allowed to smile about it. The running back finally did and added, "Now that the contract is finally done, I can kick my feet up and play football."

That might have been the highlight for Cook, but it was far from the highlight of the episode.

Ed Oliver's lifelong love of horses stood out as a light-hearted moment, and he went riding with running back Ty Johnson. Oliver also explained he is not scared of offensive linemen because none of them are as big as the horses he interacts with off the field.

Other standout moments included head coach Sean McDermott highlighting the hustle of former Army player and new signee Jimmy Ciarlo and offensive lineman Connor McGovern making his own pizza and cookies while hosting the team.

Tre'Davious White's sweat even made an appearance:

It all built toward joint practice and Sunday's preseason game with the Bears.

While Buffalo didn't play Josh Allen or many of the starters, a 38-0 loss surely wasn't what McDermott was looking for in the second preseason contest. Caleb Williams and the Bears offense had no trouble moving the ball against Buffalo's defense, while the Bills offense was stuck in neutral.

The poor performance didn't clear much up in the backup quarterback race between Mitchell Trubisky and Mike White.

Things will obviously be much better in the regular season when Allen and Co. are back on the field, but the Bills still have plenty to work on going into their preseason finale against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday.