(WGR 550) - It was more than a surprise last season when Levi Wallace wound up in the starting lineup. His first start came Nov. 11 against the Jets. Overall in 2018, Wallace started seven games.

Wallace got more involved each week as he got more playing time and his tackles went up. This season, the Bills brought in competition for Wallace in Kevin Johnson and E.J. Gaines, and most recently Captain Munnerlyn. Gaines is on injured reserve and Wallace is still the starter, “I’ve always been a hard worker so I don’t really change anything about myself, I just go one day at a time and try to be the best player I can be.”

Despite the competition, all the cornerbacks support each other and help and cheer each other during practice.

Just because Wallace has held off the competition so far doesn’t mean he thinks he has it made. Wallace said there are things in his game that he is working on, “Just finishing on plays. I had some opportunities to make some interceptions last year and I dropped them, but I’m in good position most of the time and the coaches appreciate that about me.”

The question is how does Wallace get the increase in picks? He said, “I think its more focus. I need to bring more focus to finishing on the ball, but as long as I continue to do what I need to do, you’ll see better results this year.”

One of the reasons Wallace is a good positional player is his college experience. He wasn’t drafted into the NFL, but he did play under Nick Saban at Alabama.

Wallace doesn’t just listen to the coaches. He said his mentors on the team are Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer. Even though Munnerlyn has only had three practice, Wallace said he’s already learning from him, “Adding Captain had definitely helped us a lot with his experience and I’ve already told him I took a play out of his rule book, just his technique is really good, so having guys like him to learn from is really good.

The Bills are done with the combined practices with the Panthers and will meet Carolina for a preseason game on Friday.