Sean McDermott has preached team goals over individual goals since he arrived in Buffalo. He's no different than most head coaches, but his no-nonsense demeanor builds an old school reputation that would seem less tolerant of such self-aggrandizing foolishness. Yet, McDermott was rolling out his players for a shot at individual glory like a conveyor belt on Sunday. It's not a crazy plan, just a little off brand for the man who usually spells culture with a capital "C". The far majority of NFL teams have their seasons decided before the games even kick off for week 18. Winning and losing is less a priority. Some organizations would even prefer their regular season finale to be a loser. What every team has for the final game of the year is a chunk of individual goals still hanging in the balance. Contract incentives. Milestones. Achievements that matter to players, whether financially or otherwise. The Bills were no different on Sunday and more than a few guys reached the postgame bus happy. Von Miller got his $1.5 million dollar sixth sack of the season. Mack Hollins grabbed a couple of receptions that earned him a 50-grand bonus. Sam Martin added $100,000 to his season by having a 25th punt downed inside the 20 yard line. James Cook reached 1000 yards for the year and tied O.J. Simpson's team record with his 16th touchdown run. Some of those successes took a bit of engineering around typical team based game management. At 35 years old, Miller should be no where near a snap that doesn't move the Bills closer to a Super Bowl. McDermott was thankful his sack came on the game's third play. Martin got his money punt in a spot where a field goal was mathematically reasonable (McDermott did say post game the team felt a 53-yard kick in that direction was too far). Cook had sat over a quarter before being inserted for his record tying touchdown plunge. Preserving those opportunities matter to the players and not just the ones who cash the checks. It makes a difference when management shows that their support goes beyond the tunnel vision of a Super Bowl. Winning is the first thing, but it doesn't have to be the only thing. When every player believes their time will not only come, but it will be encouraged, protected or even manufactured, those players are buying into team development a helluva lot more while they wait. More than a few players mentioned how getting the whole team behind a few individual goals only knits the squad closer together. The Bills root for each other every week when a win is on the line. It wasn't any different this Sunday when the wins where catches, sacks and punts downed inside the 20. "Everyone being excited for each and rooting for each other from top to bottom, that shows the type of locker room we have," Martin said. As you might imagine, that connection works both directions. Martin laid out flowers for his gunners and coverage team that locked up all those punts inside the 20. Cook, of course, credited his offensive line for their work paving him open some space. All this togetherness might come off a touch syrupy sweet, but these are things that can be a difference in the razor thin world of NFL margins. If the team can't focus on getting a Change The Season win, they might as well get excited about a Change The Bank Account reception. Most of the non-incentive nearing starters sat for this game, but a few players who will be of playoff note were busy. That goes especially in the Bills secondary. Starting safeties Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin haven't been on the field together in nearly a month. McDermott said, with Hamlin specifically (and Curtis Samuel), he provided a full day's work to get him going for the playoffs. Build some confidence. Hamlin has been the weakest link in the secondary, but not to the point where McDermott had to say goodbye. While he's been gone, Cole Bishop seemed pretty reasonably competent at the position. That's a decent step for a rookie who has been chasing from behind all season after a significant training camp injury. I don't think Sunday was some sort of safety tryout and I don't think the Bills roll out a little-used rookie for the center of their postseason pass defense. I do think Hamlin did play a curiously long time in a meaningless game and didn't produce a whole lot with all those snaps. Keon Coleman also played a ton, as expected, with the Bills having a handful of veteran pass catchers that demanded protection from injury risk. The rookie got a season high ten targets and turned them into all of two receptions. I thought this was a spot where Coleman might have to prove he can be trusted for high leverage snaps in the postseason. There's no doubt the quality of backup QB targets mitigated his ability to prove worth, but two of ten is a blah day no matter how it gets dissected. I still think Coleman should and probably will watch most high leverage playoff snaps from the bench. Not a whole lot of legit conclusions that can be drawn from a game better labeled "preseason week 4" than "regular season week 18". This was a game that was about building up the individual instead of the team, but give McDermott credit for creating a locker room where that kind of individual attention is still team building. No better person to explain why than one of the players who created a big payday for someone else: Ja'Marcus Ingram. His diving save of Martin's third quarter punt allowed that kick to be downed inside the 20 and for Martin to cash his incentive. Martin did say he would be taking Ingram out to dinner as a thank you. "It's already ingrained in us," Ingram said. "Things like that, they just happen because of the brotherhood we got in here and the things that we do outside the locker room. Sometimes, it feels like we're just in synch." That's a good place to be heading to the postseason.