Jordan Phillips has been snubbed on some recognition for his game this season. Pro Bowl? Nope. All-Pro? Don’t even think about it.
While the national eye have overlooked Phillips’ contributions to the Bills this year, Western New York has not.
Heck, even when NFL.com does give Phillips a shout, it’s still kind of… wrong. The outlet named Phillips the Bills’ “unsung hero” for the 2019 season.
We’ll allow the shoutout for Phillips since they’ve come few and far between. However, he’s certainly not “unsung” in Buffalo. Many observers of the team consider Phillips their No. 1 must re-sign player among the team’s pending free agents.
Back to NFL.com, here’s why they tabbed him:
Somewhere in some bar in Buffalo right now, there is a patron trying to tell the person he’s with that Phillips might be a better player than Aaron Donald. And that would be wrong. But Phillips was easily one of the AFC’s top defensive tackles in 2019. The Bills were great against the run all season, but Phillips made life miserable for quarterbacks as he finished with 9.5 sacks. That is the second-highest total for a defensive tackle — behind only, wait for it, Donald.
With Donald in mind, that means Phillips led the AFC with sacks from a defensive tackle since Donald’s Rams are in the NFC. It’s just one of many reasons why folks questioned why Phillips was snubbed for so many nominations early this offseason.
Phillips will be the first one to point out that he played in a rotation on the defensive line, not starting snaps, too. It’s just the way Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott runs things in his defensive unit.
But with that in mind, it’s hard to gauge exactly what Phillips’ new contract could be. That might be who Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane was talking about on Tuesday when he said some free agents might test the market, then come back to the Bills after seeing what’s out there.
It’s kind of the curious case of Jordan Phillips, but to the initial point, he’s certainly more than an unsung hero.
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