The Buffalo Bills handled their business against the New York Jets in their first contest of the 2020 regular season. While a win is a win, the Bills certainly made things interesting in a few ways… and unfortunately we’ve got some important bumps and bruises to keep an eye on.
With that, here are five takeaways from the Bills’ win over the Jets:
Linebacker injuries
The Bills potentially have two huge losses in this victory. Both starting linebackers, Tremaine Edmunds and Matt Milano, left the game due to injury. They suffered shoulder and hamstring injuries, respectively. This could potentially be back-breaking.
In Sean McDermott’s defensive scheme, it calls for heavy nickel formation. That means two linebackers most of the game. When healthy, both Edmunds and Milano will traditionally play every single defensive snap. Without them the drop off is huge in terms of the depth chart on Buffalo’s roster. Linebacker is the position group with the worst depth on the team’s entire roster.
When Milano went down, veteran AJ Klein slid into his spot. Without Edmunds, essential rookie undrafted player Tyrel Dodson filled in. Of those two, you’d expect Klein to play better, but even before Edmunds went out of the lineup, Klein was leaving something to be desired. Dodson had his first-career sack, which was nice to see, but it came via a pretty bone-headed play from Sam Darnold when he ran out of bounds. If you notice, the Jets certainly got some momentum around the time these two defenders left the lineup.
Moving forward into Week 2 against the Dolphins, monitoring the health of these two is very important. Miami will attack this area if both guys are out.