The Buffalo Bills left the 2023 NFL draft with Dorian Williams as the player selected to replace Tremaine Edmunds’ spot in the linebacker room.
But it’s not as cut and dry as that. Williams might take Edmunds’ chair during meetings, but not his spot on the field.
The third-round rookie is more likely to begin his career in the NFL learning the position Matt Milano plays. That will be the case according to general manager Brandon Beane, who said Williams could line up “outside” early in his Bills tenure,
… So now what?
Status quo from before the draft is back on in Buffalo. The Bills will hold an open competition between the players already in-house.
“There are going to be mistakes. They aren’t going to be Tremaine. He had five years at that spot. He made his mistakes early on too,” Beane said via video conference. “We believe in these guys, and we are going to give them a chance.”
“You have guys on your roster who are backups — until they aren’t,”Beane added.
Of the options the Bills have, there’s up to four that are viable candidates.
At the top are Terrel Bernard and Tyrel Dodson. Bernard was a third-round selection by Buffalo in 2022. Dodson, who has more experience, re-signed via a one-year deal with the Bills this offseason after Edmunds’ departure.
Players with more of an outside chance at the job are Baylon Spector and AJ Klein.
Spector was also drafted last year by the Bills, but in the seventh round. Klein returned to Buffalo once again, re-signing again this offseason like Dodson. He has the most experience of the bunch having appeared in 144 games with 82 starts in his career, but the Bills haven’t always been keen to keep him around.
Once spring workouts and training camp begins to unfold, we’ll start to see a clearer and clearer picture as to who will take that first snap in place of Edmunds in 2023. As of now, it could be anyone’s guess.
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