Once again this week, we have some good and some bad from Pro Football Focus. Recently PFF tabbed the Bills’ defensive line as the best in the AFC East, but overall, that ranking tabbed Buffalo’s D-line as the 20th best in the NFL.
Moving onto that same task in regard to linebackers, PFF did a similar thing. The Bills have the division’s best, but having said that, they’re only sitting slightly better than the defensive line.
According to PFF, the Bills’ linebackers are the 14th best grouping in the NFL. But the analytics outlet explains what the unit must do to move up in their ranking, at least. Here’s the breakdown:
The Bills have revamped their linebacking corps over the past three years, with Tremaine Edmunds and Matt Milano slated for much of the work once again in 2020. Edmunds is an outstanding athlete who continues to improve, ranking 14th in run stop percentage last year. While he made a plethora of tackles, Edmunds also missed 17 of his attempts during the regular season, sixth-most in the league, and posted a 52.2 coverage grade.
Milano was outstanding in coverage last season, as his 83.3 grade ranked fourth among linebackers and he allowed just 6.6 yards per reception, fifth-best in the league. He had tackling issues, as well, finishing with 16 misses during the regular season while posting just a 39.5 run-defense grade, sixth-worst in the league. A.J. Klein comes over from the Saints to add depth, though he’s graded in the 40.0s in three of his past four NFL seasons.
The Bills have a solid linebacker unit capable of matching up with running backs and flying around the field. The group just needs to cut back on its missed tackles to take the next step in 2020.
For the Bills linebackers, really the big dominoes are Edmunds and Milano. As a heavy nickel defense under head coach Sean McDermott, meaning only two linebackers on the field, we’ll only see a bit of Klein. But it won’t just be Klein, either. Some expect that third linebacker role could be a rotation with Vosean Joseph as well, who’s yet to take a snap in the NFL. He lost his entire rookie season due to injury. In Klein and Joseph, the Bills will hope their talents are enough to replace Lorenzo Alexander’s loss. Easier said than done.
And of course, there’s those missed tackles. During their young careers, Edmunds and Milano have both had issues with over-pursing ball-carries. But they’ve slowly shown an improvement there, so there’s no reason to think these two can’t improve in this area as well, and also earn themselves long-term contracts to solidify the middle of the Bills defense for years to come.
So now let’s wrap up with the good news: The Bills linebackers, even with their flaws, still are better than the rest of the AFC East. The Patriots side in at No. 16, while the Jets are at No. 22. The Dolphins fall in at the fourth-worst in the league.
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