The Buffalo Bills attacked the first wave of free agency harder than a lot of teams in the NFL. Not only did the Bills sign unrestricted free agents, but the club retained a few of their own players and traded for wide receiver Stefon Diggs as well.
Among the Bills’ actual free agent additions were defensive end Mario Addison, linebacker AJ Klein and defensive tackle Vernon Butler.
With all those moves in mind and as the second week of free agency gets underway, here’s an updated ranking of the Bills’ needs and the offseason rolls on:
1. Defensive end
We’ll start here: A big plus is the Bills really don’t have any glaring needs left on their roster at this point, but let’s start at edge defender.
As mentioned, Addison was added to the Bills’ rotation along their defensive line. Addison is a fantastic story, going from UDFA 10 years ago to a player who had 9.5 sacks last season and at least nine, in total, each of the last four seasons. But what makes this need still high for the Bills is his age.
It’s just a number and there’s reason for optimism that Addison will help Buffalo’s pass rush in 2020, but he’s 32. He joins a group of players who also aren’t exactly youthful either in Jerry Hughes (31) and Trent Murphy (29). Behind those very raw prospects in Mike Love (26), Jonathan Woodard (26) and Darryl Johnson (22).
While the NFL is still in the thick of free agency, the Bills likely won’t address this need until the NFL draft. If you find a “youthful” prospect in free agency, that player is usually 24 or 25. Such players, like Yannick Ngakoue or Jadeveon Clowney, are young, but also entering the prime of their careers and will cost the Bills a lot more than say, a second or third round rookie that can play a rotational role and learn behind Hughes and Addison.
Mario Addison sack, forced fumble. Panthers will win the home-opener pic.twitter.com/Pu5rx3BZrP
— Panthers 24/7 (@Panthers24_7) September 9, 2018