Reinforcements Need to Be Brought In From Outside
It’s clear from the last two weeks that the Bills simply do not have the personnel necessary to be successful on defense. It’s also clear from what the Bills tried on defense on Monday that the Bills don’t have the solutions in house. The changes the Bills made to their defensive roster did not work as the Chiefs simply ran over and through the Bills’ new personnel.
In order to save the defense in 2020, a defense that may never be fully healthy, the Bills are going to have to make a move or two to bring in new additions from outside the organization.
The first six games of the season have revealed some real weaknesses at every level of the defense. The pass rush is still not good enough. Mario Addison did have a sack on Monday and Jerry Hughes again applied good pressure, but Mahomes was mostly given too much time to throw and break contain in this game. The Bills are getting no push from their defensive line. That line is also getting mauled in the run game.
Meanwhile, the linebacking unit has been decimated by the injuries to Edmunds and Milano. Edmunds has not been the same player this season since getting hurt in Week 1. The defense is also completely different without a healthy Milano in the lineup. Klein and Dodson have simply not been able to save them.
In the secondary, Levi Wallace’s injury has created a major hole at cornerback. The Bills’ depth has been challenged at corner, and neither Josh Norman nor Taron Johnson have been good enough as regulars in the lineup.
A sneaky big story of the Bills’ past offseason has to be the number of losses the team suffered on defense. They are really missing Shaq Lawson and Jordan Phillips, who both left in free agency. Both players were key to ensuring stoutness at the line of scrimmage, especially in the run game. The results speak for themselves with those two players gone. The two linemen the Bills signed, Quinton Jefferson and Vernon Butler, have not filled the void. Meanwhile, second round pick A.J. Epenesa has not been trusted yet by this coaching staff at defensive end.
The Bills also miss Star Lotulelei, who decided to opt out of the season due to COVID-19. He has not been a spectacular player by any means for the Bills, but he was integral to shoring up the run defense and keeping opposing linemen off of Edmunds and Milano.
Another player who opted out who the Bills miss is cornerback E.J. Gaines. He was signed to replace Kevin Johnson, who left in free agency. The Bills badly need another body at corner. Right now, they are relying on undrafted free agent Cam Lewis, who is also banged up. It’s interesting that the Bills waited to draft a cornerback until the seventh round back in April. That appeared to be a bigger need that the Bills left unfilled when they had a chance.
The NFL trade deadline is coming up on Nov. 3. It’s clear that Brandon Beane needs to make a move to bring in some help on the defense side of the ball. The answers are not in the building at One Bills Drive. We also know that Beane is not shy about making bold moves at the trade deadline. He traded for Kelvin Benjamin in 2017 and tried to trade for Stefon Diggs originally last fall. If he wants to save this season, he may need to go the trade route again in early November.
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