T.J. Sanders made a darn-good first impression in his sophomore season debut for the Buffalo Bills in their win over the Rams on Monday Night Football in Week 5.
He played 51 snaps in Los Angeles, easily the most of his NFL career to date, and made impactful plays against the run and pass throughout the contest.
The man I labeled as “the ultimate X-factor” on Buffalo’s defense before the season was credited with five tackles, two stops, and one pressure against the Rams.
Let’s dive into what the film
showed about his performance.
Sanders go-to move is a violent swipe. That was the case at South Carolina, and he’s brought it with him to the NFL. He often adds a little crossover wiggle to really sell it, and his hands are powerful.
As a rookie, because his pad level would rise when attempting that move, he’d get driven out of the running lane too easily.
Watch here how he’s was able to reestablish his ground to counter off his swipe to find Kyren Williams and stop him for a short gain. Sanders was aligned between the left guard and left tackle at the snap:
As he was starting to get driven back by the left guard, he planted his foot, then worked back to the outside gap to close the intended path for Williams in a flash. Textbook.
Sanders’ strength improvement was noticeable in this contest. Watch here how, when aligned again between the left guard and left tackle, he absorbed the down block from the tight end, anchored, then applied his natural slipperiness to get back to the ball carrier to help out with the tackle:
Not a glorious rep, but defensive tackles are often washed down the line of scrimmage by smaller tight ends because they don’t feel the initial contact and struggle to slow their momentum as they’re attempting to beat the block. Not there for Sanders.
Even when he was driven back off the line of scrimmage, he demonstrated the importance of hand work and explosiveness at defensive tackle.
Aligned at 3T on the outside shoulder of the right guard, watch how Kevin Dotson — with the help of a quick double — does reset the line of scrimmage. That was before Sanders tossed the large, veteran guard aside to free himself to make another impact stop against the run:
Dotson is listed at 6’4” and 328 pounds. Sanders worked through him with relative ease there and exploded to the football.
And if you want classic teaching tape on how to “two-gap” up front, something Sanders almost never did at South Carolina, watch this tackle on Williams. Notice how Sanders’ peaked into the gap off his left shoulder as he stacked the blocker, didn’t see the runner, then shed the block to the other gap, off his right shoulder, while making the tackle:
Two gaps occupied. Two gaps surveilled. Two gaps locked down.
While I can’t totally blame the Rams because it was his season debut and Deone Walker and Greg Rousseau are total physical freaks playing excellent football, Sean McVay’s group had no qualms about attempting to block Sanders with a tight end in this game.
Rarely did that endeavor go well for Los Angeles:
Watch Sanders here, aligned just to the left of Walker at the snap:
Absorb the block. Extend the arms, then work off the block to the football.
That rep is the ideal time to remind you not only of Sanders’ natural athletic gifts — 75th percentile vertical and 84th percentile broad jump — but his length. He doesn’t have tentacles for arms, yet Sanders 80 7/8-inch wingspan placed in the 64th percentile among interior defensive linemen at the combine since 1999. He regularly uses that length well.
And I’ve saved the best for last. For as run and low-key critical run-stopping play is for defensive tackles, in today’s NFL, the largest value comes from pass-rush ability.
Sanders’ sack of Matthew Stafford on the Rams’ two-point conversion attempt was as high-caliber of a rep as it gets at defensive tackle.
Watch him deploy that nasty swipe on the right guard here, and take note of his explosiveness through the line, ability to bend as Stafford attempted to escape, and finishing ability to take the quarterback to the turf:
So let’s call it two pressures on 37 pass-rush snaps for Sanders in this game.
The Bills should be thrilled with the performance the 2025 second-round pick provided in his first action of the 2026 season. And he appeared well conditioned on his 50-plus snaps. His added strength was noticeable. And the explosiveness and hand-work combo jumped off the screen.
Good news for a Buffalo defense that right now is heavily leaning on its front to cause disruption.
