Despite clearly not playing particularly well through two weeks, there is one vital area in which the Buffalo Bills defense has improved from years past.
Converting pressures to sacks.
Through the vast majority of the Sean McDermott era, the Bills pass-rush unit was rarely one of the league’s better units actually sacking the quarterback.
We never really hear or read about this metric for a defense — it’s strictly reserved for quarterbacks — and I’m not sure why.
Don’t get me wrong. Disruption is production
for a pass rush. But, of course, sacks are most valuable.
Let’s check the Bills’ pressure-to-sack rate through two games in 2026 and compare to the last few seasons.
Last season, the pressure-to-sack rate of Buffalo’s defense was 19.0% via Next Gen Stats. The season before it was only 12.8%. The best figure Buffalo’s defense managed since 2020 in this metric was 23.2% in 2023, when as a team, the Bills had 54 sacks during the regular season. It was the only time they reached or eclipsed the 20% mark in McDermott’s tenure.
Two weeks into the 2026 campaign, the Bills defense has managed a pressure-to-sack rate of 29.1%. Yes, I know. Sample size. But it ranks third in the NFL behind the Texans (30.4%) and Steelers (36.8%). The Bills are currently one of five teams with a pressure-to-sack rate as a defense over 25%.
In short, they’re not just pressuring quarterbacks, they’re getting quarterbacks on the ground.
Leonhard’s defense has been far from stellar, allowing 31 points in each contest. And the unit’s pressure rate is only 27.1% per NGS, which is distinctly in the bottom fourth of the NFL.
But if it’s felt like the Bills pass rush has been better than previous seasons through these first two weeks, it’s because they’re converting those pressures to sacks at a noticeably higher rate than the past two seasons.
This is a not often used metric I’ll be tracking with the Bills throughout this season, particularly after the pass rush’s torrid start.
