The Buffalo Bills are in a period of transition on defense. Gone is former head coach Sean McDermott and his nickel-base, even-front system, replaced by new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard and an odd-front scheme.
How will Buffalo’s holdovers along the defensive line respond to the change in systems? How will those holdovers fit into new roles and new positions? Will any of it even matter once the games start in September?
In today’s installment of “91 players in 91 days,” we discuss a defensive
lineman entering the third year of his career. _____________________________________________________________________________
Name: DeWayne Carter
Number: 90
Position: DT
Height/Weight: 6’2″, 302 pounds
Age: 25 (26 on 12/10/2026)
Experience/Draft: 3; selected by Buffalo in the third round (No. 95 overall) of the 2024 NFL Draft
College: Duke
Acquired: Third-round draft choice
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Carter enters the third year of his four-year rookie contract, a pact worth $5,618,048 in total. For the 2026 season, he’s due to count $1,532,195 against the salary cap if he makes the 53-man roster. If he’s released, Buffalo will carry a dead-cap hit of $441,622 for the season.
2025 Recap: Carter spent the offseason ramping up towards some more usage for his second season. He appeared in all three of Buffalo’s preseason games, rotating in at defensive tackle and totaling four tackles. He made the 53-man roster out of camp and was projected to be one of the main rotational pieces in the middle; however, he suffered an injury during practice on August 31. That injury turned out to be a torn Achilles tendon, and it led him to miss the entire 2025 season.
Positional outlook: Carter is one of eight defensive tackles on the current roster. Ed Oliver, T.J. Sanders, Phidarian Mathis, Deone Walker, Zion Logue, Tommy Akingbesote, and Zane Durant are the others. Additionally, Landon Jackson has added mass in a transition to a role as a 3-4 defensive lineman, and Travis Clayton has been observed working with the defensive line instead of the offensive line group.
2026 Offseason: Carter is healthy, and he not only participated in offseason work during minicamp, but he also reportedly has added nearly 30 pounds to his frame. He’s planning to play the year around 330 pounds.
2026 Season outlook: How do you negate the potential loss in explosiveness from an Achille injury? Well, one way, I suppose, is to add weight and change your play style entirely. Carter was more penetrator than he was anchor in former head coach Sean McDermott’s defense, but after the Achilles injury, new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard seems poised to use Carter as a one-tech or a nose tackle. That means that his role will shift to that of space-occupier more so than play-disruptor, and it also means that it will require a little more nuance in evaluating his play this summer.
It’s easy to tell when a defensive lineman whose job is to attack has success. Those players earn their money through creating chaos in the backfield in the form of sacks and tackles for loss. A nose tackle, though, will often make plays that lead to other people earning that glory. If Carter is going to be successful this season, he’ll need to show a big-time anchor in the run game, and he has to keep Buffalo’s middle linebackers clean to make splash plays of their own.
Will Carter make the 53-man roster to show what he can do? I think he will, but it very well may depend on how many players from this DT group the Bills choose to keep. Oliver, Walker, and Sanders are basically locks, and it’s quite possible that they are the starting trio along the line, as well. How many linemen will the Bills keep in total? I think the “next three” is probably Durant, Mathis, and Carter, and not necessarily in that order. Will Buffalo keep six down linemen, especially with players listed at OLB like Greg Rousseau, Bradley Chubb, Javon Solomon, and TJ Parker who can put a hand in the dirt and rush the passer like a defensive end in certain packages?
We won’t know for sure until August, so Carter’s future will remain up in the air until then. I think he’s likely battling with Mathis for the right to be the second player rotating in at the nose behind Walker, who has already been tabbed the starter at nose tackle by general manager Brandon Beane. I think it’s likely that Carter makes the 53 this year, but I wouldn’t call it a guarantee.
