Back in September, after a three-game start revealed a couple of flaws (despite some highlights), I penned an article that broke down the Buffalo Bills’ defense compared to prior years that had sustained success. My conclusion was that the 2025 unit was overall lacking in talent compared to the better years of the Sean McDermott era.
The premise wasn’t to absolve coaching or to finger-point the general manager (more on that below). Now that the season is over and free agents are starting to find new
homes, it turns out I might have been even more correct than I thought last September.
Nobody like us, everybody hates us…
It’s a near certainty that teams will lose some players each year. There are multiple reasons for this, but a key indicator of how good a team’s roster was is what happens to those players after they’re gone.
This is especially true for free agents. Did they sign for a lot? Then the team didn’t think they could afford what someone else felt was a good player. Did they sign for a reasonable amount? Maybe they weren’t in the team’s future plans, but still were a good player. Did they sign for a little? It’s the offseason and we can roster 90 players, may as well kick the tired. What if no one signs them? I think we all know what that might mean — especially the longer they sit without a contract.
Let’s look at some Bills who might be factors in this conversation. For the purpose of easier calculations/visualization, I’m going to give playing-time stats below. Rather than snap counts, I’ll give a percentage. With 11 positions on the field, and each position representing 100% of snaps, that means there’s a total of 1,100% to tally.
Starters/major contributors
- CB Tre’Davious White: Last season, White signed a one-year deal with Buffalo for three million and likely that small price tag isn’t going up. White played 71% of snaps at one of the two starting corner positions. White is seen as a very intelligent player and potential mentor but he hasn’t landed anywhere yet.
- DE A.J. Epenesa: He played just under 45% of defensive snaps for the Bills. It looked like he was going to land with the Cleveland Browns. Reportedly a contract set at five million, Epenesa looked to be getting a pay cut from a team that might be expected to overpay. After something was flagged in his physical, the Browns have backed out.
- DE Joey Bosa: Bosa hit 57% of snaps. Some caution with Bosa should be warranted with an extensive injury history that included more with the Bills this past year. There were rumors surrounding Bosa joining the San Francisco 49ers, but reportedly he will be “too expensive” for them. The chatter I’ve seen seems to suggest this is code for “the injury history is too much.”
- DT DaQuan Jones: He was on Buffalo’s defensive line 43% of the time. The $8 million average he had with Buffalo isn’t too crazy and Jones was disruptive in spurts.
- LB Matt Milano: The celebrated linebacker had renegotiated with the team and gave them a sweetheart deal for 2025. It’s reasonable to think his next contract won’t break the bank. Another player with injury concerns, Milano’s 50% snap share was disappointing as was the fact he lost a step. That said, he still had some gas left in the tank if you asked yours truly.
- LB Shaq Thompson: As a result of injuries, Thompson was in at linebacker 42% of the time for Buffalo. Thompson was a steal for that much playing time and could perhaps be signed for a song again.
- S Jordan Poyer: The fan favorite was signed for just over veteran minimum for 2025 and played 44% of snaps, doing a pretty good job of it for the record. Rumors of Poyer retiring were swirling prior to 2025, so this might be the least-shocking player still on the market.
Role players
- DT Larry Ogunjobi (22% snap share)
- DT Jordan Phillips: (21% snap share)
Remember that with my easy visualization method, a full defensive team would have 1,100% to account for. The players I list above account for 395% of those, or over a third of the Bills’ defensive total from last year. First off, that’s a lot of changeover for a team, which is somewhat expected with a change in defensive scheme pending. Nine players who all had significant contributions with Buffalo are still without a home.
Making it worse, there hasn’t even been all that much buzz around the league. I did a search for these players as part of writing this and several of them initially returned “news” from months ago. The only player who’s had interest was Taron Johnson, which One Bills Drive received very minimal return for in a trade involving him. Even that came with some hoopla as he was originally set to be released rather than traded.
Simply put, the Bills have let a lot of players walk this offseason in anticipation of a new-look defense — and no one is snatching them up. Buffalo’s 2025 defense did indeed seem to have a talent problem.
I promised something above and here it is. Neither my original article or this one is intended to point a definitive finger at why this problem exists. While theoretically this looks like a Brandon Beane thing, we don’t know to what extent Sean McDermott influenced roster moves. We’ll begin to get a much better answer to that question this season.
