Buffalo Bills: Defensive Issues on the Horizon?
After a disappointing showing on the defensive side of the ball in 2015, the Buffalo Bills thought they had come up with some solutions. Maybe not.
We all know the particulars by now. In becoming the new head coach of the Buffalo Bills a year ago, Rex Ryan was hoping to bring his kind of successful defense to a club loaded on that side of the football.
It just never happened.
A team that allowed the fourth-fewest total yards in the league stumbled to 19th this past season. A pass rush that totaled 57 sacks in 2013 and an NFL-high 54 quarterback traps in ’14 managed only 21 sacks last year – just 3.5 more than Houston’s J.J. Watt (17.5). After giving up 289 points a year earlier, the Bills gave up 359 points in 2015.
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The offseason saw the release of defensive end Mario Williams and cornerback Leodis McKelvin, who would go onto sign with the Miami Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles, respectively. Linebacker ILB Nigel Bradham and cornerback Ron Brooks left via free agency and are now with one-time Bills’ defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz in the City of Brotherly Love.
No matter. General manager Doug Whaley used his first three picks in April on defensive end Shaq Lawson (1-Clemson), inside linebacker Reggie Ragland (2-Alabama) and defensive tackle Adolphus Washington (3-Ohio State). That’s a nice haul for a team looking for help.
Unless you consider that Lawson is currently recovering from shoulder surgery and his status for 2016 is up in the air. Via ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Ragland suffered a partially torn ACL this past Friday at practice.
“I guess I was just so hopeful there’s not going to be ligament things,” said Ryan to Mike Rodak of ESPN. “My understanding is that as you get going, your leg is so tight, they’ll fight it. You don’t really get a true look of that. So as we mentioned, we got to wait for that swelling to go down.
“I know every Bills fan out there is hoping for the best, and that’s certainly what we’re doing, but there is concern.”
Concern enough that the team has gone out and added a pair of veteran free agents the last few days in one-time Bills’ inside linebacker Brandon Spikes as well as David Hawthorne, late of the New Orleans Saints. Joe Buscaglia of WKBW in Buffalo has the latest on what Spikes could bring to the team this fall.
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Hence it’s a shaky start to the summer for the Bills’ defense, who also added Rob Ryan (Rex’s brother) to the coaching staff this offseason. There’s still plenty of talent here with front-seven standouts Marcell Dareus, Kyle Williams and Jerry Hughes, as well as defensive backs Stephon Gilmore and Ronald Darby. But it appears bouncing back from last year’s disappointing showing isn’t going to be very easy.