The Buffalo Bills choose not to provide Brandon Spikes with a new contract as he was set to hit the free agent market. Brandon Spikes believes that he is still a full time starter as a line backer. It looks as those others don’t and the Buffalo Bills are one of them.
The Buffalo Bills and specifically GM Doug Whaley, have stated that Brandon Spikes would most likely be welcomed back if he was willing to take a pay cut as well as a reduced role as a 1 to 2 down backer.
Last years stats don’t lie either, it shows that Spikes was only on the field for a total of 519 snaps, pretty much half of the defensive snaps that the Buffalo Bills had. Preston Brown was on the field for 1057 snaps, which for that matter was the most by any Bills defensive player by more than 100 snaps.
Brandon Spikes was not on the field as a full time starter, he was that 2 snap backer that he does not want to be considered. Of the 519 snaps that he was on the field, he was part of 249 run attempts, 31 pass attempts where he blitzed and 239 snaps where he went into coverage.
Currently, the Buffalo Bills only have 5 linebackers on their roster, Preston Brown, Nigel Bradham, Ty Powell, Jimmy Gaines and Randall Johnson. We know that Jerry Hughes will most likely be moving back into one of the outside linebacker spots.
Given the fact that there are usually only 2 linebackers on the field for the most part, as offenses like to run spread offenses and have more than 2 wide receivers out on the field, the need for a deep linebacking corps is not a major priority, but there should be some depth there.
Brandon Spikes would make a decent re-addition to this young linebacking corps and would provide the run stopping ability on a 1-2 down per series usage. With Jerry Hughes playing one outside and Nigel Bradham as your other outside linebacker, Preston Brown and Brandon Spikes could and should round out your interior linebackers with Gaines, Johnson and Powell as your back-ups.
How often will the Buffalo Bills be in the 3-4 defense, with 4 linebackers? Probably not a lot but, still having a run stopper line Brandon Spikes in the mix could mean the difference between 4th overall and 1st overall as far as defensive rankings are concerned.
Spikes needs to accept that he is not going to get that full time starter contract that he is looking for and should just take what the Buffalo Bills will give him and come back.
Next: Buffalo Bills Draft Prospects: Jake Fisher
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