Bills Shutout Patriots Three Takeaways

Give Doug Whaley some credit for these offseason signings

Doug Whaley deserves some serious credit. Say what you will about the injury issues with his draft picks but he hit a grand slam home run in free agency with almost no money to spend outside of signing his own players.

Whaley was able to sign Leger Douzable, Zach Brown and Lorenzo Alexander. All of these players have been impact players on defense and played beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations.

Out of all the players, Zach Brown makes the most at $1.25 million dollars on a one-year contract. Leger Douzable and Lorenzo Alexander are both on one-year $885,000 deals.

Brown was intentionally signed for more money than most of the other Bills free agents this offseason because he was slotted to start at first. Buffalo was not expecting Reggie Ragland to be hanging around in the second round for them and their plan was for Brown to be their starter all along.

When it was announced that Ragland would miss the season, Brown became the starter and is now leading the NFL in tackles with 52, followed by Luke Kuechly with 46. Brown is one of the fastest linebackers in the league which is surprising with his 248-pound frame. NFL.com had this to say about him when he was a prospect in the draft “Brown might be one of the fastest straight-line linebackers to ever enter the NFL draft.”

He proved that when he chased down the 5’10”, 200 pound Julian Edelman on the first play of the game and tackled him at the one-yard line after a play that went for over 90 yards but was called back due to holding on Chris Hogan.

Preston Brown has played much better than last year and Bills fans should be very excited about the prospects of the “Brown Brothers” going forward.

When Lorenzo Alexander was signed in the offseason most thought it was going to be for special teams duties. Due to a rash of injuries to Shaq Lawson, Manny Lawson, and IK Enemkpali it opened up an opportunity for Alexander to step into a starting role and he has been very impressive.

He has been involved in a sack in each game this season with half a sack week one, a sack week two, one and half week three and one in week four. His four total sacks is tied with Kyle Williams for tops on the team.

Leger Douzable was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Vikings in 2008. Since then he has spent time for Giants, Rams, Lions, Jaguars, Jets and now the Bills. He’s been a journeyman but it seems like has finally found a role with the Bills.

He has played 126 snaps over four games which is 47 percent of the Bills total 265 defensive plays according to SportingCharts.com. He’s been a solid contributor and while Rex may have had a say in his signing since he was former Jets player, general manager Doug Whaley deserves some serious credit for the players the Bills signed on the cheap in the offseason who are making huge contributions to the team.

Let’s get to the last takeaway on the next slide.