Buffalo Bills: Breaking down the most vital position battles
By Ryan Brennan
The Buffalo Bills’ linebacker group has competition all over the place and the bodies to fill what’s needed.
The Buffalo Bills have 12 linebackers on their roster right now. Switching to a 4-3 defense, the team won’t need as many linebackers as last season. The weird part is, only one starting spot (Lorenzo Alexander) is secure and the rest behind that is a question mark.
The big question mark is what the Buffalo Bills will be doing at middle linebacker and weak side linebacker. With the recent signing of Gerald Hodges and Leslie Frazier’s comments on Reggie Ragland possibly playing outside, things are a little up in the air at the moment.
I think Hodges is best suited on the outside and think he would do great splitting reps with Preston Brown. I think Ragland would be best in the middle. There’s also the possibility of getting rid of Brown, especially if the team buys into Hodges. If that happens, it will likely be due to some of the younger linebackers on the roster showing out.
As I stated above, there are 12 linebackers on the roster. If the team keeps one starter and one backup for each of those starters, then they would be cutting half of those on the roster currently. I am going to assume that Brown stays and also pencil Alexander, Ragland and Humber in as definitely staying (although Humber will be more for special teams).
The other two spots will likely go to one of the rookies if either of them impress the staff (Tanner Vallejo or Matt Milano). Carl Bradford is the only one with more than one year experience experience out of the remaining candidates, with Anthony Harrell, Jacob Lindsey, Logan Abner and Eddie Yarbrough just getting started in the league.
Prediction: Lorenzo Alexander, Reggie Ragland, Gerald Hodges start. Preston Brown, Ramon Humber, Matt Milano back them up.
If they keep more, I would like to see more of Jacob Lindsey and Logan Abner.