The Buffalo Bills defense will finish in the Top 10 in the NFL in 2017. Here are five reasons why.
Under former head coach Rex Ryan, the Buffalo Bills finished 19th last season in yards allowed which is the usual metric used to rank defenses even if it’s not necessarily a complete way to measure a teams’ defensive performance. This was the Bills second consecutive season at 19th under Ryan which is a big disappointment after finishing fourth in 2014 with Doug Marrone at the helm.
Using other common metrics to measure team defense the Bills didn’t fare much better. They were 16th in the league in points allowed, 23rd in total takeaways and 29th in rushing yards allowed. The only category they did well in was passing yards allowed where they were 6th best in the league. Even that stat is a bit skewed when you think about it further.
Opponents found so much rushing success against the Bills last season that they didn’t need to pass the ball as often. To highlight this, Buffalo gave up 100-yard rushing performances to individual backs both times they played their divisional opponents, the Dolphins and Jets. They also gave up three separate 200-yard performances last season and two of them were in games with their playoff chances on the line.
So why with the losses of talented players such as Stephon Gilmore, Aaron Williams and Zach Brown would I think that the Bills would have a chance to make their way back to being a Top 10 defense in 2017? Well, there are five reasons. Click below for the first reason the Bills will be a Top 10 defense in 2017.