Reggie Ragland and Shaq Lawson will make a difference for the Bills this season.
As I mentioned on the previous slide, Shaq Lawson is excited about the 4-3 system and he believes he will thrive in it. That should be one factor in any success he has in 2017. The other major factor will be that this season he is healthy after having surgery on his shoulder after the draft last year.
That surgery caused him to miss much of the offseason as well as the first six weeks of the regular season. By the time he got back into the lineup, he was still healing while adapting to the speed of the NFL and learning his role in a defensive scheme that was not familiar to him. He did admirably but he wasn’t the difference maker the Bills drafted him to be. This season, with a full offseason under his belt, a healthy shoulder, and a more familiar defense, you can expect Lawson to be a major presence on the Bills defense.
The other player who is returning for the Bills is last years second round draft pick, Reggie Ragland, who will provide a major boost in the middle of the field to the defense. Ragland is a thumper with solid tackling skills who was knwon as run stopper in his days at Alabama. He’s a physical presence in the center of the field and will help their run defense which was porous at times last year.
Coach McDermott is so excited about Ragland that back in March he said that he would be the starter but despite that statement, Preston Brown will be punching it out with Ragland for the starting middle linebacker role. That competition will only bring the best out of both players and each of them should see a fair amount of time in the middle of the Bills defense.
Click below for the fourth reason the Bills will be a Top 10 defense in 2017.