Buffalo Bills have built a trio of athletic linebackers fit for modern football

Quietly, the Buffalo Bills have built a trio of young linebackers well-suited to take on modern NFL offenses.

Since 2017, the mantra of the Buffalo Bills new era of leadership and team-building has been the process. With Brandon Beane acting as a conductor of the train, the Bills have seamlessly built something out of nothing. This holds especially true when accounting for the quarterback, offensive line, secondary, defensive line, and linebacker corps.

Maybe the least polarizing of all the previously mentioned units is the last unit. In today’s NFL, linebackers are being pulled off the field, in exchange for fleet-footed defensive backs — AKA nickel cornerbacks in sub formations.

The radical, league-wide, acclimation of the horizontal passing game has forced teams to move away from prototypical, big-bodied, bludgeoning linebackers in favor of quicker, safety-esque ones. The linebackers of old simply weren’t build to handle slot receivers and fast tight ends on a snap-to-snap basis. Per Sharp Football Stats, the NFL ran 73% of their plays with a slot receiver in 2018.

The Bills are all too aware of the league’s shift in thought process and schematics. The team’s past three drafts are an excellent indication of that, specifically, the selections of Matt Milano, Tremaine Edmunds, and Vosean Joseph.

Milano, the team’s fifth-round selection in 2017 is the leader of the young group of modern linebackers. A former safety turned inside linebacker; he’s athletic as they come. Though considered undersized at 6-foot, 223-pounds, he turned heads at the combine to the tune of a 4.67 second 40-yard-dash, 127-inch broad jump, and 35-inch vertical.

In Milano’s second year, 2018, his athleticism coupled with excellent coverage play, earned him a full-time starting nod. He proved to be an excellent fit as a sideline-to-sideline WILL linebacker in the 4-3, racking up 78 total tackles, 12 for a loss, three interceptions, and seven pass deflections in 13 games played.

Milano’s starting teammate, Edmunds, was a combine star in 2018. The then-20-year-old measured in at a stout 6-foot-5 and 253-pounds, then recorded a 4.54 second 40-yard-dash and a117-inch broad jump. His freakish measurements, athletic testing, youthfulness, and impressive film earned him the status as the No. 16 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Unlike Milano, Edmunds is far from undersized. Like his fellow teammate, he’s fast, rangy, and built for the modern NFL. Though his first season was up-and-down, he showed promise like we haven’t seen before; a giant linebacker that can run with defensive backs — the perfect fit for an NFL that wants to be faster in all aspects. He won Defensive Rookie of the Month in December, as he tallied 43 total tackles, two interceptions, four pass deflections, and a sack.

The last of three, Joseph, a fifth-round pick this year, fits the athletic, rangy mold we are going for. He has kinks to work out in his game — specifically diagnosing plays, finishing tackles, and discipline — but he checks the athleticism box off emphatically. Though he didn’t test pre-draft, due to a hamstring injury, many described him as explosive and/or electric, as NFL’s Lance Zierlein said;

"Joseph is a narrow, underweight linebacker with excellent athleticism and outstanding closing burst but a maddening amount of negative tape."

Joseph is a project, but he’s the right one. His speed and explosive athleticism fit just what the Bills appear to be looking for. He won’t be pressured to produce soon either, as they will look to add consistency and well-roundness to his game while Edmunds, Milano, and Lorenzo Alexander start for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, he’s another piece to a puzzle that spells out “modernization.”

We haven’t seen what the trio of Edmunds, Milano, and Joseph can do. There is little NFL experience between the three, and each must take steps in their development to be well-respected or stars. But what we do know is that that the Bills likely drafted each with the future of the league in mind, and for life after Alexander.

In the past few years, we’ve seen what faster, athletic linebackers can do for a defense. In 2017, the Jaguars’ duo of Telvin Smith and Myles Jack took the league by storm, proving to be the kryptonite for super offenses centered around attacking the inside. In 2018, the Cowboys’ pairing of Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch did the same; but who was the best pass defense in the league that year? The Bills, as they allowed a league-low 2,867 yards.

Now imagine how much better that pass-defense can be next year with Edmunds and Milano taking the next step and Joseph following suit. Their already stout defense (that got better outside of linebackers, cough, Ed Oliver) should rest easy knowing speed, and ranginess center field are abundant, alongside Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer.