Should the Buffalo Bills be higher in Pro Football Focus’ rankings of linebackers?
Pro Football Focus continues to go through their rankings of each position and after being in the bottom half of the league at defensive line, the linebackers weren’t much better for the Buffalo Bills.
PFF ranked Tremaine Edmunds, Matt Milano and the rest of the Bills linebackers as the 14th best group in the league.
"The Bills have revamped their linebacking corps over the past three years, with Tremaine Edmunds and Matt Milano slated for much of the work once again in 2020. Edmunds is an outstanding athlete who continues to improve, ranking 14th in run stop percentage last year. While he made a plethora of tackles, Edmunds also missed 17 of his attempts during the regular season, sixth-most in the league, and posted a 52.2 coverage grade."
While the defensive line rankings felt low, and it would be great to see the Bills linebackers higher, this ranking feels to be about right. There is no question that Edmunds is a rising star after back to back years with over 100 total tackles and coming off his first Pro Bowl season while Matt Milano is a bit of an unsung hero for this defense. These two are athletic linebackers that allows the coaching staff to operate out of a nickel defense but not give up much against the run with these two linebackers able to cover sideline to sideline.
However, after these two there are some concerns at the position. The big two questions is who replaces Lorenzo Alexander and does the team have adequate depth if they lose one of their top linebackers to injury.
The Buffalo Bills did try to address the position by adding A.J. Klein, who is a veteran linebacker. While Klein recently was with the New Orleans Saints, he has plenty of experience playing in this defense from his time with the Carolina Panthers while Sean McDermott was defensive coordinator.
These are the questions that are likely holding the Bills back in these type of rankings. This is one example of where the Buffalo Bills are going to get top production from Tremaine Edmunds and Matt Milano but when looking at the position holistically, they likely fit somewhere in the middle of the league.