Starter (Free Safety): Micah Hyde
The “center-fielder” for the Bills, Hyde is great in the deep half of the field and will rarely be targeted deep due to his great awareness and ball skills.
Hyde enjoyed another solid season in 2019, registering 72 tackles, one tackle for loss, two forced fumbles, one interception and two pass breakups. While the production wasn’t off the charts, that was more due to the opposing offenses reluctancy to target Hyde, as he was only targeted a total of 32 times. On those targets opposing quarterbacks completed 65.6% of their passes and didn’t score a touchdown. Buffalo’s hallmark all season was their ability to limit opponents big plays, and Hyde plays a valuable role in preventing deep shots down the field.
While Hyde is technically designated as the free safety in the defense, him and Poyer were both drafted into the league as cornerbacks so both of them have the versatility to play either. Hyde does take the majority of the snaps at free safety, but has the ability to rotate into the box allowing Poyer to rotate high.
In the tweet below, you can see Hyde and Poyer showing a cover 2/cover 4 look and instead as the ball is snapped Poyer rotates high and Hyde comes up to cover the slot in a cover 3 look.
It's a tough look bc of the Bills propensity to play quarters or show then rotate like they do here. Good job by Bush/nickel at flattening to avoid Miller and bring down Watson. Seems like the boundary safety's alignment may have shown their hand a bit (I gotta investigate that). pic.twitter.com/dw3oHuofOy
— Cover 1 (@Cover1) June 28, 2019
The great chemistry and awareness by the two give quarterbacks headaches post snap.
Starter (Strong Safety): Jordan Poyer
The other half of one of the leagues best safety tandems agreed to a contract extension with the Buffalo Bills this offseason for two years at $19.5 million to keep him with with the team through 2022.
Poyer enjoyed another great season in 2019, where he had 108 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 3 forced fumbles, 2 interceptions and 3 pass breakups. Filling up the box score is something Poyer does for fun, and 2019 was no different.
Though Poyer was great last season, his stats in coverage weren’t up to expectations. He allowed a completion rate of 69.4% and 5 touchdowns versus his coverage and a less than ideal 117.8 passer rating against his coverage. Most of the time playing lower in the box the higher completion percentage is to be expected, but a mark Poyer would like to improve.
Going into 2020, the tandem should still cause problems for opposing offenses.