Buffalo Bills: 4 things we learned during mandatory minicamp

Defense ‘ahead of the game’

At this time last year, the thought was that for the Buffalo Bills to go deep into the playoffs it would be led by a strong defensive unit while the hope is that Josh Allen could make some improvement off his second season.

While the Bills did make a deep playoff run, it was largely due to Josh Allen while the defense was still good, they didn’t play at the same level they had prior years under Sean McDermott. The hope is that this year they could get back to being one of the top defensive units with every starter returning combined with the addition of key rookies like Gregory Rousseau and Carlos Basham Jr.

This past week, Matt Milano talked about one of the benefits of having all the starters return this season as the defense is “way ahead of the game” as Jon Scott tweeted.

The fact that the Buffalo Bills not only brought back every starter, but a majority of the players have also spent a few seasons in this defense, which is a great benefit. They also have McDermott and Leslie Frazier on the sideline calling the plays which is another benefit and that allows them to continue to work on those finer details.

This familiarity is something that hopefully will pay dividends for this defense. If the Buffalo Bills defense is able to bounce back, combined with the offense continuing their level of play, this team should be set up for another deep playoff run this coming season.