Buffalo Bills: Ranking the players that will be missed the most in 2021

Number 2: Dean Marlowe

The next player is backup safety Dean Marlowe, who left in free agency and signed with the Detroit Lions. The Buffalo Bills have one of the better safety duos in the NFL with Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer and Marlowe falls into a similar category of Ty Nsekhe, in that his absence wouldn’t truly be felt unless the Bills lost one of their two starting safeties.

The team ran into this issue last year as Micah Hyde missed the first game against the New England Patriots. Marlowe was able to step in and finished with six total tackles and a fumble recovery.

The Buffalo Bills will now enter the season with a number of inexperienced backups that include Jaquan Johnson, Damir Hamlin, and Josh Thomas. The level of the unknown also plays a factor here and if one of these players were to replace one of the starters and played well, Marlowe’s absence would diminish.

In addition to being a backup at safety, he also was a key part of the special teams unit and played 48% of the special teams snaps last year. The Buffalo Bills will now need to find a replacement for him here as well.