Buffalo Bills: Predicting the LB depth chart entering training camp
By Aaron Tully
Tyrel Dodson
Tyrel Dodson is a young player with some promise. Dodson registered 22 combined tackles, a sack, and two tackles for loss in just 16 percent of the Buffalo Bills defensive snaps in 2020. Dodson could have had more playing time in 2020, but he was sidelined from Weeks 7-13 with a hamstring injury.
In 2021, Dodson will have to compete with Andre Smith, Tyrell Adams, and Joe Giles-Harris for a spot on the Buffalo linebacker depth chart. Whether Dodson makes the roster or not depends on how much the coaching staff values Dodson’s upside compared to Andre Smith’s special teams contributions or Tyrell Adams’ 2020 production.
If Dodson does not make the Bills roster, it wouldn’t be a surprise if another team signed the second year Texas A&M product off of Buffalo’s practice squad.
Joe Giles-Harris
Joe Giles-Harris spent his first two seasons in the NFL with the Jaguars. Giles-Harris played nine games in Jacksonville, where he recorded 23 combined tackles and a sack. Giles-Harris will be one of the three or four players competing for the final spot on the linebacker depth chart for the Bills. He is not very good in pass coverage, which does not bode well for him in Sean McDermott’s defense. Giles-Harris may be just a practice squad player for the Bills in 2021.
Mike Bell
Mike Bell was with the Bills for 2019 rookie camp but did not make the team. The Bills brought him back during the offseason, and his chances of making the roster in 2021 are not much better than they were in 2019.
Bell is a converted safety, so his best fit would potentially be as a big nickel corner. Unfortunately for Bell, Siran Neal already occupies that spot on the Bills roster; it is a role that is rarely used in Sean McDermott’s defense anyway. Bell may just be a training camp body, and if he performs well he could find his way onto the practice squad.
Next. Predicting the Bills DL depth chart entering training camp. dark
Marquel Lee
Marquel Lee missed most of 2019 with a left ankle injury, and all of 2020 with a right ankle injury. He is now healthy and signed with the Bills in the offseason. Lee’s career production is uninspiring; he has recorded just 104 combined tackles in 34 games. Given his injury history and lack of production, Lee likely does not have a future amongst the crowded Bills linebacker group.