Buffalo Bills: Picking the winners in key position battles from Bears game
Backup Defensive Tackle
Another week down and another complicated twist to the defensive line competition. In my 53-man roster prediction before the game against the Bears, I included three defensive tackles in my roster. Oliver and Lotulelei are roster locks. While Oliver played a couple of snaps against the Bears we mainly saw Justin Zimmer, Harrison Phillips, and Vernon Butler. All three looked sharp but for the brief time he played Phillips looked the best and most active to me. Phillips has had an up and down camp but has really picked things up recently and it showed against the Bears. Now, here is the twist.
Sean McDermott said Harrison Phillips injured the same knee in which he tore his ACL. Does not sound like a quick recovery is coming
— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) August 22, 2021
Phillips hurt the same knee where he tore his ACL which he is returning from this season. This is a potentially huge setback for Phillips and could jeopardize his potential roster spot. If Phillips did not get hurt I would say that he had the best chance going forward to be the immediate backup at defensive tackle passing up Justin Zimmer. However, the injury only adds more questions.
While Phillips played very well, Zimmer and Butler were both effective pushing around blockers and were a big reason the Bears running backs had only 40 yards on 13 carries (3 YPC). While both guys played well they did not do anything to say wow that guy needs to be on the roster.
Right now, I would say that Zimmer has the inside edge on Butler because of the type of hustle plays that he seems to make. The Bills coaching staff loves that Zimmer goes 110% every play and is willing to sprint 80 yards to make a tackle. Something that not many defensive tackles do.
I would say that there is no direct winner of this battle right now but I will rank the names in order of most likely to make the roster.
- Star Lotulelei
- Ed Oliver
- Harrison Phillips
- Justin Zimmer
- Vernon Butler
- Brandin Bryant
- Treyvon Hester
This list is not taking into account that Phillips is injured. His injury complicates things significantly and this is a battle that will have to be revisited. One name to watch out for is Brandin Bryant. Although he played mostly the fourth quarter he ended up with 1.5 sacks and showed some quickness from the middle. He may not make the roster but is certainly playing himself onto the practice squad.