How has the revamped defensive line looked after three weeks?
Three weeks into the season and the Buffalo Bills have already reaped the rewards of the revamped defensive line group. Last season the defensive line was certainly not a strong point of the Bills. It showed in the playoffs when the Bills struggled to get consistent pressure on their opponents.
In addition to that, after seeing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dissect the Chiefs offense by constantly getting to Patrick Mahomes general manager Brandon Beane knew that Buffalo need to make some changes this offseason.
The Buffalo Bills elected to keep 11 defensive linemen on the team’s 53-man roster this season with 10 already seeing playing time. Buffalo invested both its first and second-round picks in defensive lineman as well as last year’s second-rounder on A.J. Epenesa, who had limited success last season. Through three games we have seen a completely different group that features some different players and lineups.
Last year’s starters Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison still have strong role-playing 93 (53%) and 88 (46%) defensive snaps respectively. However, the leaders in snaps are both first-round picks under Brandon Beane with rookie Greg Rousseau and Ed Oliver registering over 100 snaps each.
The rest of the main group that is made up of AJ Epenesa, Vernon Butler, Justin Zimmer, and Star Lotulelei all registered between 62 and 86 snaps. The last three players Harrison Phillips, Efe Obada, and Boogie Basham have all registered 21 snaps or less and have not been a huge part of this season so far.