For the better part, since coming to the Buffalo Bills in 2017, head coach Sean McDermott has had a tough-as-nails defense, and now he will be calling the plays on that side of the ball. Likely, the defensive schemes we’ve seen for the last six years will not change much, if at all, now that McDermott is in full charge of the defense after Leslie Frazier suddenly left the team about a month ago.
What will help McDermott is, other than losing Tremaine Edmunds to the Chicago Bears, he will have almost the same defense he’s had for a few years now, so he isn’t re-building what he has created for the last six years. The team will likely add a middle linebacker in next month’s draft earlier than later, as now it’s a glaring hole, just like the second cornerback position was last off-season.
A new voice calling plays could be exactly what the Buffalo Bills need
Having a new voice to lead the team’s defense on the field will be crucial for continued success as the team finally wants to win the Super Bowl. This goal had always eluded the team despite having one of if not the complete teams in the entire league on both sides of the ball in recent years now, especially last year when they were the long-time favorite to win it all.
This is highly aggressive and could be seen as a desperate attempt to correct the ship. The Buffalo Bills seemed to run out of steam towards the end of last year’s season, especially in the AFC Divisional Round game when they hosted the Cincinnati Bengals, only to get annihilated at home 27-10. Despite this game, what seems to be forgotten is that this defense last year was only completely there for roughly one and a half games all year after losing Micah Hyde for the season with a neck injury during their home opener versus the Tennessee Titans.
All and all, it will be interesting to see if the defense rebounds to previous levels with Coach McDermott taking a far more hands-on role with what he has built up since coming here.