Jim Leonhard's message won't matter for Bills unless something actually changes

The Buffalo Bills are one of the top teams in the NFL through the five games with a 4-1 record. The offense is averaging 32.8 points per game and they rank 4th in the league in terms of total yards with 396.2 yards.

Having Joe Brady calling the plays still has helped keep the continuity and that's why Buffalo's offense has been able light up the scoreboard, whether it looks great or not. On the other side of the ball, that's where the uncomfortable conversation comes into play.

Bills' defense is major liability through 5 games

Under defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, the Bills are ranked as the 30th overall defense in terms of yards allowed (388.6 yards). The only teams that are worse than them are the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions. While the run-defense has improved a bit from last season, the secondary has taken a major hit in production.

This unit is allowing 28.2 points per game, which includes three games of opponents scoring 30+ points. Not to mention, the Bills gave up 29 points to the New England Patriots in Week 4. To put into perspective, the Patriots had scored 36 total points in their first three games, and then turned around to put up 29 points (along with over 400 yards).

Leonhard was hired by the Bills from the Denver Broncos and there was a great amount of hype around his hiring. He was coveted and it was a matter of time before he eventually became a coordinator. However, his defense has only put together one solid game in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Chargers. As for the other four, there were more negatives than positives.

Jim Leonhard recognizes major weaknesses of Bills defense (but actual change has to happen)

Leonhard spoke with the media on Tuesday and he talked about how his defense has to find something to be good at. Per Dan Fetes of 13WHAM, Leonhard said "It's time to be good at something...right now we're living in some bad company."

It's not a great time to be a member of the Bills defense. Sure, they have rising stars in Greg Rousseau and Deone Walker. Outside of them two, though, they don't have any other true impactful players.

I understand that it's a new scheme and that there are going to be growing pains. At the same time, we over a month in and things just seem to be getting worse for this unit. We are done with the talking of what needs to change. Let's actually go out there and make those changes for actual results.

They have given up back-to-back 400+ yard games to the Patriots and Rams, and they even let the Houston Texans gain 381 total yards of offense in Week 1. The Bills now turn their focus to the Raiders, who are coming off back-to-back losses to the Chiefs and Patriots. They will for sure be looking to make a statement in front of their fans against the Bills. Leonhard has to prepare a different way than he has the last 5 weeks to avoid a potential upset.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow