When the Buffalo Bills opted to move on from Sean McDermott, there were a ton of questions of what the current state of the defense would be. Under McDermott, the Bills primarily ran a 4-2-5 with a mixture of a 4-3, meaning that no matter what, there were always two defensive tackles.
Now that the Bills are going with Joe Brady as head coach and him bringing in Jim Leonhard as the team’s defensive coordinator, you could make the argument that many players on the Bills’ defense would not be a good fit. One of them is defensive tackle Ed Oliver, who the Bills drafted in 2019 and has been a star at times, but faced a huge injury bug last season.
Oliver played in just three regular seasons, and once in the playoffs. He suffered an ankle/foot injury after Week 1 during the practice week going up to Week 2. Then in Week 8 after Buffalo beat Carolina, it was revealed that Oliver suffered a bicep injury and he wouldn’t take the field until Buffalo’s final game against Denver.
Since the Bills have made changes at the coaching staff, it was safe to have the conversation on whether or not Oliver would be a good fit for the defense moving forward because it is expected that the Bills will go to a 3-4 defense. However, Dan Graziano from ESPN is reporting that the Bills have no interest in moving on from Oliver.
Bills set to bring Ed Oliver back for 2026 despite massive coaching changes
"There has been speculation that defensive tackle Ed Oliver could be available in trade, but I am told that the Bills have no interest in moving him and that they expect him to be on the team in 2026." said Graziano.
According to Over The Cap, if the Bills were to trade Oliver before June 1st, they would take on a dead cap hit of $21.5 million. However, if they were to move on from him and it was after June 1st, it would be a $9.2 million dead cap hit and they would be saving $14.7 million. Financially, it wouldn't make sense to move on from Oliver.
However, the Bills did draft two defensive tackles last year in T.J. Sanders and Deone Walker. Walker was a huge steal for the Bills while Sanders still has improvement to make. Buffalo needs Oliver as he can provide pressure in the middle of the trenches. While he's faced injuries recently, let's not forget that the defense is better with him than without him. Just look at the run-defense last season.
It is only March and anything can happen from now until the start of the season, but it seems like Bills fans will be seeing Oliver back in Buffalo for 2026.