4 things Bills fans need to closely watch for in first preseason game vs Bears
By Joe Cook
No. 3: How the Bills defense operates under Bobby Babich
Last offseason, the Bills canned longtime defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier after Joe Burrow and the Bengals came into Buffalo and carved up his defense in the playoffs. The team was adamant that Frazier was only stepping away from football as a whole for a year, but it was easy to see it was the team's way of firing him without officially firing him, due to the respect they have for him. Sean McDermott took over defensive play-calling duties, and his defense was rolling to start the year. While some may question some of his head coaching decisions, you can’t question his defensive-minded presence. Even with mass amounts of injuries to star players, McDermott had his defense, which was down to practice squad players starting at times, ready to play every week, and did a good job.
This offseason, the Bills promoted longtime defensive back and linebackers coach Bobby Babich to their defensive coordinator. It was a much-deserved promotion for the extremely underrated coach who has been a major factor in developing multiple superstars for the Bills. All-Pro Matt Milano, Tremaine Edmunds (now with the Bears but was a multi-time pro-bowler), now he has Terrell Bernard ascending to star status and even played a part in Taron Johnson’s All-Pro development. While it’s not confirmed who will call plays for the defense this season, Babich or McDermott, Babich will be calling them on Saturday against the Bears from up in the booth.
It will be the first time we get to see him do so and see how the defense will look. Under Frazier, the team was more conservative and soft. When McDermott was at the helm (although he likely has a hand in it always) he was more aggressive and deployed an attacking defensive system. It will be interesting to see the style Babich leans towards more. While you don’t game plan in the preseason, it will likely key off at least a little bit, what the Bills defense will look like this season if Babich remains the play-caller, which should be expected. It will also be interesting to see how the starters react to Babich calling the shots.