3 reasons to love the Buffalo Bills' signing of Mike Edwards
By Joe Cook
Reason 1: The Buffalo Bills get younger, faster, and add a playmaker
Unfortunately, as is true in life and football, Father Time is undefeated. That's the largest part of why the Bills are okay with moving on from Hyde and Poyer. While it sucks to say, you could see age catching up with them from early on in the year and they were slower than usual. There seems to be a youth movement happening this season with the release of other veteran players. As the Bills get younger, they also seem to want to get faster, and this is the year to do it, with 11 draft picks. Edwards adds to that.
The 27-year-old runs a 4.50 40-yard dash and has a knack for being around the football and making plays. Since 2021, he’s tied for the second most defensive touchdowns in the league. Most recently, he returned a fumble for a 97-yard touchdown against the Chargers, which was the longest by any defender in the NFL last season. He also picked off Dolphin’s quarterback Tua Tagovaiola, in a wild-card playoff game this year.
Drafted in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Edwards has now played in 75 career regular season games. In those games, he’s recorded 235 tackles, nine tackles for loss, eight interceptions, five fumble recoveries, one forced fumble, 26 passes defended, and three pick-sixes. He’s also notched three sacks, and last season allowed only 6.4 yards-per-target and only 15 completions on 31 targets for 199 yards and just two touchdowns. Now Sean McDermott and Bobby Babich will get to coach him.