What will Joe Andreessen's role be in Buffalo?

He did it. The hometown kid who came to the Buffalo Bills on a week-long tryout made the 53-man roster over proven veterans in this league. Joe Andreessen shocked everybody with his play in the preseason. He totaled 24 total tackles including 12 tackles against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Andreessen made his presence felt in the preseason, but what is his role going to be in the regular season?

The Bills linebacker room is deep, which nobody thought would be said with Matt Milano injured. Depth at the linebacker position was a must this year after how the 2023 season ended for them. Right now the Bills have six linebackers, with Andreessen the backup of the presumed backup behind Nicholas Morrow. That doesn’t mean Andreessen won’t ever see the field on defense, he’ll surely have packages where he sees the field with Dorian Williams at times. 

So what will his role be this year?

We got a little taste of that duo in the preseason in Week 2, as Andreessen and Williams were the two linebackers for half of the game. That duo combined for 13 tackles (Williams had one tackle). We may not see much of that duo, but the Bills do like rotating their linebackers, and Andreessen may get in that rotation a little bit. 

Andreessen will see his fair share of snaps on special teams, where he saw 12 special teams snaps in the preseason finale last week. Depending on where you view Andreessen on the depth chart, there will be 4 to 5 guys ahead of him in the linebacker room, meaning in year one, most of his time on the field will be on the special teams unit. 

This year will be getting his feet wet on the field. Unless the Bills face more catastrophic injuries again this year, his role likely won’t be that big on defense. For the Bills, they didn’t expect this much from Andreessen, and neither did the fans. Having Andreessen around is less about his play in Year 1, and more about what he’ll be able to do in the future. 

What will his future role look like?

With another year under his belt, Andreessen will surely be competing for a larger role on defense. Nicholas Morrow will be a free agent and Matt Milano will be coming off of his second major injury in as many years. This linebacker room will look different in 2025. How much of a difference remains to be seen. However, if Andreessen performs well enough this year, he’ll be getting the first look in the competition in 2025. 

The Bills also have question marks at starting linebackers, specifically Dorian Williams. He’s going into his second year and was put into a full-time starting role with the injury to Matt Milano. After only starting in two games last year and totaling 40 tackles, this will be a huge year for Williams’ development. If he can’t perform well enough, there’s a chance we'll see Andreessen competing with Williams next summer.