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Can Buffalo keep defense from collapsing?

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Can Buffalo keep defense from collapsing?

Win as a team, lose as a team. This is one of the most oft-repeated mantras in sports and it is especially true in football, the ultimate team game with so many moving parts on the field at once, all of which must work in sync to achieve success.

But when you look at the way the Buffalo Bills have lost the playoffs five years in a row, it’s hard not to argue that Sean McDermott’s defense played a much bigger role in those losses than the offense.

In the 2019 wild-card game, the defense blew a 16-0 third-quarter lead in Houston; in 2020, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs crushed the Bills for 38 points in the AFC Championship Game, then scored 42 more (including the 13-second loss) in the 2021 divisional round. In 2022, Joe Burrow and the Bengals dismantled the Bills at Highmark Stadium, and in 2023, the Chiefs again had their way with Buffalo, matching Cincinnati’s 27 points.

There’s no doubt that Buffalo’s regular-season defense has been consistently excellent since McDermott arrived in 2017, but the playoffs have been a drastically different and depressing story.

“I’m extremely proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish so far, but there’s still work to do,” McDermott said during the offseason.

One might assume he means avoiding the defensive collapses at the most inopportune times that have plagued the Bills during an era that, while highly successful with four straight AFC East division titles, certainly feels unsatisfying with not even a single AFC championship trophy, much less a Super Bowl trophy.

Last season, when McDermott was his own defensive coordinator after Leslie Frazier left, the Bills had another statistically strong showing. They finished fourth in points allowed per game (18.3), ninth in yards allowed (307.2), seventh in passing yards (196.6), fourth in sacks (54), third in interceptions (30), tied for third in percentage of drives ending in touchdowns (32.0%) and tied for seventh in pressure percentage (23.1%).

And then in the game that mattered most, even though Mahomes and the Chiefs had less than 23 minutes of the ball, the defense, largely because of injuries, was very weak.

The Chiefs only had five third downs because they were so successful on first and second downs. They ran for 146 yards, Mahomes threw just six of 23 incomplete passes, averaged 7.7 yards per play and scored on five of their seven possessions, not counting kneeldowns at the end of each half.

As McDermott always says, your last game reveals who you are and it wasn’t a pleasant look in the mirror for his defense. If the Bills are going to finally break through, the defense simply has to be better.

Here are five questions the defense must answer.

1. Will Bobby Babich have play-calling duties?

McDermott declined to announce his intentions regarding whether he or his personally selected defensive coordinator will run the defense on game day. Ultimately, it probably doesn’t matter because even though Babich has the DC title, it’s still McDermott’s system and even during the five seasons Frazier ran the games, McDermott had plenty of influence.

“That’s probably a fairer question at this point for the middle of training camp,” McDermott said in May. “I’m not going to make a decision until then. You can keep that question in your back pocket for training camp, the middle of training camp.”

Perhaps more important than who calls the plays is the impact the other defensive coaching changes will have. Marcus West was promoted to defensive line coach with the departure of Eric Washington; Jahmile Addae now coaches cornerbacks instead of John Butler; and Al Holcomb took Babich’s linebacker role.

“Continuity is certainly important, but there are some good things that come with newness,” McDermott said. “New ideas, some of them like, ‘Hey, look at what we’ve been doing.’ That’s been a good thing. And so you always have to approach these meetings with an open mind and a growth mindset … you get at least a little bit of an outside perspective on what’s going on elsewhere. Some of the new coaches are also coming from the university, so that will give us another dimension.”

2. Can edge rushers apply consistent pressure?

Now that Leonard Floyd has brought his 10.5 sacks to San Francisco, the Bills have to look to different sources to pressure opposing quarterbacks, and in their current configuration, the position is a bit questionable.

Von Miller took a pay cut for 2024, a noble concession for the future Hall of Famer given the utterly crappy burger he gave the Bills in 2023. The good news this year is that Miller certainly can’t be any less impactful, so even a small increase in production will be welcome.

“What I saw was there were flashes of Von Miller at the end of the year,” Babich said during OTAs. “Von is working hard to come back. The expectation is that minute by minute, we’re going to continue to improve and continue to hone the skills and train them so that he can impact the game the way we need him to.”

Miller is not expected to start; those spots should go to Greg Rousseau and AJ Epenesa, two players who improved last season but need to be more dynamic.

“When you talk about Greg and AJ, they’ve both done great things,” McDermott said. “They’ve shown a lot of talent, now it’s about becoming full-time starters and taking the next step to continue to take their game to the next level and they know that. And both of those guys have worked extremely hard. And this is the opportunity that’s really presented to both of them, quite frankly.”

Beyond that, there are veteran free agents Casey Toohill and Dawuane Smoot, as well as fifth-round rookie Javon Solomon, neither of whom are starters and can’t provide much in limited snaps beyond giving the top three a break.

3. Can Matt Milano regain his All-Pro form?

The most important addition to the defense this year would be Milan’s return to health, but of course, that’s no guarantee because for all his greatness, injuries have been a constant problem for the now 30-year-old playmaker.

Terrel Bernard was perhaps the most surprising success story on defense last season, as he seamlessly filled in for Tremaine Edmunds, and one can only imagine what he can accomplish if Milano can be by his side every step of the way this year.

“What he’s done in the past speaks for itself,” Bernard said. “He’s an All-Pro. He does everything right. He’s a leader that you want on your side, honestly. And having him back in the group, back in the lineup, it just boosts everybody, whether it’s Will’s linebacker position, or helping the safeties, helping the corners, helping the defensive line, and I think everybody gets better when he’s on the field.”

Milano has been flexible throughout the offseason, and McDermott said, “Hopefully in training camp he’ll be available when we have room. It’s just a matter of taking it one day at a time and trying to get the workouts together. I don’t know yet, we’ll see.”

4. Is Kaiir Elam ready to become a full-time starter?

The 2022 first-round pick has been a disappointment so far, there’s no denying that. However, there’s been evidence that Elam never really connected with his former position coach Butler, and is already thriving under Addae. But again, that was during OTA workouts without protections, so we’ll reserve judgment until the end of the summer.

With Rasul Douglas skipping all the volunteer work, Elam has seen tons of first-team reps and as he heads into camp he should be in a better position to battle Christian Benford for the spot opposite Douglas.

“The only thing we asked of him was to go forward, drill by drill, minute by minute,” Babich said. “Kaiir has to clean slate. He works extremely hard like all of our players, there’s a lot of growth moments, and there’s adversity moments in what you do, or in executing schemes where you have to improve in certain areas.”

Benford, a sixth-round pick in 2022, has been the better player of the two, but he’s struggled to stay healthy, so at the very least, even if Elam doesn’t win a starting job, he should become a player the Bills can trust if Benford or perhaps Douglas were to get hurt because, similar to the edge rusher, there’s not much behind the top three on the depth chart.

5. What will life be like after Micah Hyde/Jordan Poyer?

After seven years, the Bills ripped the Band-Aid off in one fell swoop and got rid of Hyde and Poyer, so naturally this is an area that will come under scrutiny heading into Week 1 against the Cardinals.

“I don’t think you’ll ever find a duo that’s as good,” general manager Brandon Beane said. “We’ve been spoiled. It’s going to be hard to match the duo we’ve had the last seven seasons.”

Re-signing Taylor Rapp allowed the Bills to put an experienced player in the system, and signing free agent Mike Edwards, formerly of the Bucs and Chiefs, was seen as another solid move, despite missing most of the offseason due to injury.

Roster depth is an issue, though. They drafted Cole Bishop in the second round and Damar Hamlin is back in the final year of his rookie contract, but if either of them have to start, that could be a problem. The Bills need Rapp and Edwards to help shore up the backfield and allow Bishop to work his way into the circle of trust.

You can contact Sal Maiorana at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal’s newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out every other Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

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