This is the second in a series examining the Buffalo Bills’ free-agent possibilities at key positions. Today's installment looks at defensive line.
There are a couple of position groups with the Buffalo Bills that have the potential for an extreme makeover in free agency.
One of them is wide receiver. The other is along the defensive line.
At times last year, the Bills weren’t satisfied with the defensive pressure generated by their front four.
“We’re not hurrying or hitting the quarterback often with our four as we would like," defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier said in December. "There have been some games on occasion where we’re really good at disrupting a quarterback with our four rushers, our four primary rushers, but not on a consistent basis, not as consistent as we would like. ... We like being able to rush four. It helps our coverage, it helps everything we’re trying to do on defense. We just need to get a little bit more on a consistent basis than what we’ve been getting.”
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In both dollars spent and draft capital used, the Bills have heavily invested in the defensive line. The return on that investment, however, has not always been good enough.
The Bills have nearly as many free agent defensive linemen – seven – as they do under contract (eight). That presents the potential for significant change.
“You’ve got to have a quarterback. The next thing you got to do is you’ve got to get the other team’s quarterback down,” Bills general manager Brandon Beane said last week at the NFL scouting combine. “So it’s a position every year, whether it’s free agency, the draft, trades, I think you’ve got to look and be as strong as you can. We were pretty deep this year, but we ran into issues with Covid and some nicks here and there. We do have some guys who are unrestricted. We’ll see if we can get some back, but either way, we’ll definitely look to add there.”
In house: The list of free agents starts with a pair of veteran team leaders – defensive ends Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison. Hughes, who has been with the Bills since 2013, is the team’s longest-tenured player. Addison led the team last year with seven sacks.
“A lot of respect for Jerry, and Jerry is going to continue to play,” Beane said at the combine. “Mario is going to continue to play. My conversation has been with them is … what's our cap situation going to be? What are all the positions we've got to answer? We would definitely be open to bringing either one or both of those guys back. They both can play.”
Defensive tackle Harrison Phillips is also set to hit free agency at a good time. He developed into a starter over the second half of the 2021 season.
“We counted on Harry a lot down the stretch,” Beane said. “He’s been a great person in the community, great in our locker room. Getting his chance to test free agency, yeah, you do have to put your personal feeling aside. That’s my job. As much as you’d love to bring ’em all back, you’ve got to put a value on them. He and his agency have to do their due diligence, so we’ll see.”
Fellow defensive tackle Vernon Butler Jr. is also an unrestricted free agent. He’s not expected back.
Efe Obada, who can play both inside and outside, is also set to be unrestricted when the league year begins Wednesday, as is defensive end Bryan Cox Jr., who spent last season on injured reserve. Defensive tackle Justin Zimmer, who is rehabbing a torn ACL, is a restricted free agent.
Top of the heap: Von Miller, Los Angeles Rams; Chandler Jones, Arizona; Jadeveon Clowney, Cleveland; Haason Reddick, Carolina; Emmaneul Ogbah, Miami.
Miller, who turns 33 this month, said he’ll consider a return to the Super Bowl champion Rams before exploring the rest of his options. A return to Denver, especially after the Broncos traded for quarterback Russell Wilson, would not come as a big surprise.
Jones, 32, has been one of the best pass rushers of the past decade. He finished with 10.5 sacks in 2021 and his 28 quarterback hits ranked seventh. He has played at least 15 games in six of the past seven seasons, so he's been durable.
Clowney has been on four different teams the past four seasons, but he produced at a high level last year, finishing fourth in ESPN’s pass rush win rate metric.
It was odd that Reddick only got a one-year deal worth $6 million last year with the Panthers. He’s been productive, and finished with 11 sacks. Over the past two years, only T.J. Watt, Myles Garrett, Trey Hendrickson and Aaron Donald have more than Reddick’s 23.5 sacks. His 39 quarterback hits over that time rank second, and his eight forced fumbles are third. He’s also missed just one game over the past five seasons.
Ogbah was a great signing by the Dolphins two years ago. He leads the NFL in that time with 15 passes batted down, while also racking up 18 sacks, 46 quarterback hits and 86 quarterback hurries – all totals in the top 11 of the league.
Other names to know: Akiem Hicks, Chicago; Larry Ogunjobi, Cincinnati; D.J. Jones, San Francisco; Sebastian Joseph-Day, Los Angeles Rams; Uchenna Nwosu, Los Angeles Chargers.
Hicks is an accomplished interior pass rusher, but he’s 32 and has missed 20 games the past three years.
Ogunjobi suffered a foot injury in the wild-card round of the playoffs for the Bengals and missed the team’s run to the Super Bowl, but he had seven sacks and 12 tackles for loss in the regular season.
Jones started all 17 games for the 49ers and led ESPN’s run stop win rate metric. He had 10 tackles for loss.
Joseph-Day was limited to seven games because of a pectoral injury, but he’s a solid run-stuffer when healthy. In those seven games, he made tackles on 26.3% of his snaps against the run – the highest such percentage of any defensive lineman in the league.
Nwosu had five sacks and 17 quarterback hits last season, the first in which he played at least 50% of his team’s defensive snaps.
Under-the-radar option: Folorunso Fatukasi, N.Y. Jets.
A sixth-round draft pick in 2018, Fatukasi started 15 games last season for the Jets and finished with a career-high 46 tackles. He ranked fourth among all defensive tackles in ESPN’s run stop win rate metric. He’s not much of a pass rusher, but if the Bills can’t re-sign Phillips, Fatukasi could provide a boost to the run defense, while potentially weakening a division rival.
