Bills need more from the defensive line and a new scheme may be the answer

This is the fourth in a series examining key Buffalo Bills position groups - what happened in 2025 and what could change in 2026. This installment is on the defensive line.

You’ve probably seen the information nugget making the rounds, the one about how the Buffalo Bills haven’t had an edge rusher record a sack in a postseason loss since Jerry Hughes against the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2020 AFC Championship Game.

Judging edge rushers, or defensive linemen in general, isn’t all about sacks, but when you look at how much Sean McDermott’s defense struggled in elimination games - 33.1 points and 413.5 yards allowed per game in the last six - the lack of potential game-changing plays up front screams at you.

President/general manager Brandon Beane certainly hasn’t ignored the issue because he has spent lavishly on free agents and used Day 1 and Day 2 draft capital in an attempt to upgrade the defensive line. The problem has been there simply hasn’t been enough bang for the buck.

Draft picks and quick fixes have not solved Bills defensive front

In the draft, Ed Oliver was a first-round pick in 2019, AJ Epenesa was a second-rounder in 2020, the 2021 draft produced first-rounder Greg Rousseau and second-rounder Boogie Basham, and after ignoring the D-line in 2022 and 2023, Beane picked DeWayne Carter in the 2024 third round, and in 2025 he brought in TJ Sanders (second), Landon Jackson (third) and Deone Walker (fourth).

Oliver and Rousseau as first-round picks have been undeniably solid, but largely unspectacular. Neither player has earned a Pro Bowl invitation let alone All-Pro recognition, and you would certainly like to see more from first-round picks.

Epenesa has been a useful rotational player, but as a second-rounder, again, you hoped for more; Basham was an all-time bust; Carter is an unknown after a spotty rookie year and then missing all of 2025; and it’s too early to know much about the three 2025 rookies, though Walker showed some real promise.

“I’ve had one top 10 pick here (Oliver at No. 9). One,” Beane said. “I’m not making excuses, but it’s just hard to find those guys where we pick. I want them, and I’m always going to take a swing and deal, and I haven’t been perfect.”

Regarding the second-rounders, he admitted Basham is one of his worst picks ever, it’s too early to tell on Sanders, but he defended the choice of Epenesa.

“Epenesa, where we got him, bottom of the second round, the guy’s got more interceptions (4) than Sauce Gardner does (3),” Beane said, which was actually pretty funny. “He’s had (at least six sacks in three seasons). We paid him whatever, $7 million or something like that. If you look where that falls on guys making $40 million, I think that’s realistic. He’s a role playing, functional starter/very good backup, he can affect the quarterback, get sacks. I would turn that pick in again at the bottom of the second round for AJ Epenesa.”

So, because he hasn’t been able to pick a blue-chip lineman early in the first round, Beane has relied heavily on free agency, but that, of course, has come with the hurdle of a continually tight salary cap which has sent Beane out with coupons in hand in search of a sale, so to speak.

There were big-name swings on Star Lotulelei (2018), Von Miller (2022), DaQuan Jones (2022), Leonard Floyd (2023) and Joey Bosa (2025), and lesser signings such as Trent Murphy (2018), Mario Addison (2020), Quinton Jefferson (2020), Vernon Butler (2020), Tim Settle (2022), Poona Ford (2023), Dawuane Smoot (2024), Michael Hoecht (2025) and Larry Ogunjobi (2025).

Lotulelei and Jones were both fine for what their role was; Floyd led the 2023 team with 10.5 sacks though he disappeared down the stretch and had just one sack in the last eight games counting the playoffs; Bosa started well but like Floyd, faded in the second half; and of course Miller got off to a great start in 2022 and then blew out his knee and was never a factor in 2023 and 2024.

The rest were middling or worse players, though the only one who will be on the 2026 team, Hoecht, assuming he fully recovers from his torn Achilles, should be able to help new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard because his odd-man front seems like an ideal fit for Hoecht’s skill set.

One thing that became known about the McDermott/Bobby Babich defense is that opposing offensive coordinators recognized that it was stagnant, meaning they almost always knew how the Bills were lining up and were not hard to game plan against.

They knew where to double team or where to chip, they knew the Bills weren’t giving up explosive pass plays but you could pick them apart underneath, and they also knew the Bills were light in the front seven and could be gashed on the ground.

Last year, the defense dealt with an absurd amount of injuries and at times McDermott was limited in what he could do. Yet despite all the backups that he had to use, the call sheet expanded in the second half of 2025 and the Bills did a better job at disguising their looks and picking their spots to blitz and stunt.

Still, what did it get them? They gave up 24 points to the Jaguars and 33 to the Broncos and managed just one sack for a loss of two yards (that by Rousseau against Trevor Lawrence) and a mere five QB hits despite blitzing Lawrence 33.3% of his dropbacks and Bo Nix on 46% of his dropbacks.

New head coach Joe Brady made it clear that he wants his defense to be more aggressive and in attack mode because as an offensive play-caller, he knows those are always the toughest defenses to deal with.

“You understand what keeps you up at night when you’re calling plays,” he said. “I feel like defensive football for so many years was just putting stress on quarterbacks; you get to the line of scrimmage and they’re putting stress on quarterbacks pre-snap, post-snap.

“Nowadays the best defenses and the best minds are continuing all the way through the play call putting stress on coordinators. No longer are you able to just know where guys are going to be and when they’re going to be there. I think that’s a key element of what I’m looking for in a defense, is making sure that we have the versatility to be able to change personnel, get a lot of different people in different spots, similar to what we do offensively.”

The key to that philosophy is to get more dynamic production from the defensive line, and as Beane said in reviewing the defensive line’s play, that is certainly possible if the Bills can avoid all the injuries they suffered in 2025.

“We missed Ed Oliver. Like you don’t find those guys out there,” Beane said. “Bosa did get a little worn down. We probably had to play him, due to injuries, more snaps than we wanted to. We were hoping to keep him fresher. Landon Jackson, it took him a little bit before the coaches felt he wasn’t playing robotic, and he was about to significantly play a lot more snaps to get Bosa fresher for the run, and he has that injury. And then Michael Hoecht, you saw what he could do in a game and a half.”

Who fits where as the Bills retool the defensive line

As Buffalo transitions to Leonhard’s defense, there are some big decisions that must be made up front.

It seems certain that Beane will not re-sign Bosa, Epenesa, Jones and Ogunjobi, so that means the returning players are Oliver, Walker, Carter and Sanders on the inside, and Rousseau, Hoecht, Jackson, and Javon Solomon on the edge, all of whom will have to learn different techniques.

That carryover would actually look pretty good in a 3-4, especially if Beane can bring in a true nose tackle to plug over the center, and a top flight edge rusher. At 330 pounds, Walker has the size for that, but he may be better suited to play the position you will now hear plenty about, the 4i technique who lines up on the inside shoulder of the offensive tackle, one that also fits sub-300-pounders Oliver and Sanders.

And then Rousseau and Hoecht are well suited for the standup outside linebacker position, the roles that Nik Bonitto and Jonathan Cooper played in Denver where they delivered a combined 22 sacks and 127 pressures last season.

“I do think Deone Walker played very well, that is going to help us,” Beane said. “I think TJ, when he came back from the knee surgery, showed that he was an improving player that can help. We get Mike Hoecht back, and Rousseau, I think there will be some plans when we get the new coaches in here to maybe utilize him a little different.”

Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 36 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills defensive line aims for improvement under Jim Leonhard