Throughout the career of Buffalo Bills linebacker Matt Milano he’s consistently gotten the praises locally.
On a national stage it took some time.
The first-team All Pro earned those big stage honors in 2022. Milano appeared to be following that up with another solid campaign until injury struck last year.
Moving forward, the Bills will hope Milano stays healthy and becomes a team leader considering all the change the roster has seen this offseason.
Back to honors for Milano: He earned another from NFL.com. The league’s website named football’s top 30 players aged 30 and older. Milano clocked in at No. 28 overall.
The breakdown on Milano from NFL.com can be found below:
Milano’s presence on this list might raise some eyebrows, but it shouldn’t. The 2017 fifth-round pick was something of a pleasant surprise in his first few seasons with the Bills, but he became a certified stud in 2022, earning first-team All-Pro honors alongside a pair of established linebacking stars in Fred Warner and Roquan Smith. This carried over into the early goings of last season, with Milano snagging a pick in each of Buffalo’s first two games before piling up 10 tackles and a forced fumble in the Bills’ impressive Week 4 blowout of the Dolphins. Then Milano broke his leg in the ensuing London loss to Jacksonville, ending his season and dealing a serious blow to Sean McDermott’s defense. Milano, who turns 30 later this month, returned to practice in a limited capacity for mandatory minicamp, hopefully putting him on track for full participation in training camp.
At 6-foot and 223 pounds, Milano wouldn’t have played linebacker in your father’s NFL. But in today’s league, he’s exactly what you want at the position: a dynamic sideline-to-sideline athlete with fine instincts as a blitzer and total comfort in coverage.