PFF: Bills have mid-tier defense heading into 2021

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Pro Football Focus gave some kudos to Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott but also brought that hammer down pretty heavy on a few Bills players.

The football analytics outlet went through a recent “tier” project. Slotting every NFL defense into such, the Bills defense landed right in the middle of the five-level exercise as a Tier 3 unit.

The coach was given credit for some past positives while individual defenders were not praised.

Here’s how PFF explained the Bills’ ranking:

Buffalo is one of the best-coached teams defensively, able to consistently get a bit more than the sum of its individual parts. Last year in particular, that sum wasn’t great, and the unit is probably due for some positive regression in several cases. Matt Milano is coming off a career-low PFF coverage grade of 56.4, but his two previous years had seen him at 77.3 and 81.9 respectively. Similarly, Ed Oliver and Tremaine Edmunds each had career-worst grades last season. The Bills were top-10 in passer rating allowed last season (95.8) despite those issues.

Often hard on Oliver and Edmunds specifically, PFF knocked the Bills defense down quite a bit.

However, a Tier 3 spot following a lackluster 2020 season on that side of the ball is a fair assessment.

After three strong seasons by the Bills defense under McDermott, the unit struggled a year ago. But considering their previous successes and lack of changes in personnel, there’s no reason to think Buffalo is incapable of having a bounce-back season in 2021.

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