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Bill’s Superbowl hopes hinge on the defense

by Chanel Rowe
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Written by: Jamal Harris Jr.

The Bill’s started OTA’s this week coming off the heels of a productive offseason and draft. The Bills spent the majority of the offseason improving the talent on the offensive side of the ball drafting offensive linemen in the 2nd and 7th rounds, and acquiring 2 more offensive guards in free agency in Connor Mcgovern and David Edwards. They used a 1st round draft pick on tight end Dalton Kincaid along with signing running back Damien Harris and Latavius Murray to round out the rushing attack. These additions along with last years talent have lead some to say this is the most complete offensive roster in the Josh Allen era. That leaves us with the defense.

Going into last year many said this was the most complete defense in the Josh Allen era. Additions of Von Miller, Shaq Lawson, and Jordan Phillips filled the only void the defense had which was pass rush. They were poised to be one of the NFL’s best defenses, and they were. They allowed over 25 points only twice the entire regular season, and were tied for 2nd in total takeaways at 30. Unfortunately for them they caught the injury bug with Von miller, Micah Hyde, Christian Benford, Daquan Jones, and Damar Hamlin all eventually going down with season ending injuries, and were unavailable for the postseason. Other notable names such as Jordan Poyer and Tremaine Edmunds had season lingering issues that kept them in and out of the lineup all year due to having to rush back to a thin defense. Former All pro cornerback Tre’davious White returned midway through the season from a season ending injury from the past year, and was never quite his former all pro self. The Bills were unable to overcome the injuries as they gave up 34 points in a close win to the Miami Dolphins in the wildcard round before eventually falling to the Cincinnati Bengals in the divisional round after giving up 27 points. This resulted with Leslie Frazier announcing he will be stepping away from coaching for the year and Sean McDermott declaring he will take on defensive play calling duties.

With many big defensive names expected to comeback healthy and the offense being as complete as it’s ever been on paper the pressure is on the Bills defense and specifically Sean McDermott to not once again “blow it” for the Bills. Despite the injuries last year that pathetic, joke of a defensive game plan from Leslie Frazier to play this vanilla and safe defense against one of the league’s best quarterbacks in the biggest game of the season was unacceptable, and apparently unacceptable for Coach McDermott to as he has put all the responsibility on himself. Coach McDermott mentioned at his press conference this week during OTA’s “There’s different challenges every offseason. The challenges specific to this offseason are the middle line backer position and other positions without incumbent players.” These are challenges that Coach McDermott has put on himself to fix and fix well. Coming from a defensive background Coach McDermott is going back to his roots; back to how he landed this head coaching job in the 1st place. Aggressiveness and creativity. This season cannot end because of yet another embarrassing defensive performance in the biggest game of the year.

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