1. Bills rookie linemen have impressed veterans early in offseason training
The Bills strengthened their offensive line this offseason by bringing back Jon Feliciano and Daryl Williams while adding depth through the draft. Three picks were spent on young offensive linemen and according to Dion Dawkins, they all seem to be on the right path as they start their NFL journey.
"The young guys are good," Dawkins stated. "Big kids – and I mean big kids. The size is definitely there, the talent is definitely there, and the will is definitely there. I'm extremely excited for these guys, they all have great personalities. They all listen, learn, they understand the playbook extremely well, already. Bobby [Johnson] is doing a great job dialing in with each and every one of them. It's been going well, and I'm really excited to watch these kids' growth.
"They're here to take jobs and they're here to put pressure on the older guys and that's what this sport is all about. So, I am happy to see where these kids go and their growth with making us better and us making them better."
2. McDermott lands here in the top ten of NBC Sports head coach rankings
Sean McDermott has been a catalyst for the change in culture since he's become the head coach for the Buffalo Bills. Through four seasons, he has the third-most wins out of any head coach in franchise history behind Lou Saban and Marv Levy. NBC Sports writer Patrick Daugherty released his NFL head coach rankings heading into this season and has McDermott at number six.
6. Sean McDermott, Bills
Career Record: 38-26 (.594)
With The Bills Since: 2017
Last Year's Ranking: 11
The best defensive hire of the past decade, Sean McDermott has handled his side of the ball while championing aggressive solutions on offense. That is in terms of both personnel — two trade ups for Josh Allen — and approach. When the run wasn't working in 2020, McDermott simply abandoned it. The end result was the Bills' first appearance in the AFC Championship Game since the first Clinton Administration. McDermott's 23 wins over the past two seasons are the most for any two-year Bills span since 1992-93. Oh, and yeah, that division title? The first since Bill Belichick arrived in New England. McDermott is "no nonsense" without the nonsense. He's not going to run just for the sake of it. He won't quarantine his quarterback to the pocket. He wants to win, and understands how to do so in the year 2021. With defensive brains to match his offensive firepower, McDermott has opened the championship window he worked tirelessly to build.
3. This Bills player is one of the most under appreciated in the NFL
Bills safety Jordan Poyer has been playing at a consistently high level since arriving in Buffalo but doesn't always get the credit he deserves. He has the second-most sacks and tackles by a safety since joining the Bills in 2017. NFL Network's Cynthia Frelund had Poyer on her list of underappreciated players throughout the league and here's why.
Buffalo Bills:
Safety Jordan Poyer - 30 years old
When your team has a quarterback like Josh Allen who leads an efficient offense and constantly threatens to stretch the field, the defense needs to be even better in coverage to secure wins (because teams will have to throw to keep and/or catch up). Since joining the Bills in 2017, Poyer has been one of the league's top coverage safeties. Pro Football Focus ranks him seventh-best in coverage since 2017 with a 92.9 rating, while allowing opposing passers a 77.5 passer rating, the fourth-lowest at the position over that span. This past season, Poyer's combined impact on both rushing and passing downs complemented the offense most efficiently since his best season in 2017. This means his individual win-share metric (which is a context-based value) as a percentage of the defense's as a whole matched that of 2017 (despite his individual, uncontextualized stats being lower).
