Since 2017, the mantra of the Buffalo Bills new era of leadership and team-building has been the process. With Brandon Beane acting as a conductor of the train, the Bills have seamlessly built something out of nothing. This holds especially true when accounting for the quarterback, offensive line, secondary, defensive line, and linebacker corps.
Maybe the least polarizing of all the previously mentioned units is the last unit. In today’s NFL, linebackers are being pulled off the field, in exchange for fleet-footed defensive backs — AKA nickel cornerbacks in sub formations.
The radical, league-wide, acclimation of the horizontal passing game has forced teams to move away from prototypical, big-bodied, bludgeoning linebackers in favor of quicker, safety-esque ones.