The Buffalo Bills, like much of the modern NFL, play a nickel as their base defense. Gone are the days when teams would play three, or even four, linebackers consistently. As offenses move to “11” personnel, the third wide receiver necessitates a third corner on the field to counter. Sure, some teams have started to swing back to a two tight end set, but 25 of the league’s 32 teams ran “11” personnel over half of the time.
With this in mind, the Bills actually have a great situation in terms of their linebackers. They have two players who do not need to come off the field on passing downs, and they both are capable of covering the zone asked of them by defensive coordinator/assistant head coach Leslie Frazier and head coach Sean McDermott.