My "2021 State of the Bills" series continues with a look at Linebacker as the team heads into the offseason:
Under contract:
• Tremaine Edmunds
• A.J. Klein
• Tyrel Dodson
• Tyler Matakevich
Pending Free Agents:
• Matt Milano
• Andre Smith (RFA)
State of the position:
The Buffalo Bills are faced with a looming decision to be made on Matt Milano. I wrote about it extensively as a supplement to this article, and that goes much more into detail on his specific situation.
For the purposes of this article, the CliffsNotes version is that Milano is a pending unrestricted free agent. It’s uncertain right now what the Bills' plan is with him going forward. They could apply the franchise tag or transition tag to him to retain his rights at a pretty hefty salary for one year and then try to work out a long-term deal in the process. They could also try to re-sign him at a lower rate, but risk losing him as a free agent by letting him test the market.
Whatever the outcome of the situation is with Milano, it will have a domino effect on how the team approaches the linebacker position the rest of the offseason.
We know Tremaine Edmunds will be a part of the roster in 2021. He’s going into the final year of his rookie deal, but the Bills actually have another decision to be made: whether or not to exercise his fifth-year option for the 2022 season, keeping him in the fold for at least two more years.
Given the fact that Edmunds is still only 22-years-old (he will be 23 in May) and has already played three seasons in the league with a long future ahead, I suspect the team will exercise that option by the May 3 deadline.
However, Edmunds didn’t take the step forward this past season many believed he would, and should have. Some of that may have been due to not having the type of defensive line in front of him that could keep him more free to make plays, especially with Star Lotulelei opting out. He also suffered a shoulder injury opening week and seemed to not fully recover until towards the end of the season. He did have flashes and games where he made plays and seemed as though he was back on the right track, but there were too many times he was slow to diagnose a play, or took a poor angle, or got blocked out by a big offensive lineman.
Those things can’t keep happening if he’s to be the Bills' middle linebacker of the future. But he’s definitely the middle linebacker for next season.
Klein came over as a free agent, having a history in Sean McDermott’s defense from his days with the Carolina Panthers.
When he was called upon early in the season to fill in for Milano, it didn’t go well at all. He was slow and taken advantage of on outside runs, and had a tough time in coverage.
However, after a couple of games, the team figured out the best way to use Klein and the player took full advantage. He became more of a straight-line linebacker, even blitzing sometimes, and was one of the team’s best defensive players for a stretch of the season. He even earned AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors for his Week 12 performance against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Klein is still under contract for two more seasons and will either have a chance to compete for a starting job if Milano leaves, or will be a valuable backup once again next year.
Dodson has a lot of the traits teams look for in linebackers. He’s athletic, smart, and can play all three positions.
When Milano went down, I expected him to be his primary replacement on the weakside. However, that was Klein‘s job and Dodson was mainly a backup for Edmunds in the middle. He got a chance to start for Edmunds in Week 2 against the Miami Dolphins, and then again in Week 5 against the Tennessee Titans, and looked fine in both games, collecting 15 total tackles, including one for a loss to go along with a pair of pass breakups.
However, he was still mainly special teams player most of the season, and a hamstring injury cost him to miss six games.
He’s under contract next season for less than $800,000 and figures to fight for a more prominent role, especially f Milano leaves.
Matakevich was signed as a free agent almost exclusively for special teams. He actually led the entire NFL in total special teams tackles the previous four seasons. In Buffalo in 2020, he led the Bills with 10 total special teams tackles, and was far and away their snap count leader on special teams, on the field for over 71% of the plays. No other Bills player even topped 58%, which shows haw valuable the Bills believe he is.
However, Matakevich carries with him a pretty hefty $3.7 million cap hit into next season. The Bills will have to determine if his role is worth that amount, because they can save over $3.3 million of that by releasing him.
One reason they may not do that is because three of their other core special teams players (Taiwan Jones, Dean Marlowe, and Andre Smith) are all also scheduled to become free agents in some capacity. Obviously some, or even all could be back, but the Bills made a serious effort to improve their special teams last offseason and did a god job of that. They don’t want to be back in the same position they were in 2019, wanting better special teams.
Smith is scheduled to become a restricted free agent. The amount of money even a minimum qualifying offer will cost, probably around $2 million, may be too rich for the Bills to want to pay to retain his rights. If they did, and someone offered him more, they’d receive a seventh round pick as compensation. But that’s highly unlikely for a fringe-roster player who played 12 games and mainly only on special teams.
Smith played only 47 defensive snaps, but was on the field for close to 44% of special teams plays. They’ll most likely let his contractual rights expire and then look to re-sign him to a smaller deal.
----------
2021 State of the Bills:
- Quarterback
- Running back
- Tight end
- Wide receiver
- Offensive line
- Defensive tackle
- Defensive end
Follow me on Twitter: @SalSports
