ORCHARD PARK – The undeniable injury situation has been a massive problem all season for the Buffalo Bills defense and it has impacted the unit at all three levels.
Eight regular starters have missed at least one game, and most of that group has been out multiple games which has resulted in Sean McDermott and defensive coordinator Bobby Babich having to dip way too far down the depth chart just to have enough bodies available on game day.
But another problem the Bills are dealing with is the stark underperformance from almost their entire linebacking corps, particularly the starters, Terrel Bernard and Matt Milano.
“Overall, we can all do better in some ways,” McDermott said Wednesday. “It has been, at times for the whole group, working through some injuries, working through the continuity piece when guys have been out. You want to be playing next to the person that you worked with in practice and that’s been a challenge. Beyond that, we can all do some things better.”
An understatement if ever there was one.
Milano – when he’s not hurt, which has unfortunately been too often including four missed games this season – has been a very good player since he arrived in McDermott’s first season as a 2017 fifth-round pick, but it’s clear that he’s nowhere close to the playmaking stud he once was.
Bernard, who the Bills gave a contract extension to in the offseason, is in his third year as a starter and second as a team captain, but he wasn’t nearly as productive in 2024 as 2023, and now he has taken another noticeable step back in 2025.
And Dorian Williams, a 2023 third-round pick, continues to struggle with consistency, especially in pass coverage where he can’t be trusted three years into his career.
Buffalo Bills linebackers: The numbers
There are 90 linebackers who have played at least 140 snaps, and Pro Football Focus has Bernard’s overall performance graded 82nd and Milano 88th, obviously abysmal for two starters, and Williams isn’t much better at 76th.
Based on the PFF grades, which while subjective do provide some context, 31-year-old Shaq Thompson, coming off two serious leg injuries that derailed his last two seasons in Carolina, has been by far the best linebacker on the team. PFF has Thompson ranked ninth overall, and fourth-best in coverage, though he has also been derailed by a hamstring injury that has limited him to six games.
The fact that Thompson – who remained sidelined Wednesday as the Bills began preparations for Sunday’s big test against Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – has been the most effective linebacker is not a thing anyone would have imagined when the Bills signed him as a free agent, probably thinking he would be, at best, a mentor in the linebacker room.
Asked if he would consider replacing Bernard with Thompson once the latter is healthy, Babich said, “We’re going to try to get the best people on the field at all times. Whatever that looks like at any position, we’re going to do that. I’m not saying anything about Terrel, I’m not saying anything about Shaq. That’s just our philosophy here. That’s the way we’re going to go about it.”
Bills linebackers struggle in loss to Dolphins
Babich, who rarely says anything negative, admitted Monday after watching the horror film that was the 30-13 loss to Miami that Milano and Bernard struggled, but he might as well have been referencing the entire season because that game wasn’t exactly an outlier.
“They certainly wanted to impact the game at a higher clip than they did,” Babich said. “They know that that’s been the case here for a lot of good players. Impactful players need to make impactful plays. It’s not going to happen all the time, but that’s what we’ve got to push, and that’s what you got to have in the National Football League.”
It’s understandable that the 30-year-old Milano is in decline, especially with all the injuries he has dealt with. But for the 26-year-old Bernard, who the Bills invested in and are counting on, his level of play has been unacceptable and it’s part of the reason why the Bills are so awful against the run. They rank 30th in yards per game (147.6), tied for dead last in yards per carry (5.5), and third-worst in most rushes of 10 yards or more (40).
Of course, playing practice squad-level players at defensive tackle is a big part of the problem because they are getting pushed out of the way and allowing offensive linemen to get out on the linebackers. But Bernard hasn’t helped matters by too often being out of position either because of over-pursuit or poor reads, not to mention his 18% missed tackle rate per PFF which ranks 76th among those 90 linebackers.
To be fair, Bernard has been hampered by the ankle injury he suffered that knocked him out in the second quarter at Atlanta and kept him sidelined for the Carolina game. Still, he’s not making excuses and he knows he needs to play better.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve had a disappointing season,” Bernard said. “I mean obviously there’s some plays that I want back, but I think overall I’ve worked as hard as I can to prepare myself physically and mentally to go out there and play to the best of my ability. Some things haven’t been perfect and I’m holding myself to a standard and I have to get the things corrected that I need to get corrected as an individual and as a unit.”
Tackling has been an issue for Bills defense
Tackling has been a team-wide problem for the Bills. It was terrible early in the year, improved for a few weeks, and then against the Dolphins there were 13 missed tackles which raised the season count, according to PFF charting, to 87 which is tied for the eighth-most in the league.
“When the ball shows up in your gap, you’ve got to make the tackle,” Bernard said. “So I feel like that was what really stood out (in Miami). We all got a job to do. So when you’re out there, you’ve got to be effective, and you’ve got to be able to do your job.
Bernard admitted that between his own injury, all the others on defense, and his responsibility as the signal relay man wearing the green dot on his helmet trying to make sure everyone is lined up properly, there’s a lot on his plate, especially with so many new players being used.
“Yeah it’s tough but it’s part of the job,” he said. “Physically trying to be healthy, mentally trying to be sharp, not just on my job but the other 10 guys on the field, making sure I’m on the same wavelength with Sean and with Bobby to make sure the defense is where it needs to be in terms of communication, in terms of execution. And then within all that, making sure I’m playing at my standard, too. So it’s a lot, but that’s the job. That’s what I signed up for. When you’re out there, you’ve got to be effective and you’ve got to be able to do your job.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 36 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills linebacker woes deepen as injuries and poor play pile up
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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