A player that could be worth watching on the Buffalo Bills’ new-look defense in 2026 could be defensive tackle Ed Oliver.
The team fired head coach Sean McDermott at the end of the 2025 season and that meant someone else would be tabbed to run the defensive side of the ball. Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard was hired to do that job in 2026 and his scheme will be a change of identity for the Bills.
With that switch up in Buffalo, Leonhard said during spring practices that Oliver is a player that could benefit from.
“I think Ed’s going to be really disruptive in this defense,” Leonhard said. “The base defense being more different for him than what it’s been in the past and, in all reality, (getting Oliver) a little more freedom than he’s had in the past.”
That base defense is a change from a 4-3 front (four D-line, three LBs) to the opposite with Leonhard’s 3-4 base.
Limited to just 17 games played combined over the past two seasons, if Oliver can stay healthy, there could be a chance for him to return to his 9.5 sack form from 2023 in this new defense.
And if that change in the defensive front seems like it will look very different, Oliver agrees… and he did so in a unique way… by comparing it to a breakup.
“Everything I know and have come to know, throw all that out,” Oliver said.
For more from Oliver, see the attached clip below:
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Bills’ Ed Oliver has unique comparison for Jim Leonhard’s new defense
Reporting by Nick Wojton, USA TODAY / Bills Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
