Changes are coming to the Buffalo Bills defense, though we aren’t entirely sure what they’re going to be.
Head coach Joe Brady admitted at the scouting combine last week that, “I’ve been sitting in the defensive meetings really trying to get a feel of how we do things” because his entire coaching career to this point has been spent on the offensive side of the ball. Thus, when asked direct questions about what new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard’s defense will be put together, Brady hasn’t really had definitive answers.
And in his one press conference since being hired, neither did Leonhard, though at that point it was way too early because he was still familiarizing himself with the Bills’ returning personnel and determining how they would fit into his 3-4-based scheme.
That’s why it’s a little difficult to predict what the Bills will be shopping for when the free agency negotiation window opens Monday, followed two days later by the official start of the new league year when free agents can sign with teams.
Assuming no surprise trades or releases, the Bills have a solid nucleus of players returning on defense, led by linemen Greg Rousseau, Ed Oliver, Deone Walker, TJ Sanders and Michael Hoecht, linebackers Terrel Bernard and Dorian Williams, and defensive backs Christian Benford, Maxwell Hairston, Taron Johnson and Cole Bishop.
There will be some positional tweaking – for instance, will Rousseau and Hoecht both become stand-up outside linebackers/edge rushers? – and there will be changes in responsibilities compared to the 4-3 scheme that Sean McDermott ran across nine seasons, but that group of players should be able to find their niches in Leonhard’s scheme.
However, there are still needs that president/general manager Brandon Beane must address either in free agency or the draft because while there are talented players still on the team, Buffalo’s defense has too often failed in the big moments, especially in the postseason.
Here are seven players the Bills might consider signing to augment the new defense, with contract projections gleaned from Spotrac and Pro Football Focus:
DT DJ Reader
Previous teams: Texans (2016-19), Bengals (2020-23), Lions (2024-25).
Age: Turns 32 in July.
Height/Weight: 6-foot-3/330 pounds.
Spotrac market projection: Two years, $7.7 million.
Pro Football Focus projection: One year, $4.5 million.
Again, we don’t really know what Leonhard wants to do with the defensive line, but if he structures it similarly to the way Vance Joseph did in Denver where Leonhard just spent two years, the Bills won’t line up a traditional nose tackle over the center all that often. Still, with Oliver and Sanders both weighing less than 300 pounds, they need a nose tackle-type or one-tech player who will be stout in the middle and Reader fits the bill.
He’s not the force he was during his days with the Bengals, but across two seasons with the Lions Reader started 32 games and played more than 500 snaps both years. He has been a consistent presence as a run defender, and while he won’t provide much of a pass rush, he can push the pocket and create space for players like Oliver, Sanders and Walker who would likely be flanking him in the 4i positions.
DT Sebastian Joseph-Day
Previous teams: Rams (2019-21), Chargers (2022-23), 49ers (2023), Titans (2024-25).
Age: Turns 31 in March.
Height/Weight: 6-foot-4/310 pounds.
Spotrac market projection: One year, $6.9 million.
Pro Football Focus projection: One year, $6.5 million.
Beane likes to do one-year contracts and both Reader and Joseph-Day would be ideal candidates. I felt the same way last year as I thought Joseph-Day would have been a good fit for Buffalo in free agency, but he re-signed for one year with Tennessee and played 46% of the snaps with 41 tackles, two sacks, 19 QB pressures and a fumble recovery.
There were 41 DTs who played at least 250 run defense snaps and Joseph-Day’s 28 stops – defined by PFF as a tackle that constituted a failed play for the offense – ranked tied for 13th. In 2024, there were 38 DTs who played at least 250 run snaps and his 29 stops were 11th-most.
Edge Boye Mafe
Previous team: Seahawks (2022-25).
Age: Turns 28 in November.
Height/Weight: 6-foot-4/261 pounds.
Spotrac market projection: Three years, $36.7 million.
Pro Football Focus projection: Three years, $49 million.
The Bills have taken swings on older edge rushers like Von Miller and Joey Bosa and the results were middling at best, but Mafe could change that. He looks like a ready-made player in a 3-4 scheme as a standup OLB/edge to pair with Rousseau and/or Hoecht. With Seattle last year, he lined up almost equally on both sides of the formation.
Despite playing only 340 pass rush snaps, he still registered 40 QB pressures, though the result was only two sacks after he had 15 sacks combined the previous two seasons. I think that’s what brings his price down a bit behind top-of-market guys like Trey Hendrickson, Jaelan Phillips, and Odafe Oweh. One thing that’s very impressive is his 6.5% missed tackle rate which was fourth-lowest among all edge rushers, and his athleticism really shows in his ability to track down plays from behind.
LB Leo Chenal
Previous team: Chiefs (2022-25).
Age: Turns 26 in October.
Height/Weight: 6-foot-3/250 pounds.
Spotrac market projection: Three years, $13.9 million.
Pro Football Focus projection: Two years, $12 million.
Chenal has been widely speculated for Buffalo from the moment Leonhard was hired as Leonhard was the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin for Chenal’s entire career there. He will be familiar with how Leonhard wants things done, and he’s coming off four seasons in Kansas City where he started 44 of 65 games and totaled 218 tackles, seven sacks, one interception and three forced fumbles. He also started five of 10 postseason games.
Chenal would give the Bills much-needed size at the second level playing next to 225-pound Terrel Bernard and he does a little of everything – effective in coverage and as blitzer, and he holds up well against the run – which is why he ranked 19th in PFF’s linebacker grades in 2025. The market projections seem a bit low, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he gets into the $7 or $8 million per year range, but that would still be well worth it for a player so young.
LB Justin Strnad
Previous team: Broncos (2021-25).
Age: Turns 30 in August.
Height/Weight: 6-foot-3/235 pounds.
Spotrac market projection: Two years, $7.6 million.
Pro Football Focus projection: Two years, $8 million.
Another player with ties to Leonhard who coached him his last two seasons with the Broncos which makes him an enticing, reasonably low-cost option. Strnad was 17th in PFF’s overall LB grades last year, just ahead of Chenal, and that’s because he’s the superior blitzer. In the last two seasons he had 7.5 sacks and 29 pressures on just 147 pass rush snaps.
Strnad played 31% of defensive snaps as a rookie in 2021, then was a special teams only player for two years before emerging in 2024, the year Leonhard arrived in Denver. In the last two years he started 16 of 33 games and played around 58% of the snaps and 2025 was by far his best season, so he’s a player on the rise hitting the market.
S Nick Cross
Previous team: Colts (2022-25).
Age: Turns 25 in September.
Height/Weight: 6-foot/212 pounds.
Spotrac market projection: Four years, $24.2 million.
Pro Football Focus projection: Three years, $35 million.
That’s a pretty big disparity in market value, so perhaps the answer is somewhere in between, but wherever it lands, Cross is a really nice under-the-radar player to pair up with Cole Bishop. He’s coming off a disappointing season so that could also reduce his market, and that wouldn’t be a bad thing for the Bills, especially for someone so young.
He has started all 34 games the last two years and totaled 266 tackles, four interceptions, 3.5 sacks and two forced fumbles and has been a willing run defender playing the bulk of his time as a box safety. Bishop played 275 box snaps in 2025, but he’s better suited at free safety where he played 449, so Cross would be the right compliment.
S Jalen Thompson
Previous team: Cardinals (2019-25).
Age: Turns 28 in July.
Height/Weight: 5-foot-11/190 pounds.
Spotrac market projection: Two years, $18.9 million.
Pro Football Focus projection: Two years, $19 million.
After toiling in Arizona for seven years where he played in just one postseason game (2021), one would imagine Thompson is pining to join a Super Bowl contender, and the Bills would love to have him because he has the kind of versatility they will covet as he can play free safety, box safety, and at slot corner.
He’s a little undersized, but that certainly hasn’t been a detriment as he’s been one of the best tackling safeties in the NFL. Last year he made 95 tackles in 15 games and his missed tackle percentage of 6.4 was 11th-lowest out of 107 safeties.
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: Buffalo Bills should target these 7 defenders in free agency
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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