How shorthanded Bills defense continues to hold up, and why it could get even better

Even though the Bills are only eight games into the 2024 season, they’re already on a three-game winning streak for the second time this year. Their 31-10 blowout victory on the road in Seattle was one of their more impressive showings of the season.

Now the Bills will shift into three straight matchups against playoff-contending teams in the AFC, beginning with the desperate Dolphins on Sunday in Orchard Park. But before shifting gears to Week 9, what did the in-depth look back at the coaches film from the Seahawks game yield?

Above all else, the All-22 showed a lot of reasons for optimism on the defensive side of the ball, especially when considering the big picture. Here’s a look at what stood out on Sunday, and what it means moving forward.

How the Seahawks game typified their 2024 defense and where it’s all headed

Although there is no actual halfway point due to the NFL playing 17 regular season games, this week is as good as any to reflect on what we’ve seen through the first two months, how specific situations have evolved relative to expectations and how things are trending toward the second half of the year. Specifically with the Bills’ defense, considering all the questions they had entering the year, what we’ve seen unfold has been altogether encouraging for the rest of the season.

Specifically, in the Seahawks game, defensive coordinator Bobby Babich and his group put together an outstanding effort that challenged the opponent at every level. Priority one was limiting Kenneth Walker III, because without DK Metcalf and the ground game not working, the Seahawks had no other offensive skill players who would challenge them deep. The effort required every level to work as one, to spill the run toward more help at all times. It began with the defensive line, where defensive end Greg Rousseau and the trio of defensive tackles, Ed Oliver, DaQuan Jones and Austin Johnson, each had reps where they won their one-on-one assignment to put pressure on the runner, diverted him toward more help, and watched as the Bills were able to bring him down for a minimal gain.

The defensive line excelling in that way helped free up the second-level defenders, with Dorian Williams showing well to get off blocks and one excellent play with goal-to-go where he stiff-armed a block attempt to keep the Seahawks from scoring. Nickel corner Taron Johnson predictably played an excellent game in run support, and even spot starter Baylon Spector showed up well there too. The Bills had the occasional drop-down from safety Taylor Rapp, and that’s how they kept Walker III bottled up for the entire game.

There was only one rushing attempt where the Bills lost that total team effort and required one player to bail them out. It was an early attempt, but right defensive end A.J. Epenesa and the linebackers got pinned inside as Walker III went wide to the left. If it weren’t for a great read by starting cornerback Rasul Douglas to get upfield and then to make the one-on-one tackle on the explosive running back, all the runner would have had to do was win a footrace against safety Damar Hamlin — and we saw that go poorly in Baltimore against Derrick Henry.

The Seahawks needed to rely solely on quarterback Geno Smith to move the ball while having a trio of underneath receivers on the field at all times. They were able to maneuver some of the zone defenders on a handful of plays, but for the most part, they remained sound in their assignments. Smith even tends to stare down his targets, which led to some big play opportunities that were near turnovers but ultimately incomplete. Overall, the Bills were assignment-sound all game, and outside of a handful of individual reps, they were consistently a step ahead of the Seahawks.

That leads into the bigger picture side of things because although they were without Metcalf, the Seahawks’ offensive attack has been pretty good this season. And this isn’t the first time a Bills defense, a depleted one at that, has produced big results against a good offense. They did so against the Cardinals in Week 1 following a slow start, then again in Week 2 against the Dolphins, and they slowed down a super-talented Texans offense to 23 points while on the road. Then throw in the dominant efforts against the more overmatched Jaguars, Jets and Titans, and you have a defense that has shown well enough in seven of their eight matchups to limit points and give the offense every opportunity to win a game.

But most impressively, the Bills arrived at this point with many questions about their starting defense and depth, and they’ve continued to defy those doubts. At some point, questions get answered, and the Bills did a lot of answering by themselves. Let’s just list all of the different potential pitfalls heading into and during the year.

• Would the defensive line get enough of a pass rush up front without Leonard Floyd on the team?
• How would they operate without star linebacker Matt Milano in the lineup once again? And then without middle linebacker Terrel Bernard at the same time?
• How much of a drop-off would there be at safety from 2023?

The Bills answered many of these questions with good game plans and clutch moments. The defensive line has mostly rounded into form, and fourth-year player Greg Rousseau has taken a certifiable step forward, specifically over the last two weeks — and that was with a tweak the Bills made to get more out of him. After mixing and matching sides all of 2023 and through six games in 2024, the Bills simplified things for Rousseau. They’ve played him exclusively at left defensive end each of the last two games — where he had spent his entire college career and first two NFL seasons. The results? Rousseau had 15 pressures over those two games, with a pressure rate of 25 percent, according to TruMedia. For the entire season, Rousseau has the 13th-highest pressure rate (16.7 percent) among pass rushers with at least 100 pass-rushing snaps this season.

Increased playing time for rookie Javon Solomon could help the Bills defense. (Joe Nicholson / Imagn Images)

Along with Rousseau, the Bills have watched as both defensive tackles DaQuan Jones and Ed Oliver have gotten far closer to their excellent 2023 form over the last few games. Moving forward, if the Bills could get a bit more from Epenesa (7.1 percent) and Dawuane Smoot (5.8 percent) or give a bit more time to rookie Javon Solomon (15.4 percent on 26 pass-rushing snaps), that would be their final problem to solve. But the good news is that they’re getting rotational rusher Von Miller (18.3 percent on 71 pass rush snaps) back from suspension this week, and if they can get production out of him rushing from the right side, they could solve the last question about that group.

At the second level of the defense, the Bills have been through it all year. They lost Milano in the preseason to a multi-month pectoral injury, saw Johnson suffer a month-plus forearm fracture seven snaps into the season, and lost Bernard for at least three games to two separate injuries. When Bernard was available, he was outstanding, which helped shoulder the blow of not having at least one of the Milano and Johnson duos until Week 6.

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Williams has also taken some nice steps forward from a turbulent rookie year, but much like they did last year for Tyrel Dodson, they’ve put Williams in a place to succeed by taking him off the field in obvious passing situations and replacing him with a defensive back. But now with Bernard having a chance to return soon, and the Bills making public that the expectation is for Milano to return at some point, that will help the defense become even more unpredictable. Milano, when healthy, is an every-snap player, which means the opponents will have difficulty nailing down the Bills’ third-down playcalling principles.

While the Bills have provided answers almost everywhere else, safety remains their most significant question. The starting duo this year has been Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin, which started slowly at the beginning of the year. The Bills have done a nice job at lessening their overall footprint on the game both with scheme and the great play of boundary cornerbacks Christian Benford and Rasul Douglas. Rapp has even improved since the beginning of the year, having put together his three best games of the season over the last three weeks. Hamlin remains the most significant question mark, as his play-it-safe style, along with hesitance to dip down into the play has cost the team a lot of yardage over the season.

However, as the team keeps winning and distancing themselves from the rest of the AFC East, the more realistic it would seem for a potential reunion with Micah Hyde. It’s about to be November, and Hyde has yet to announce his retirement after leaving the door wide open on returning to play for the Bills. The Bills, whenever asked, have reciprocated. The longer it goes with the Bills looking like a legitimate Super Bowl contender, the more practical Hyde’s return to the team becomes. And given that Hyde worked with Rapp in 2023, Hyde would likely be able to hit the ground running after a few weeks of practice. If the Bills could manage that, it would put an exclamation point on a unit already performing above expectations.

For the most part, the Bills have yielded positive answers all across their defense. And with some key players — Bernard, Milano and Miller — on the way to returning, and potentially Hyde if they continue to win, the Bills suddenly have the makings of a starting lineup that could help them make a significant postseason run. The defensive staff deserves a ton of credit almost across the board as they head to the second half of the season.

Quick thoughts on the top 4

RB James Cook (A) — Cook looked in control the entire game, smoothly reading his keys and maximizing his runs where the blockers dictated. There were even a few reps where Cook did all the work himself, getting skinny by a defender to get more yardage, getting wide and beating the defense to the stop, or putting his shoulder down to keep the ball moving forward. A whopping 12 of Cook’s 17 carries went for four or more yards — nine of which for at least six yards.

LG David Edwards (A-minus) — Whether he was working as a lone soldier or on a combination block — usually with center Connor McGovern — Edwards was one of the best players on the field Sunday. In one-on-one situations, he showed off his power in turning his assignment the way he wanted in run blocking, and then showing lower body power to anchor in pass block sets.

LT Dion Dawkins (A-minus) — Dawkins was calm and had the upper hand almost the entire game. He forced his assignment to the ground several times, which has become a consistent piece of his game this season as he’s working smarter with his hand-to-hand combat. Dawkins did not allow a single pressure the entire game on 38 pass-blocking snaps. Along with Edwards and Dawkins, the offensive line made up five of the top eight spots against Seattle.

WR Keon Coleman (A-minus) — With due respect to his 100-yard game against the Titans, Coleman’s showing against the Seahawks was the best of his young career. His route running was consistent, he read the spacing against zone coverage excellently and he chipped in as a blocker. He earned all of those targets, and it was nearly an even bigger statistical day for him.

Players with fewer than 15 snaps:

DE Casey Toohill (14), DT Eli Ankou (13), WR Jalen Virgil (11), TE Quintin Morris (10), FB Reggie Gilliam (9), QB Mitchell Trubisky (7), T Ryan Van Demark (7), C Sedrick Van Pran-Granger (7), DE Javon Solomon (4), LB Nicholas Morrow (0), LB Joe Andreessen (0), CB Kaiir Elam (0), CB Ja’Marcus Ingram (0), CB Brandon Codrington (0), S Cole Bishop (0)

**Minimum 120 snaps

How the standards work

When the All-22 film becomes available, we’ll go through and watch every player on every play as many times as necessary to assess letter grades. It is a subjective analysis, and it’s important to note we do not know the play calls and full responsibilities. The grades stem from technique, effort and presumed liability.

The study accounts only for players who take a snap on offense or defense. Players with fewer than 15 snaps — unless they significantly impact the game — will not factor into weekly rankings. The grades range from an ‘A’ (a perfect 4.00 GPA) to ‘F’ (0.00 GPA). There is no such thing as an ‘A+’ in this grading system. Season-long grades will be tallied and documented, with a single game’s grade weighted based on how much the player was on the field in a given week.

(Top photo of Dorian Williams: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)