ORCHARD PARK — Most of the NFL Draft preparation was finished by the time Joe Brady was named head coach of the Buffalo Bills.
Brady inherited a team that’s been on the cusp of a Super Bowl berth for six years, but he was promoted to inject some new energy into the franchise. Clearly the Bills were missing something in their spectacular postseason shortcomings, particularly with a defense that gave up 33.2 points per game in its last six playoff losses.
One of the areas Brady wanted to spotlight was aggressiveness, or “personality,” as he calls it. So Brady suggested a “Bills Red” tag for prospects who play with a certain level of aggression.
Brady sought Jim Leonhard to be his defensive coordinator, someone who fit his vision. And they found players who possessed the aggressiveness desired, some of them being players that wouldn’t have been considered targets by the previous coaching staff.
“If everything is very structured and guys are afraid to make mistakes or try new things, you’re not going to see that personality come out on game day,” Leonhard told GNN Sports. “… If you’re an aggressive and attack style of defense and players know that you’re going to give them freedom to be aggressive and you’re going to teach players how to play off of them, you’re going to get the best out of them.”
One of the players the Bills added in free agency that fit the mold they were searching for was safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, a player they could have added after Houston released him three games into the season after a sideline spat with teammates.
Gardner-Johnson is a talented player, but hasn’t been able to find a home for long, with the Bills being his sixth team in eight seasons. He’s not dirty, but he has the personality Brady has been talking about.
Much of Leonhard’s 10-year playing career came in a similar style of defense to the one he runs, Rex Ryan being one of the architects. Ryan had success giving his players a long leash, but it also unraveled during the second of his two seasons as Bills head coach in 2016.
Leonhard knows it can be easy for the line between aggressive and undisciplined to blur.
“In order to give players the right to just let it loose and play fast and play with confidence, you have to give them a certain amount of freedom and deal with a certain amount of mistakes, and I guess, maybe just not as clean of a picture,” Leonhard said. “At the end of the day, it’s always a fine line. Because if it’s too loose, that can get you beat in the other way.”
On training camp’s first day of pads, Leonhard didn’t advocate for fighting, but he did note that it was better to see if his team had some “bite” than if they didn’t. Brady also denounced fighting during camp, but he liked the fact that his rookies had the gumption to stick up for themselves and started most of the scuffles.
Rookie linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr was at the center of a few scuffles, establishing his intense personality and physical style. He went so far as to say before the preseason opener, “Guys in the same helmet or not, I’m going to still do my job 110%.”
Cornerback Davison Igbinosun has also gotten under the skin of teammates on the field since the Bills made him a second-round pick in April. Igbinosun is a physical player who thrives in man-to-man coverage, something the Bills haven’t had since Stephon Gilmore. That’s not always appealing to receivers, but he’s offered no apologies.
“They don’t like to be touched,” Igbinosun said. “Receivers are like divas, they’re prima donnas. They want to be cut, they want to dance and I don’t go for any of that. Put hands on them and you disrupt their timing. … A lot of colleges rely on athletes and quarterbacks just making plays. In the NFL, the defensive line is too good. Everything is timing.”
Igbinosun had brief preseason spats with receivers Keon Coleman and Joshua Palmer, neither of which lasted long or lingered after. Both were plays Igbinosun was aggressive and perhaps more physical than the receivers preferred.
But Igbinosun wasn’t admonished for either shoving match. In fact, Brady approached the rookie after one and offered some encouragement.
“It feels good that I have the support, but I would just say that I’m playing smart,” Igbinosun said. “I’m not doing anything that’s out of the system. I’m not playing dirty, so there’s absolutely nothing for them not to defend or nothing for them not to support.”
Leonhard certainly has the early support of his players, but most of the holdovers from last season note that physicality and aggressiveness is nothing new. Sean McDermott frequently talked about playing physically.
Based on his background, Leonhard is likely to blitz more frequently than McDermott did in his last few seasons. But most players point to stopping the run as the true measure of whether the defense should be considered physical.
McDermott’s defenses were good, at times innovative. The Bills had six top-10 defenses and five top-10 pass defenses in nine seasons. They ranked in the top 10 in takeaways — five consecutive in the top four — every year until last season.
But because the scheme relied on playing with five defensive backs more than 90% of the time, it was susceptible to being gashed by the run. The Bills ranked in the bottom 10 as many times as the top 10 (twice), while ranking in the bottom 10 in yards per carry four times, including two of the last three seasons.
In Leonhard’s two seasons in Denver, the Broncos became the third team to record consecutive 60-sack seasons since the NFL began tracking sacks in 1982, joining the Bears (1984-87) and Raiders (1984-86). But the Broncos also ranked in the top three in run defense both seasons, holding opponents under 4 yards per carry.
“(Physicality) was stressed a lot last year as well, but I feel like it’s definitely a big emphasis this year,” Bills defensive lineman Landon Jackson said. “… I feel like all the teams that end up getting the sacks are teams that dominate the run and get to third down. So I feel like that’s a big thing that goes with physicality is being able to stuff the run.”