PITTSFORD — NFL coaches would do well at a teenage slumber party. They love to spout off grandiose plans and love to keep secrets even more.
It’s been nearly seven months since the Buffalo Bills hired Jim Leonhard as defensive coordinator and mystery still shrouds his scheme and his plan to execute it. We know the Bills are going to run a 3-4 defense and that they want players versatile enough to line up in a variety of positions.
We also know where the Bills want to play some players. Bradley Chubb and Greg Rousseau are outside linebackers. Ed Oliver is a 3-technique defensive end, Landon Jackson and T.J. Sanders are 4i-technique defensive tackles and Deone Walker and DeWayne Carter are nose tackles.
We also don’t know who is going to start in some positions, like inside linebacker next to Terrel Bernard. Nor do we know how and what percentage Leonhard intends to blitz or how often he will play man-to-man coverage.
Training camp has done little to provide clarity. And that’s coming off a spring when the Bills provided few 3-4 looks while the media present at minicamps.
Some of it is keeping intricate plans a secret. Some of it is injuries, as players like Keonta Jenkins got first-team reps Thursday while the Bills limited players like Bernard and Dorian Williams after offseason surgeries. And another part is the Bills have yet to practice in full pads, which isn’t permitted until Day Seven due to the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement.
“I’m excited to watch Jim use the different packages and putting guys in different spots,” Bills general manager Brandon Beane said after practice Wednesday. “… We’ve got some safeties that have some good experience in this league, and what are some different ways he can use them as we build this roster and decide who the best 53 players are.”
The assumption is that Leonhard’s defense will be a hybrid of what Vance Joseph ran in Denver and what he picked up as a player for Rex Ryan and Mike Pettine, three coaches he spent eight of his 12 years learning from as an NFL player and coach.
All three coaches leaned on a high blitz rate and weren’t afraid to play extensive man coverage, particularly Ryan and Pettine. In short, the expectation is that Leonhard retools what he used as the University of Wisconsin defensive coordinator — the only time he’s been a coordinator — from 2016-2022.
Or maybe not.
“Totally different scheme,” said Bills outside linebackers coach Bobby April III, who coached with Leonhard from 2018 to 2022 at Wisconsin. “Similar terminology, so we talk the same language right now, but he just sees the game in a totally different view. It’s impressive. He sees it before it happens, which is hard to find in coaches. And he’s got that ‘it’ factor.”
We do know the thought process in shifting to a 3-4 is to create more one-on-one opportunities. Leonhard has spoken often about getting those matchups for a guy like Oliver —who saw too many double-teams in a four-man front — and Rousseau, who hasn’t been asked to pin his ears back and rush the passer at a high rate during his career.
Essentially using a five-man front means the offensive line is responsible for one man apiece unless they keep a tight end in to bolster protection. And because teams play subpackages more than base, another way to create a five-man rush out of a four-man front is by blitzing.
Considering the only team to have a 50% blitz rate since NFL Next Gen Stats began tracking it in 2018 was the 2019 Baltimore Ravens, it’s unlikely Leonhard eclipses the 50.3% blitz rate he had at Wisconsin. But he should be more aggressive than the Bills have seen in recent years.
After ranking in the NFL’s top half from 2018 to 2021 with a 28.6% blitz rate, the Bills blitzed 21% of the time, never finishing higher than 21st and ranking in the bottom six three times from 2022 to 2025.
“I think we have a smart group that understands the differences of that and how it can help them,” Leonhard said. “How it can help free them up, isolate offensive linemen, which is what you want to do in the NFL, man. You want to take some of the double teams off and make it a little bit harder for those guys up front.”
The Bills are off Friday and return for an 8:30 a.m. practice Saturday.