The veteran nose tackle has a puncher’s chance at making the 53-man roster this year
The Buffalo Bills utilize a heavy rotation along the defensive line. As such, the team generally tries to stack both the interior defensive line and the edges with quality players. While not all of those players will be Pro Bowl caliber, they will each have a niche role that allows them to maximize their strengths for at least a handful of snaps per game.
Part of the reason why it’s difficult to look at the stats for a defensive tackle and determine whether that player is doing his job is because of the nature of that position. A three-tech, for example, is going to have far different responsibilities than a one-tech, and while a player may seem to fill one of those roles better than the other on the whole, we don’t know which role he’s supposed to fill on a play-to-play basis.
In short, the Bills have a group of defensive linemen meant to work effectively as a whole. In today’s edition of “91 players in 91 days,” we profile one of those bricks in the wall.
Eli Ankou
- Number: 51
- Position: DT
- Height/Weight: 6’3”, 325 pounds
- Age: 30 (31 on 6/8/2025)
- Experience/Draft: 6; signed with the Houston Texans as a UDFA following the 2017 NFL Draft
- College: UCLA
- Acquired: Re-signed with Bills on 10/25/2023
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Ankou signed a one-year deal worth a total of $1,132,500 for the season. Of that contract, just $7,500 is guaranteed. That figure is what Buffalo will carry as a dead-cap charge if Ankou is released. Thanks to the veteran’s minimum exception, Ankou will carry a cap hit of just $992,500 if he makes the roster.
2023 Recap: Ankou spent the 2023 offseason with Buffalo, and he remained with the team throughout the preseason. In two preseason games with Buffalo, he notched four total tackles. He didn’t make the team out of camp, however, and the Bills signed him to the practice squad after he was released. In October, Ankou was signed by the Atlanta Falcons off of Buffalo’s practice squad, and he appeared in one game with the club. He made one tackle on nine defensive snaps. Atlanta released him on October 24, and Buffalo re-signed him to the practice squad the following day. Ankou didn’t appear in a game for the Bills. He signed a reserve/futures contract with the team on January 23, 2024.
Positional outlook: Ankou is one of three players along the interior defensive line whose primary job is the one-tech, or space-eating, defensive tackle. The other two are DaQuan Jones and Austin Johnson. Buffalo’s other defensive tackles are Ed Oliver, Gable Steveson, DeWayne Carter, Branson Deen, and DeShawn Williams.
2024 Offseason: Ankou has participated in OTAs and minicamp.
2024 Season outlook: Ankou is a reliable veteran to plug in when someone needs a breather, but he’s absolutely not the person you want taking 30 snaps per game along the defensive line. Both Jones and Johnson are better suited to anchor than Ankou, but I wouldn’t count the Ottowan out entirely.
Ankou knows the ins and outs of Buffalo’s defensive system as well as anyone given the length of time he’s spent with the club, so I at least expect that he’ll be with the team as a member of the practice squad. If there’s an injury up front during the preseason, he’d be my first choice as the player to make the 53-man roster until whomever is hurt returns, as well.
Ankou is a good enough player to pencil in for some snaps with the Bills this year, but he isn’t good enough to rely upon for more than just a little bit of time.