After a year spent diving deep for depth, the Bills have reinforced their linebacker group
The Buffalo Bills had injury issues at linebacker last season. After allowing Tremaine Edmunds to leave via free agency, the Bills needed a young player to step up in his place. Not only did that young player step up, but he actually outplayed Edmunds by a significant margin. For a moment, it looked as if Buffalo’s linebacker group was going to be as good as it had been since London Fletcher and Takeo Spikes topped the depth chart.
Then, on a fateful day in London, the injury bug struck. From that point forward, it felt as if the Bills were continually shuttling players in and out. While another young player stepped up, it wasn’t long before that player was injured... and then his backup was injured... and then the Bills found themselves calling a player out of retirement — A.J. Klein — who not only had to start a playoff game, but was asked to guard tight end Travis Kelce.
It’s very clear that general manager Brandon Beane wants to avoid that scenario again this season, and as a result, he’s added a younger, more athletically diverse group of options to the roster in hopes of hedging his bets against the injury bug striking again. The Bills have two elite linebackers, and then a group of solid contributors who should be able to keep the team afloat in the event of emergency.
In today’s edition of “91 players in 91 days,” we profile a veteran linebacker whose best days appear to be behind him; however, some time in a linebacker-friendly system could be just what the doctor ordered for a career renaissance.
Name: Deion Jones
Number: 45
Position: MLB
Height/Weight: 6’1”, 222 pounds
Age: 29 (30 on 11/4/2024)
Experience/Draft: 9; drafted in the second round (No. 52 overall) by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2016 NFL Draft
College: LSU
Acquired: Signed with Buffalo as UFA on 5/3/2024
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Jones signed a one-year contract that will pay him a total of $1.21 million if he makes the team. Thanks to the veteran’s minimum exception, Jones will only carry a cap hit of $985,000 for the season. Nothing in the contract is guaranteed, so the Bills can release him with no dead-cap charge.
2023 Recap: Jones signed with the Carolina Panthers in the offseason, but he was released at the end of the preseason. Carolina signed him to their practice squad on September 11, and they promoted him to the active roster on September 20. He ended up playing in 13 games, making three starts, for the Panthers. He amassed 35 tackles, four of which went for a loss, one sack, and six pass breakups across 313 defensive snaps. He only played half of the team’s defensive snaps twice, as he was used mainly as a nickel-or-dime linebacker in obvious passing situations. To that end, he allowed just 54% of the passes thrown while he was the closest man in coverage to be completed, the lowest number of his career.
Positional outlook: Jones is one of two linebackers on Buffalo’s roster set to turn 30 this year. The other is Matt Milano, who turns 30 in July. Otherwise, Buffalo’s linebacker group has a veteran in a similar situation to Jones in Nicholas Morrow, an up-and-coming young star in Terrel Bernard, and a handful of youngsters looking to carve out roles in Dorian Williams, Baylon Spector, Joe Andreessen, and Edefuan Ulofoshio.
2024 Offseason: Jones is healthy and participating in OTAs.
2024 Season outlook: I believe that Buffalo will keep six off-ball linebackers on the final roster. That feels like a lot for a team that only uses them two at a time on defense, but the four reserves will have a big presence on special teams.
With that in mind, I view Milano and Bernard as the unquestioned starters, Williams and Spector as very safe bets to be the first reserves in, and Ulofoshio as a near-guarantee on the roster as a 2024 NFL Draft choice and potential special teams monster. That leaves Jones competing with the other undersized veteran, Morrow, for that sixth spot.
We can speculate all we want, but the two players’ contracts likely give us all the information we need: Whereas the Bills could release Jones at no cap penalty, the team would carry a $750,000 dead-cap number for releasing Morrow. If they want to include one of the two veterans on their practice squad, I’d bet on Morrow making the roster and Jones being the guy who comes back on the practice squad. Barring something drastic happening this summer, that’s how I see it playing out come fall.