ROCHESTER, N.Y.-The Bills spent Friday at camp with a clear mandate hanging over everything they did: Jim Leonhard’s defense has to be the answer.
That’s the fresh reality in Buffalo after Sean McDermott was let go following the crushing 33-30 overtime loss to the Broncos in the divisional playoffs. The offense, now with Joe Brady promoted from offensive coordinator, is expected to keep humming at a top-six level like it has since 2020, with DJ Moore adding another layer.
But the bigger pressure point is obvious. Buffalo needs Leonhard, hired from Denver after coordinating the league’s second-ranked defense, to produce the kind of stops McDermott’s units too often couldn’t in the biggest games.
Leonhard has also brought a major structural shift with him. The Bills are moving from a 4-3 to a 3-4 look, and that has turned camp into a constant sorting exercise across the front seven. With five weeks left before a Week 1 meeting with the Texans, the coaching staff is still working through who fits where and how the pieces should line up.
“For me, personally, I’ve done it one way for a long time,” veteran inside linebacker Terrel Bernard said. “So trying to flip my mind and work that system, I think that’s the biggest thing.
Just knowing how all the parts are moving and who you’re working with. In the run game, just who’s in the fit.
Besides that, I feel like we’ve grown a lot and gotten the details down to a level that we’ve come out here and executed pretty well.”
Bernard’s words capture the whole operation right now: adjust first, polish later. Buffalo has lived with strong defenses under McDermott before - top 10 in yards six times and No. 1 twice during his tenure - but the issue was never the regular season profile. It was the disappearance of impact plays when the pressure spiked.
In McDermott’s six playoff losses in either the divisional round or AFC title game, the Bills managed only six sacks and three takeaways. Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow were responsible for five of those defeats, and Buffalo simply didn’t create enough negative plays to change the script.
Friday’s practice, the last one at St. John Fisher University before the team heads back to its new digs in Buffalo, showed just how many moving parts still need answers.
The front seven should be built around nose tackle Deone Walker, defensive end Ed Oliver and edge rushers Bradley Chubb and Gregory Rousseau, but the rest of the rotation is far from settled. The Bills mixed in second-year players TJ Sanders and Landon Jackson, rookie second-round edge T.J.
Parker and linebacker Andre Jones Jr. Kaleb Elarms-Orr, another rookie linebacker and a camp standout, could also push for the starting job alongside Bernard.
That’s a lot to sort through, and the schedule doesn’t leave much room for a slow start. Buffalo opens with five games against four 2025 playoff teams - the Texans, Chargers, Patriots and Rams - and also has a Week 2 home opener against the Lions. The preseason will matter, both for players trying to win snaps and for others trying to absorb the new scheme on the fly.
“It’s been good. We’ve got some new teammates, some really good football players in the building,” Bernard says.
“Seeing all those guys mesh and gel together has been fun. I’m excited to see where we go.”
There’s change in the secondary, too. New defensive backs coach Jay Valai is working with slot corner Dee Alford and safety C.J.
Gardner-Johnson, and the Bills are leaning more heavily into match coverage, something Leonhard helped coach with the Broncos. Under McDermott, Buffalo was largely a zone team.
“The biggest adjustment is probably a different technique,” cornerback Christian Benford said. “Understanding how and when to apply those techniques.”
The back end is the part of the defense least affected by the overhaul, but it still isn’t settled. Benford is joined at corner by rookie second-round pick Davison Igbinosun, second-year man Maxwell Hairston and Alford. With Jared Goff, Justin Herbert, Drake Maye and Matthew Stafford all on the schedule before Halloween, the Bills are going to need that group to build chemistry fast.
All of it circles back to the same point: if McDermott’s firing is going to make sense, the defense has to finally deliver in the moments that used to slip away.
And on a day full of scheme talk and personnel juggling, the loudest reaction at camp came for Josh Allen.
When Allen came from a side field onto the main one and waved to the crowd, the place erupted. Jim Kelly, walking by, joked that he thought the cheers were for him. Steve Tasker was there, too, along with former center Mitch Morse, watching the session and taking in the scene.
Buffalo’s love for Allen is its own thing. This is a small-market team without a championship, a fan base that has lived through close calls, bad weather and years of punchline treatment.
Allen has become the face of all that hope. As Kelly made his joke and the crowd kept buzzing, there was a simple truth hanging over the moment: Allen is the guy Buffalo believes can finish the story.
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