Kaleb Elarms-Orr is starting to carve out a real role for the Buffalo Bills, and his biggest showing yet came in Sunday’s win over the Patriots.
The rookie linebacker logged 16 snaps against New England, the most he has played in an NFL game so far. That followed a steady climb from eight snaps in Week 1 against the Texans, 12 against the Lions and nine against the Chargers.
Even with that uptick, Elarms-Orr is still only at a 15.5% defensive snap rate through four games. That trails inside linebackers Dorian Williams and Terrel Bernard by a wide margin, with Williams at 67.1% and Bernard at 96.1% of Buffalo’s defensive snaps.
But the usage is starting to make more sense. Elarms-Orr has been productive when he’s on the field, and the Bills’ inside linebacker group has not exactly been thriving in Jim Leonhard’s scheme.
Through his limited action, Elarms-Orr has piled up nine tackles without a miss. In coverage, he was charged with four receptions allowed for 61 yards across the first three games of the 2026 campaign, then held the Patriots without a reception on nine coverage snaps.
The film matches the numbers. He’s reading plays quickly, closing fast and covering ground smoothly enough to take away throwing lanes.
Against the Patriots, his run defense stood out first. Late in the third quarter, he blew up a tackle for loss on Rhamondre Stevenson by triggering immediately on his key and exploding into the play on a critical third down.
He flashed again on another Stevenson run, showing quickness attacking the line and the strength to stack and shed the left guard before helping slow the gain.
That ability to disengage from blocks is not common for young linebackers. Elarms-Orr made it look natural.
His coverage work was just as encouraging. After mugging the A-gap next to Bernard before the snap, he dropped with control down the seam, checked the three-catcher side, then snapped his eyes back to Drake Maye while continuing to gain depth.
That sink clogged the window to Romeo Doubs down the middle, forced Maye into a second pat of the ball, and gave Greg Rousseau just enough extra time to get a hit on the quarterback and force an incompletion.
He also had another smart run-defense snap against New England. Working against a tight end at the second level, he made first contact, peeked outside to help steer the back away from the edge, then worked back inside to help finish the tackle.
That kind of processing and spatial awareness is exactly what stands out in space.
One more piece of the picture: Elarms-Orr was the Bills’ primary dime linebacker against the Patriots. In those one-linebacker, six-defensive-back looks, he was usually the linebacker on the field.
And that matters because dime has been a major part of Buffalo’s defense through four games, accounting for 27.1% of its personnel usage. That’s just under a point more than base, according to Fantasy Points data.
He’s still easy to miss if you’re not looking for him. But the snaps are climbing, and so is his importance.
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Kyren Williams just came off a game in which he was heavily involved as a receiver, another wrinkle Buffalo has to account for if the Rams want to keep Stafford on schedule. On the other side, the Bills will have to sort through a defense leaning on Cover 1 man coverage, with safety Trent McDuffie playing at a high level and Byron Young emerging as the Rams' top outside pass rusher. [Read more 🡒]