BUFFALO, NY. (WKBW) — In the trenches of the Buffalo Bills defense, you’ll find plenty of returning talent from Ed Oliver to DaQuan Jones, Greg Rousseau, AJ Epenesa and Von Miller.
With returning talent comes returning chemistry.
“I feel like we as a team have a really good bond out there on the field on Sundays. When you’re connected and you’ve built that trust over the offseason," said defensive end Greg Rousseau.
Flashback to last season, the defensive line finished top five in both total sacks and sack percentage. However, against the run, they were about average compared to the rest of the league.
But as defensive coordinator Bobby Babich explained, having a healthy Jones back in the mix will make a big difference in turning that around.
“We all know what type of player he is but to me, it’s the consistency and leadership in that room," Babich said. "You don’t want guys that are riding the rollercoaster, you don’t want people that you work with riding the rollercoaster and you don’t know what you’re getting every day. He’s the same every day.”
And how about Miller? Does the Super Bowl champion edge rusher start to get back to the “old Von,” Bills Mafia grew to love?
While his age continues to creep up, his optimism that he is still a playmaker on this defense remains the same.
"I know what I can do and at the end of the day, you got to keep pushing. Whenever God says it’ll be over with, it’ll be over with but I still feel like I’ve got a couple of years left and I’m going to give it my all," Miller told reporters during OTA's.
Babich looks at the last few games of the season for Miller as a sign that he’s finding the next gear in his career.
“The things I did see there were flashes of Von Miller at the end of the year and Von is working hard to get back," he added.
If there was one positive that came out of Miller’s absence due to his ACL injury it had to be the rise of defensive ends AJ Epenesa and Rousseau. Head coach Sean McDermott sees this season as a huge opportunity for them both to take a big leap forward.
“They’ve put good things out there. They’ve flashed really high-level moments and now it’s about being full-time starters and they’re aware of that," said McDermott. "Both guys have worked extremely hard and that’s the opportunity that’s quite frankly in front of both of them."
This will be a position group to keep your eyes on as we get ready for the start of Bills training camp on July 24 at St. John Fisher University.
You can find our position preview on the wide receiver core below.
