Ridiculous stat that sums up the secondary play

[Prospector]

Imagine the hurt feelings of those WRs if we intentionally broke up passes... that's just mean

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

Beane showed that he’s willing to make an in-season trade if the position is a complete dumpster fire. Sometime it works (Rasul Douglas) and sometimes it doesn’t (Amari Cooper.) This is an important year and seats are starting to warm up on the defensive side. Babich might be the chosen scapegoat 

[TBBills Fan]

The entire secondary is a mess

 

Benford doesn't look the same

 

Johnson looked bad this year AND last year

 

Tre is toast

 

Rapp was ALWAYS over rated 

 

There is hope for Bishop

 

Max on IR. Strong on IR 

 

Hancock has been in and out with injury

 

I was never a Rapp fan. 

 

Ugly so far

 

 

[Success]

I thought Strong played really well in the time he's had on the field.

 

Did we ever get any details on what's going on w/ him or a timeline for return?   

 

We might end up needing both him & Hairston by the end of the season. When the season started, I thought our CB situation was much better than it actually is.

[corta765]

21 hours ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

All I keep hearing is how T Johnson is an all pro. We are horrendous on 3rd down every year and guys just streak wide open across the field like Childs play. Him being out there also makes it so we can never stop the run. It’s a complete joke. WTF is this guy so good at?

 

I think his best days are behind and sadly now he is aging faster then ice melting.

[Gunsgoodtime]

34 minutes ago, TBBills Fan said:

The entire secondary is a mess

 

Benford doesn't look the same

 

Johnson looked bad this year AND last year

 

Tre is toast

 

Rapp was ALWAYS over rated 

 

There is hope for Bishop

 

Max on IR. Strong on IR 

 

Hancock has been in and out with injury

 

I was never a Rapp fan. 

 

Ugly so far

 

 

Looks like a Beane problem

[Bongo]

21 hours ago, All_Pro_Bills said:

Don't forget how complicated this scheme is to learn and play.

First, locate the closest receiver. Next get as far away from them as possible while still remaining on the field. When the QB throws rhe ball don't break on the route until the receiver catches the ball. Lastly, make sure to attempt the worst tackling technique as possible and make sure to take bad angles and miss. Allowing max YAC is best.

Remember this is very complicated.

Holy crap, I’m an all-pro at something finally 

[freddyjj]

13 hours ago, BearNorth said:

Benford is being paid CB money $17MM per.  Rapp is our highest paid safety at $3.5MM per

Yes I get that but you would also have 2 CBs on rookie salaries to offset that as well as Taron Johnson likely off the books. 

 

And please file this away as well.  

2025-2030 Extension

Kyle Hamilton signed a 4 year, $100,400,000 contract with the Baltimore Ravens, including $26,900,000 signing bonus, $82,022,604 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $25,100,000. In 2025, Hamilton will earn a base salary of $1,100,000, a signing bonus of $26,900,000 and a workout bonus of $3,150, while carrying a cap hit of $8,733,620 and a dead cap value of $50,276,224.

[henry jones]

13 hours ago, BearNorth said:

Benford is being paid CB money $17MM per.  Rapp is our highest paid safety at $3.5MM per.

How would Bishop's Int vs. the saints be classified?

A miracle?

[MJS]

On 10/6/2025 at 5:45 PM, gobills404 said:

As others have pointed the Bills have 11 pass breakups. It’s also worth noting that the Bills defense has faced the second fewest pass attempts per game in the league. Hard to get pass breakups when the other teams not throwing it.

And two interceptions.

[Old Coot]

Why does benford seem to have regressed this year?

 

Is he injured? Is it scheme?

 

Sunday night I noticed what looked like a CB sprinting backward just before the snap. Why?

[BananaB]

On 10/6/2025 at 7:18 PM, Pete said:

We need CB2 and WR 1 badly.  What do you got Beane?  Are we winning the Superbowl Beaner?  Or is it imperative you make some moves to improve both position groups?

The way our CB1 is playing we need a CB2 and a CB1. Plus our nickel corner has played like ***** too

[Buffaloflash]

On 10/6/2025 at 5:11 PM, All_Pro_Bills said:

Don't forget how complicated this scheme is to learn and play.

First, locate the closest receiver. Next get as far away from them as possible while still remaining on the field. When the QB throws rhe ball don't break on the route until the receiver catches the ball. Lastly, make sure to attempt the worst tackling technique as possible and make sure to take bad angles and miss. Allowing max YAC is best.

Remember this is very complicated.

You're Definity right on the mark, facetiously or not.

[Mister Defense]

On 10/6/2025 at 3:53 PM, HappyDays said:

In this video Erik says the Bills have just TWO pass breakups over the entire season, which unsurprisingly is the worst in the league. One of those was an Epenesa tipped pass from last night so really just one legit pass breakup from the secondary all year.

 

I don't know what happened to Benford, he has massively regressed. Meanwhile Tre obviously just can't physically play the position anymore. They will need to get Hairston on the field as soon as he is physically capable and hope for the best.

 

Yup to all, but they need more than just Hairston, been saying that since the draft.

 

They have to get some decent/good players for backups, depth.  Or Tre White, who should never play for the Bills again, will soon be out there again. Cannot happen.

 

If White cannot play the position effectively--and he cannot--then he cannot be a backup either.

 

Bills need to get much much more diligent now in their pursuit of corners.  It is shocking that Beane has not made any moves lately on this vital, completely undermanned position. And I am a Beane supporter.

 

The Bills are not contenders now, and won't be until they get several good corners--anyway they can get them.

 

 

[LABILLBACKER]

On 10/6/2025 at 1:02 PM, JP51 said:

I tend to think thats because teams run all over us they dont need to pass LOL...  seriously though, I would say overall this is the worst secondary I have seen in a long time... makes you long for Rasul and Kair LOL... 

Yes this is easily the worst db group of the Allen era. Tre is a pathetic 55 pff and Benford is just as bad. Maybe Hairston comes in and saves the day?  But right now we are bottom 5 in the NFL. And if our front 4 can't drag down qbs, we're screwed.

Edited 3 hours ago by LABILLBACKER

[DabillsDaBillsDaBills]

On 10/7/2025 at 9:55 PM, Old Coot said:

Why does benford seem to have regressed this year?

 

Is he injured? Is it scheme?

 

Sunday night I noticed what looked like a CB sprinting backward just before the snap. Why?

 

I don't think it's injury. There was a play he collided with Rapp earlier in the season and it looked like Benford had the wind knocked out of him. No other injury scares that I've noticed and he hasn't been on the injury report. 

 

The scheme hasn't changed much.

 

I guess he might be suffering from gotpaiditis 

 

 

[Bruffalo]

This confirms what I've been saying about the defense. The D-Line has been playing significantly better than we're used to, but the secondary has massively regressed and is having a ton of trouble playing out of structure. 

[Cash]

On 10/6/2025 at 6:24 PM, Simon said:

 

At least two other sources have them at 11 PDs, not 2; I am doubting the accuracy of Erik's claim.

They have also faced the 3rd or 4th  least amount of passes in the NFL this season.

 

On 10/6/2025 at 6:37 PM, HappyDays said:

 

Fair enough, he says his source is TruMedia. I usually use TeamRankings.com. On there they show Rousseau with 2 passes defensed on the year and no other Bills player with any (hasn't been updated to include Epenesa's from yesterday). Off the top of my head I can't think of any legit pass breakups from the secondary. Certainly not 11. So I'd like to know how that stat is being charted by different sources.

 

On 10/7/2025 at 7:47 AM, Nihilarian said:

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2025.htm

 

11

 

Thanks @Nihilarian for the link.  I find PFR to be very reliable, so I'm going to go with their numbers.  And per their numbers, 6 of the 11 passes defensed are from D-linemen.  I think it's fair to discount those for the purposes of this discussion, because D-linemen swatting balls at the LOS is great, but has nothing to do with your back 7's coverage abilities.  So that gets us to 5 "pass breakups" for the year.  Better than 2, but still really light.

 

I didn't scoff at the "2" in the OP, because honestly?  It felt true to what I've been watching all year.  I was thinking about this recently, too.  During the Frazier years - when our D was up at the top of the league - we would see a LOT of plays where our DB came in to make a play on the ball.  Sometimes it was caught anyway, occasionally it was PI, but most of the time it was a succesfull pass breakup.  I think we had one (1) of those in a recent game, and when it happened, it just occurred to me how rare that's been this year and last year, compared to how frequent it seemed to be around 2017-2021 or so. 

 

So I figured I'd take 10 minutes and look at the numbers from those years.  Source = PFR.  Methodology: I sorted by Passes Defensed, and only counted ones from back 7 players.  The one challenge was Lorax (Lorenzo Alexander if you're nasty), who played a hybrid role under McDermott.  I'm sure some of his PDs came by swatting passes at the line, but all of them?  I doubt it.  He did drop into coverage as a conventional LB a lot in those years, just not all the time.  And in 2 of the years, he had a ton of PDs - enough to move the needle on the team total.  So ultimately I decided to just put those separate, so folks can count or discount them as they please.  

 

2017: 72 + 1 from Lorax

2018: 51 + 9 from Lorax

2019: 60 + 9 from Lorax

2020: 63

2021: 68

2022: 69

2023: 58

2024: 48

2025: 5 so far, on pace for 17(!)

 

My conclusions:

1. The stats back up the eye test.  We appear to be in Year 3 of a downtrend, and we're currently on pace for this year to be a cliff's edge dropoff.
2. And based on the eye test, I don't think it's luck or happenstance.  It's not like guys are flying in to make plays on the ball and just missing, or getting burned by an incredible throw that simply can't be touched.  Our DBs are rarely in a position to attempt a play on the ball in the first place.
3. Whether the problem is due to personnel, scheme, or coordination (or other), it's a problem.  When the QB is able to throw to his first read on schedule, AND that guy is open enough that it's not a contested catch, your defense, generally speaking, is boned.  We're basically conceding that the other offense is going to get its skill position players the ball in space and let them go to work forcing missed tackles.
4. I still have hope for defensive improvement this year, but it needs to come from within.  Babich can be better by the end of Year 2 than he is right now.  The rookies and new guys can be better by year end than they are now.  The defense could get healthier... but counting on that is a fool's errand.  McDermott could maybe get more hands-on with the defense in a positive way.  I don't know.  But I do know that the defense has largely been bad this year, and it's fair to call them out on that.

[Shaw66]

On 10/6/2025 at 6:24 PM, Simon said:

 

At least two other sources have them at 11 PDs, not 2; I am doubting the accuracy of Erik's claim.

They have also faced the 3rd or 4th  least amount of passes in the NFL this season.

Wow. Third fewest passes attempted against the Bills, and the two teams ahead of them have played one fewer game.  So, the Bills are essentially leading the league in passes attempted against. 

 

Makes sense. Bills invite you to run the ball, and teams have been doing that.  

 

And it's worked as a strategy. Bills are 4-1 doing it the way they do. 

 

Still, I can't say it gives me much confidence.