It’s time to have an uncomfortable conversation about Taron

[Pecker]

We need to remake the defensive backfield.  Against Atlanta, when the D made some stops in the second half, Bishop was benched for Poyer and I saw a lot of Cam Lewis too, was he in for TJ? That was my assumption, but he may have been outside.  
 

I think Poyer needs to be a half-time starter, he’s too old and the season too long for him to be full time.  Play him say first part of the 1st Quarter and 4th quarter, and end of half?  Do the same thing with Tre, just rotate him in some series and let others play more snaps.   Start getting Cam Lewis more time too.

 

we couldn’t get any worse. 

1 hour ago, oldmanfan said:

It’s always sad to see vets slow down.  For PFF fans, Lewis was the highest rated guy on the D last week.  Perhaps Cam goes in there and Hancock to safety.

As I said, It was a noticeable difference when cam and Poyer came in. 

[JP51]

5 hours ago, thenorthremembers said:

 

Daquan, Bosa, and Milano will all be on void years, so they will be free agents, I dont expect them back.    Hamlin, White, and Trubisky are all free agents as well.   I also fully expect them to designate Knox and Samuel as post June 1st cuts.  However, I can see them bringing Knox back on a new contract with a much lower cap hit.

 

On Oliver, I dont see them moving on from him.   It will cost them 18.4 million dollars over 2 years to trade him.  I expect him to play out his contract and move on from him before the 2028 season. 

Agreed on it all... no cutting Oliver he has trade value... for the record i think he is absolutely here next year... just citing him as one of those that are paid at a higher level then they produce 

[ganesh]

10 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

I’m hoping he can turn in a better season this year. He’s clearly at best on his last leg I was hoping he was going to be like Po in 2023 still good but lost half a step. Glad the team drafted three DB’s in the draft because this team is older at corner. Hoping a bye helps him out and he can regain some form

With Strong's injury potentially be career-ending we are back to square one again.

[Matt_In_NH]

13 hours ago, LabattBlue said:

Not to nitpick, but 2026 dead cap hit of 7.75 and 2027 dead cap hit of 5.45.

If you take then hit in 2026. The 2026 number is nil.    They can do a post June 1 and save a lot more next year  and then 5.45 in 27.  

[The Jokeman]

14 hours ago, HOUSE said:

When does this become uncomfortable?

I keep reading it over and over

Ole Yeller syndrome. 

[dave mcbride]

19 hours ago, Einstein said:

He was trending down last year as well.

He did have a truly spectacular pick vs the Jets that sealed the game last season. That game was hardly in the bag too. They could have lost it.

Edited yesterday at 01:41 PM by dave mcbride

[boyst]

15 hours ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

The problem with Taron being underperforming is the defense basically needs him to be elite. He is the cog to the entire D.

if we had consistent outside help and over the top help it would be very important.

 

for nickel to be successful you must have a field corner that can cover a lot of field - we do not. but more importantly we need coverage across the middle of the free safety and we do not have that at all.

 

taron is churning his legs and not making butter. he's drowning because everyone around him is drowning.

[T master]

I think after this season there will be a lot of change as far as players are concerned, Taron, Tre, Daquon, Damar, Millano,Samuel, Lewis , Codrington, Epenesa, Dane Jackson, Poyer, & others I don't see here next year & I could add Moore to that list too .

 

Plus if some of the players that were extended  don't play up to their contracts it wouldn't hurt my feeling to use them as trades for some draft capital if they could get rid of a majority of their cap hit with them .

[Gigs]

What did we do as a fanbase to deserve a defensive rebuild during the peak of the greatest QB to wear the uniform? 

 

If Hairston does not hit immediately then we are cooked, and looking at age 32 for Josh before we make another push. By then, who knows how much athletic juice he will have in the tank, but I feel Josh is really another Elway and not a Big Ben. 

 

Still, if Josh retires without a ***** Lombardi we should burn down that stadium. That would be worse than Marino imho. Marino has no excuse when he should've had 2 SBs by '86. We havent even sniffed a SB jock yet. If Im Pegula I give them the ultimatum that Josh starts a SB before he turns 30 or they're out. 

[HamptonBillsfan]

20 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

If there was any chance to hire Schwartz,  I'd do it in a heartbeat.  I just think it's a pipedream considering Sean's infatuation with his system. 

How about looking at the overall defensive approach starting with Sean’s personnel decisions, having Tre as your starting corner with every other new secondary addition either out for the season or coming back around week 10. Then there’s the coaching where primary targets(Diggs,London) are wide open time after time and on one on one tackling opportunities Bishop can’t make a play. This is an indictment of our system and Taron is not being put in a position to succeed. Let’s hope Beane can be proactive enough to bring in a difference maker in time to salvage home field in the playoffs.

[Solomon Grundy]

21 hours ago, FireChans said:

Taron Johnson may be washed folks.

 

He was honestly kinda shaky last year (he notably got eaten alive by the Rams) and this year he, well, hasn’t been good.

 

Some startling 2025 stats for one of our most steadfast Bills and perhaps the last very good player from our 2020-2021 team.

 

Missed tackle rate - 8.7%(highest since 2021)

QB rating when targeted - 102 (highest in his career)

 

Obviously NCB is a tough position and at his peak, TJ was up there for best in the business, but I’m afraid those days are coming to an end.

 

I think he is next up on the “pay cut or be cut” block in 2026 with a cap hit of $11M.

Maybe get rid of this horrible defensive philosophy??🤷

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

16 hours ago, ***** said:

We need to remake the defensive backfield.  Against Atlanta, when the D made some stops in the second half, Bishop was benched for Poyer and I saw a lot of Cam Lewis too, was he in for TJ? That was my assumption, but he may have been outside.  
 

I think Poyer needs to be a half-time starter, he’s too old and the season too long for him to be full time.  Play him say first part of the 1st Quarter and 4th quarter, and end of half?  Do the same thing with Tre, just rotate him in some series and let others play more snaps.   Start getting Cam Lewis more time too.

 

we couldn’t get any worse. 

As I said, It was a noticeable difference when cam and Poyer came in. 

I think bishop had cramps…don’t think it was a benching.  He honestly has been getting better granted it’s hard not to cuz the bar was so low to start with 😂. Rapp seems like the way bigger problem 

 

 

[boyst]

17 hours ago, ***** said:

We need to remake the defensive backfield.  Against Atlanta, when the D made some stops in the second half, Bishop was benched for Poyer and I saw a lot of Cam Lewis too, was he in for TJ? That was my assumption, but he may have been outside.  
 

I think Poyer needs to be a half-time starter, he’s too old and the season too long for him to be full time.  Play him say first part of the 1st Quarter and 4th quarter, and end of half?  Do the same thing with Tre, just rotate him in some series and let others play more snaps.   Start getting Cam Lewis more time too.

 

we couldn’t get any worse. 

As I said, It was a noticeable difference when cam and Poyer came in. 

At this point I wish we could go to more of a strategic dime. I don't think we need to do that against the Panthers because they can run the ball and we don't want to go to that dime package putting Taron and Lewis on the field. However if we did a hybrid dime were Shaq Thompson is on the field with Bernard at will linebacker and someone decent can play will that isn't named Dorian Williams.... Sure 

 

Against the Chiefs we found success in the playoff game once we finally woke TF up and the coaches realized we weren't going to get anywhere having a hybrid nickel in AJ Klein on a tight end. Putting cam Lewis in with Johnson is what got it done 

 

That may be the way to ride the rest of the year against teams that can't run the ball, which isn't a big deal until we face Philadelphia. 

 

Putting in those two with Shaq Thompson at will linebacker enables us to keep linebacker traits of Shaq Thompson, who is playing successfully and our best defender right now.

[machine gun kelly]

Agreed on Taron.  I hate it but he’s had his time.  We really need Hancock.  We can’t trade for everyone.

[Richard Noggin]

On 10/20/2025 at 2:21 PM, Mat68 said:

Move him to Safety.  Play Hancock at Nickel.  With the run defense as it is use more 4-3 over looks with Hoecht at the SAM.  He has been in the defense forever and think he could handle the conversion.  More athleticism and box responsibilities not too much different than Nickel.   

 

Little all over the place here, as you want them to run more 4-3 Over (which I agree with, with Hoecht as the SAM), but also Hancock should play the Nickel and Johnson should switch to safety? So Johnson would move to full-time safety (big increase in snap count) in an alignment (4-3 Over) that would actually ask MORE of its safeties in coverage, given you're effectively replacing an NCB with a big OLB. And Hancock wouldn't see the field as much as Johnson does now, depending on game script and matchups. It's a bit of a mashup of different ideas, which includes switching a strict lifelong NCB to full-time S. Hmm

 

 

[SoonerBillsFan]

At this point the entire secondary needs to be replace.  Pray Mad Max works out,that would at least be 1 piece. 

[VW82]

No. Haven’t you heard? Josh needs more receivers and we need to look more like the Bungles with zero hope on defense.

[Chugga]

I think he has the skill set and willingness to tackle that he could move to safety and get a few more years.  But not likely to ever happen 

[biggerdaddynj]

On 10/20/2025 at 1:43 PM, DrDawkinstein said:

Cant disagree. I've been hoping Jordan Hancock would step up into that role, and maybe that's what they're saving him for.

 

Love Taron, but father time is undefeated, and you have to be super athletic to be a good NCB.

Beane made it extremely clear that the scouting department contingent present in the draft war room had been “sweating it out” in the 5th round waiting to make the Jordan Hancock pick:

"[h]e was one of those ones, we were sweating it, sweating it, sweating it. The pick is in before, we can now pick him," said Beane during an appearance on One Bills Live. "I turn around. Behind me in the draft room is all of our area/national scouts, so I turned around and I saw as much enthusiasm from that as any pick there was because there's a lot of guys in there that are fired up. Again, I can make some cases for some other players, but if you ask my college scouts, that's the guy they would say."

 

Since one of the things the scouting staff hits on pretty well is the late round picks, I hope it happens again and Hancock is everything they thought he’ll be.  

Edited 12 hours ago by biggerdaddynj

[NewEra]

On 10/20/2025 at 11:41 AM, FireChans said:

Taron Johnson may be washed folks.

 

He was honestly kinda shaky last year (he notably got eaten alive by the Rams) and this year he, well, hasn’t been good.

 

Some startling 2025 stats for one of our most steadfast Bills and perhaps the last very good player from our 2020-2021 team.

 

Missed tackle rate - 8.7%(highest since 2021)

QB rating when targeted - 102 (highest in his career)

 

Obviously NCB is a tough position and at his peak, TJ was up there for best in the business, but I’m afraid those days are coming to an end.

 

I think he is next up on the “pay cut or be cut” block in 2026 with a cap hit of $11M.

💯