Positionless. That's been the word tossed around frequently by the new Buffalo Bills hierarchy throughout the offseason.
The Bills want positionless wide receivers, but they also want a lot of positionless defensive players for new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard . Some of that is hyperbole, of course. Defensive tackle Ed Oliver isn't going to line up at safety, nor is cornerback Christian Benford going to play inside linebacker.
But what the Bills really want are players they can move around the formation, to line up in positions they might not normally play. The key goal is making offenses question whether they are going to be there once the ball is snapped.
"If you can create a lot of different looks with the same 11 people, that's when offenses have to react," Leonhard said. "It changes blocking schemes, it changes what the quarterback — from a visual presentation — sees down in and down out. For (players), it's very simple. For (players), it's core concepts and different presentations of front structure or coverages that you're getting to, it's just going to look different to an offense."
That's not necessarily a drastic change from old coach Sean McDermott's defense. He was one the NFL's innovators in playing nickel defense on every snap. But his pre-snap checks and disguises could create confusion for opposing offenses and his own players alike.
"You're forcing offenses to think," Leonhard said. "You're forcing offensive lines and quarterbacks — they have the most stress on them on the field — and if you can force the offensive line to think, if you can force the quarterback to think pre-snap and have to react post-snap, you're going to be in control of a lot of snaps."
Leonhard wants the volume, but not the complexity — at least for his players. He wants more players in the mold of Michael Hoecht , who played defensive end on early downs and defensive tackle on passing downs. McDermott even played him at inside linebacker during training camp, but we never saw it during a game between his suspension and torn Achilles tendon.
A player who can play on the edge and as a stack linebacker is among the most coveted chess pieces a defense is seeking. Think Micah Parsons , Von Miller , or to a lesser degree, former Bill Lorenzo Alexander .
Ohio State's Arvell Reese is this year's prize in that department, but the Bills won't sniff him if he lands in the top-five as expected. The other problem with a player like Parsons, Miller or Reese is that if they are truly gifted, eventually they have to pick one position and usually it's pass rusher.
But Michigan's Jaishawn Barham could be a similar player the Bills could acquire later in the draft. Projected to go anywhere from the second to fourth rounds, Barham played inside linebacker during his first two seasons at Maryland and as a junior at Michigan, but showed last year that he can play on the edge in a 3-4.
Barham played 80% of his nearly 1,700 snaps as a box linebacker during his first three seasons, but played on the edge 85% of the time as a senior, logging 10 tackles for a loss and four sacks. At 6-foot-3 ½ and 240 pounds — with a 10-foot, 3-inch broad jump — Barham's pass-rushing skills are raw, but creative and he relies heavily on athleticism and bend.
"Playing off the ball helped my feet a lot, helped my eyes, helped me read coverage more," Barham said at the NFL scouting combine. "Being on the edge is just like … speed. It brings a different speed to the tackles. They're not used to that from an off-the-ball linebacker."
Bolstering the back end
The other common position teams look for versatility is a safety that can play nickelback or vice versa. The Bills signed Dee Alford to a three-year contract to play nickel, but at 5-11 and 180, he's probably not going to play much weakside linebacker like Taron Johnson was able to do for so long.
Linebackers like LSU's Harold Perkins Jr. are harder to gauge. He's a superb blitzer and finds his way into the backfield often — 35.5 TFLs and 17 sacks in 43 games — but despite his athleticism, Perkins struggles in coverage and is just 223 pounds.
There are linebackers who have successfully transitioned from linebacker to safety in the NFL like Darren Woodson and Pat Tillman. But it's far more common for a safety to become a linebacker, like Shaq Thompson and Thomas Davis, both of whom thrived under McDermott in Carolina.
Signing C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Geno Stone no longer make safety an immediate need, but both only inked one-year deals. And both Cole Bishop and Gardner-Johnson have the ability to play free and strong safety. Adding another in the draft could provide time to develop or allow the Bills to play more dime packages in obvious passing situations.
The most versatile safety or nickelback in the draft is unquestionably Oregon's Dillon Thieneman. An All-American safety as a freshman at Purdue in 2023 and again last year after transferring to Oregon, Thieneman has a lot of tools to offer a defense.
He's 6-foot and 201, with explosivity. He ran a 1.52-second 10-yard split in the 40, had a 41-inch vertical and a 10-5 broad jump. He's also highly intelligent and instinctive. He can get the back seven in the right alignment and coverage pre-snap and then produces post-snap — 10 takeaways and 14 pass break-ups in 39 games — with the ability to play safety, nickelback or drop into the box in dime situations.
The only problem is that Thieneman is projected to go in the first round, perhaps in the teens. But if he falls or drops into the 20s, he might be too hard for the Bills to pass up or consider trading up from No. 26 to snatch him, regardless of their offseason moves.
Instead, the Bills might be more interested in someone like Jalon Kilgore, a likely Day Two pick, who played a role similar to Johnson's at South Carolina at 6-1 and 210. He might be able to play safety in the NFL, but seems to be more suited to be a nickelback. And that's his preferred position.
Arizona 's Treydan Stukes is so versatile, no one seems to have a consensus opinion on which position he's best suited to play, with ESPN listing him at safety and NFL.com listing him as a cornerback. Stukes played nickelback in college, but he could be a pure safety in the NFL.
Stukes also has the size (6-1, 190) and athleticism — 4.33-second 40-yard dash, 10-10 broad jump and 38-inch vertical jump — to play outside cornerback. Like Kilgore, Stukes is likely to be taken in the second or third rounds.
Kansas State's V.J. Payne follows a similar mold to Kilgore, but is perhaps more suited to play safety. A potential fourth- or fifth-round pick, Payne could be tantalizing late in the third — the Bills pick 91st — because he ran 4.4, with a 10-7 broad jump and 35-inch vertical jump at over 6-3 and 205 pounds.
Payne is rangy as a safety and is a solid cover man against tight ends. While not a thumper, he does just enough in run support. More importantly, he can line up in various positions.
"Teams can look on tape and see the different skill-sets that I have," Payne said. "Being able to play in the box. Play in space. Doing different things of that nature. That's going to help me project my stock up with teams. I can show them that I'm not just a one-trick pony. I can do multiple things."
