New Bills assistant coach says the quiet part out loud about Buffalo’s problems under the previous coaching staff
New Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator didn’t shy away from talking about one of the team’s biggest issues from last season.
Bills defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard wasn’t in Buffalo last season — he was the assistant head coach for the Denver Broncos — but he didn’t shy away on Tuesday from addressing the team’s biggest defensive issue in 2025.
Buffalo finished with the No. 12 scoring defense in the NFL last season, which was the franchise’s worst ranking since 2020.
A big reason for the defense’s not-to-the-standard performance was poor tackling, which Leonhard was quick to point out on Tuesday.
“Schematically, you’re going to get guys in places to make plays,” said Leonhard. “That’s my job. But can who can finish and get guys on the ground. That’s was an Achilles’ heel here last year, right? So that’s the number one thing we have to to correct, and the number one way to do it is by getting population to the football.
“Everybody knows it. The effort you play with, and getting more than one guy to the ball — in all reality, it’s the biggest piece. Because scheme is scheme, but if you can’t get people on the ground, you’re going to have to make adjustments and figure out how you can help them do that.”
The Bills only had 78 missed tackles last season (compared to 171 missed tackles for the Cincinnati Bengals), but they had the worst missed tackle rate in the NFL. The missed tackle issue specifically showed up in the run game as the Bills had the No. 28 run defense in the NFL (136.2 rushing yards allowed per game).
It’s something that has to get better if the Bills are going to finally get back to the Super Bowl this season.
Buffalo will have a new scheme under Leonard as they move from a 4-3 to a 3-4 base defense.
The Bills will also be more aggressive, but they won’t be reckless.
“We’re going to be an attacking defense up front and in the back end,” said Leonhard earlier this offseason. “We’re going to attack the football. The biggest stat in football is turnovers, so we’re going to be aggressive, we’re going to fly around, we’re going to communicate, we’re going to play well together, but we’re going to cause issues for offense, and we’re going to force them to react to us. … We’re going to be aggressive, we’re not going to be reckless.”
Leonhard is also making stopping the run a priority.
“You have to be able to control the tempo of a game. The number one way to control the tempo of a game is stopping the run. To force them into situations where you’re in an advantageous position as a defense, so I’m a firm believer in stopping the run to make teams predictable.”
As Leonhard said, a coach can have the best scheme in the league, but if tackles aren’t being made, it doesn’t matter.
For whatever reason, tackling was a major issue for Buffalo last season. If Leonhard can simply make the Bills a better tackling team, this defense should be right back where it was a couple of years ago when it ranked among the best in the NFL.
