The Bills are built to go further in 2026

Jordan Poyer. DaQuan Jones. Joey Bosa. Brandin Cooks. Tre’Davious White. Matt Milano. Shaq Thompson. Some of these names carry real weight in Bills Mafia, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. These guys earned their place in the fan base’s collective heart. But name recognition and current on-field value are two very different things — and right now, in 2026, those two things couldn’t be further apart for most of these players. Bosa is the clearest example. Before that wrist injury? Legitimate impact rusher, exactly what this defense needed. After it? A completely different player. Cooks — look, he had moments, but let’s not rewrite history. He was never the receiver this offense needed, and his OT non-catch in Denver perfectly encapsulated his entire run in Buffalo: moments of hope that just never quite materialized. And the fact that Milano, Shaq Thompson, Tre’Davious White, and others are still sitting unsigned in free agency right now tells you everything the market thinks about where they are in their careers. Father Time is undefeated. That’s not disrespect — that’s just reality. Could any of them still contribute to a winning team? Sure, well maybe. But that’s a far cry from what this roster actually needs to take the next step. And if injuries force their hand at any point this season, those names are still out there. That’s the safety net. Not the plan.

”Everybody Eats” was cool and all, but was never a real thing. Kincaid and Shakir dominated the targets, and when one of them was missing, Buffalo’s passing game really struggled. Without someone who could win on the outside, command defensive attention, and give Josh Allen a real option with the game on the line, defenses sent the heat and dared the Bills’ inadequate wide receivers to beat them one-on-one. Amari Cooper made a couple of plays two years ago, and Cooks then did it a bit in the playoffs as well. But since Stefon Diggs, nobody have been able to do it often, which has made the passing offense look way too difficult for a unit with Josh Allen at the helm. Something had to be done, somebody had to be brought in… DJ Moore is that guy. He’s a three-year *Pro Football Focus* top-12 receiver. He has six touchdownss or more in his last four seasons. He’s a proven target who can make plays at every level of the field. Yes, trading a second-round pick for him was a price worth debating — but look at the moves made during the draft and tell me it wasn’t a good plan. You can’t. And then there’s Skyler Bell out of UConn, a fourth-round pick who I genuinely believe will surprise people. He has the explosiveness, the production, and the route savvy to develop into exactly the kind of versatile player Joe Brady can weaponize in his offense. Fresh legs with real upside — a much better option as the fourth or fifth receiving option (behind Moore, Kincaid, and Shakir, in no particular order) than what Cooks was ever going to give the Bills at this stage of his career.

National media might look at this defense and see a group that lost Bosa, Poyer, Milano, and Johnson — and project decline. They always do this with the Bills. They did it after Hyde and Poyer left. They did it after Diggs. They’ll do it again. And again, I believe they’re going to look foolish by November. Start with Bradley Chubb. Eight and a half sacks, 48 total pressures, two forced fumbles with Miami last season — *that’s* what Buffalo’s getting on a three-year deal opposite Greg Rousseau, who quietly put together another solid year with seven sacks in 2025. That’s a legitimate edge pairing. It hasn’t always been that simple for this defense. Behind Chubb? T.J. Parker out of Clemson, a first-round pick with the athleticism and motor that coaches dream about when building a pass rush. The plan practically writes itself: Parker learns from Chubb, develops under Jim Leonhard’s system, and by the time Chubb naturally starts to decline with age, Parker is already peaking. Meanwhile, Deone Walker goes into year two with a full offseason in the system, T.J. Sanders enters his second year, and Ed Oliver — who looked genuinely ready for a special season before getting hurt — is healthy and restructured. That interior is not the liability some are making it out to be, despite no traditional nose tackle anchoring the defensive line. At nickel, Taron Johnson was quietly showing signs of regression. Trading him to the Las Vegas Raiders was the right call. Dee Alford comes in on a three-year deal as a legitimate replacement — a moveable chess piece who’s played slot and outside for the Atlanta Falcons, and someone who fits exactly the kind of versatile defensive back Leonhard loves. C.J. Gardner-Johnson brings playoff experience and real play-making ability when locked in. Then through the draft, Buffalo added Davison Igbinosun — 53 career starts at Ohio State, 27 pass break-ups, 194 career tackles — in the second round, plus Jalon Kilgore in the fifth, a safety most people expected to go Day 2. How Kilgore fell that far, I genuinely don’t know. The Bills will gladly take it. The cornerback room, over two drafts now, has been completely rebuilt. Christian Benford remains the anchor. But the group around him has shifted from zone-heavy, physical tacklers to a unit with real speed and length — players who can actually run with the fastest receivers in this league. That’s not an accident. That’s a deliberate transition, and Leonhard is exactly the right coach to maximize it.

Losing David Edwards hurt. I won’t sugarcoat it. He was reliable, experienced, and exactly the kind of quiet contributor who goes underappreciated until he’s gone. But here’s the thing — the Bills didn’t just shrug and move on. Alec Anderson comes back on a one-year deal and finally gets his legitimate shot at a starting role after waiting patiently for years. Austin Corbett adds competition and versatility. And Jude Bowry out of Boston College — a fourth-round offensive lineman who can play at both tackle and guard — is the kind of athletic prospect that wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if he was pushing for a starting job before August is over. Don’t sleep on him.

Terrel Bernard is still here. After a tough, injury-riddled season, people have started writing him off — and I honestly believe that’s a massive mistake. His 2024 season was legitimately All-Pro caliber. He’s had surgery, he’s recovered, and here’s a detail I haven’t seen discussed nearly enough: Jim Leonhard’s new defensive scheme has very strong similarities to what Dave Aranda ran at Baylor — the exact system Bernard played in during college. Bernard operating with freedom, blitzing from his ILB spot, with another big body playing up front, eating blocks in front of him instead of a nickel CB as the Will linebacker, and a thumper like Dorian Williams keeping him clean? I think we’re going to be reminded very quickly of just how good this guy is. Kaleb Elarms-Orr out of TCU in the fourth round might be the steal of this entire draft class. Multiple analysts projected him as a Day 2 pick. He attacks the ball, plays downhill, and has the kind of instincts you can’t coach. If the question is who replaces Milano long-term, I’m looking at this kid. Maybe sooner than you’d think.

This is the part that national media outlets never get right about the Bills — they’re always late. They were late on Hyde and Poyer when those guys first signed. They were late on Josh Allen from basically day one. They took years to figure out that Matt Milano, not Tremaine Edmunds, was the real heartbeat of that linebacking corps. Nobody — well, almost nobody, huh? — saw Terrel Bernard’s All-Pro-level sophomore campaign coming either. The pattern repeats itself. And right now, this roster is loaded with players who fit that exact profile: younger, hungrier, with something to prove, operating in a brand new defensive system under a coordinator in Jim Leonhard who built his entire reputation on developing exactly these kinds of players at Wisconsin. The ceiling here isn’t just higher than what we had — it’s significantly higher, and the floor is more sustainable because it isn’t built on aging veterans one injury away from being liabilities. Yes, it requires trust. Yes, there are legitimate question marks. That’s always the case in this league. There will be mistakes. But we’ve been down this road before in Buffalo — and every time we’ve trusted the process of turning the page on past-their-prime players in favor of hungry young talent, this organization has come out the other side stronger for it. The change was needed, and the 2026 Bills are better. On paper, in the secondary, at receiver, and in coaching philosophy. The one constant through all of it — the reason none of this is a rebuild, and why the ceiling is still as high as any team in the AFC — is still standing in the huddle, No. 17 under center, and he isn’t going anywhere. Let’s not overthink it. ***Key offseason additions:** WR DJ Moore (trade, CHI), DE Bradley Chubb (MIA), CB Dee Alford (ATL), S C.J. Gardner-Johnson (CHI), S Geno Stone (CIN), G Austin Colbert (CAR)* ***Draft highlights:** EDGE T.J. Parker (R1, Clemson), CB Davison Igbinosun (R2, Ohio State), OL Jude Bowry (R4, Boston College), WR Skyler Bell (R4, UConn), LB Kaleb Elarms-Orr (R4, TCU), S Jalon Kilgore (R5, South Carolina)* ***Key Departures:** G David Edwards (NO), LB Matt Milano (FA), LB Shaq Thompson (FA), CB Tre’Davious White (FA), S Jordan Poyer (FA), WR Brandin Cooks (FA).* Catch up on all this and more with the latest edition of**Leading the Charge!**