One thing Buffalo Bills fans should be looking forward to this coming season: our Secondary. Last season was explosive for Bills cornerbacks and safety’s, tallying 18-total interceptions. Then-newly acquired safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer had five-interceptions each, as well as 2017 1st round pick cornerback Tre’Davious White, who had four.
In September of last year, ESPN‘s Mike Clay called Buffalo’s cornerbacks and safeties, one of the “worst defensive positional units“. Clay didn’t explain why he put Buffalo so low, but he credited the trade of now-Eagle Ronald Darby, a low for the Bills, and that White would be forced into the role. But we all know that wasn’t a bad thing.
Bills fans should be excited for what our secondary group, especially with new addition Vontae Davis. After largely exceeding what ESPN’s Clay said they would be, and the team making it to the playoff’s for the first time in almost a decade, fan’s should be very optimistic about this team and it’s secondary.
Safety Jordan Poyer was credited with 95 total tackles, second-most on the team. And teammate Micah Hyde was credited with 82-tackles, fourth on the team. General Manager Brandon Beane made a fantastic move and getting these two during the offseason on 2017.
In free agency this year, the team picked up 2-time Pro Bowl cornerback Vontae Davis. After sustaining a groin injury in the preseason last year, he wasn’t the same player we have seen in the past. He was benched in favor to rookie Quincy Nelson in week nine and was said the Colts has ‘multiple’ trade inquires in the cornerback. In November, it was reported that Davis decided to repair the groin injury he hurt earlier in the season and was released by the Colts the next day.
Davis ended his season with 21-combined tackles in 5-games he started and played. He was ranked 103rd overall in all qualifying cornerbacks in 2017 by Pro Football Focus. But Davis has came out saying he is fully healthy and should be back to his regular self. If he does, he would bring much needed depth to the cornerback group that lost cornerback E.J Gaines and Shareece Wright to free agency.
In a recent interview with Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic, cornerback Tre’Davious White was quoted saying: “We want to have 20 picks between us. If each of us can get five, they’re not going to be able to hold us back. If we get 20 picks on the back end, we’ve got those dogs up front and those linebackers, we can easily get 30 takeaways. If you get 30 takeaways in this league, you have a chance of winning a lot of games.”
There were three teams with at least 20-interceptions, and the Bills were not one of them. As seen above, White and the other members of the secondary want to fix this immediately and think this year is that year.
This should be an optimistic year for our secondary.
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