After a rocky rookie start, Buffalo Bills DL T.J. Sanders faces a career-defining year as Jim Leonhard’s new defensive scheme unlocks the versatile tackle’s potential to become a high-impact breakout star.
The Buffalo Bills promoted Joe Brady to head coach from offensive coordinator as a way to keep some consistency from the Sean McDermott regime.
The defense needed an overhaul, and much of the headlines during OTAs and mandatory minicamp were how defensive players were adjusting to new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard's scheme.
The upcoming season could be critical for 2025 second-round pick T.J. Sanders. He played in 12 games and started two as a rookie, recording just 12 tackles and one sack.
Ben Solak of ESPN thinks Sanders was a bad fit for McDermott.
"I did not particularly like the Sanders pick for Sean McDermott's defense in the 2025 draft," Solak wrote. "Sanders is an undersized defensive tackle at 297 pounds with a long and upright build.
"He's at his best slanting, stunting and occasionally lining up as a big defensive end in subpackages. In fact, he did just that when he returned from a knee injury to discover a Bills team with a ton of injury issues on the edge."
Things could be much different for Sanders under Leonhard. Solak thinks he could become a "high-impact" player for the Bills and named him as the team's most likely candidate to breakout this fall.
"Luckily, that makes Sanders a much more natural fit in new coordinator Jim Leonhard's defense, which uses three-down fronts and needs big defensive ends to draw multiple players in pass protection while blitzes land from the other side of the line.
"Sanders is unlikely to become a high-impact player like, say, John Franklin-Meyers overnight, but he's a good candidate to evolve into a dirty work champion in Buffalo's reimagined defense."
Sanders was a high-impact player during his time at South Carolina. He recorded 16.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks during his final two seasons with the Gamecocks.
It usually takes a couple of seasons for defensive linemen to develop in the NFL. Given his fit with the Bills last season, it was understandable for Sanders to need extra time to learn the defense.
He should be a much better option in the rotation for Buffalo this fall, and that could make the Bills defense much more dangerous.
