The Buffalo Bills have made it a clear priority to revamp their defensive line.<\/p>\n
That includes selecting three-straight defensive linemen in the draft in rounds two through four.<\/p>\n
T.J. Sanders is a player they had a high grade on and traded up in the seconnd round to grab. His college defensive coordinator at the University of South Carolina, Clayton White, believes he will be a disruptive force rushing the passer and stopping the run in the NFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an in-the-backfield kind of guy. He\u2019s a dynamic playmaker when it comes to just making plays at that position,\u201d White said. \u201cI think that position sometimes gets noted for guys that like to clog gaps, to hold their gaps. He\u2019s going to do that, but on top of that stuff I think he\u2019s going to bring a playmaking element to anybody\u2019s defense. Obviously, Buffalo was fortunate enough to get him, but I think he fits their style and what they do on defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
White used Sanders up and down the defensive line at multiple positions, from a 5-technique defensive end in certain packages, all the way down to nose tackle, although Clayton says that\u2019s probably not his most favorable role. The Bills have said they like him best as a penetrating 3-technique, while he brings enough versatility to stay on the field no matter the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not like most defensive tackles that will come out on third down and you put in a defensive end to play his position,\u201d White said. \u201cHe\u2019ll definitely be out there on third down passing situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanders had 8.5 sacks, 16.5 tackles for loss and 93 tackles over his final two seasons in Columbia. He plays with power, violence and quickness, using his skills as a former basketball player on the football field to beat opposing blockers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually have a clip of him against Vanderbilt in \u201923, he\u2019s actually over the guy doing the (Browns defensive end) Myles Garrett crossover and then he works a move on a guy,\u201d White said. \u201cHe loves that stuff. That\u2019s where he really excels and shows his quickness and ability to play in space for a big guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
White thinks Sanders has the chance to put add even more muscle and mass to his 6\u20194\u201d, 297-pound frame once he enters the Bills’ strength and conditioning program. Sanders’ improvement from his first year to his fourth at South Carolina is one of the biggest leaps White has seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the kind of guy who when it\u2019s time to figure an offense out, trying study an offensive line, protections, their slides, who\u2019s going to double team him, he\u2019s going to dissect that stuff,\u201d White said. \u201cHe waits for his one-on-ones, and he\u2019s prepared that kind of way to deliver a big play whenever we needed it, so I\u2019ll know he\u2019ll do the same for the Bills and his fans will love that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Bills have made it a clear priority to revamp their defensive line. That includes selecting three-straight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2048],"tags":[3829,1615,215,214,53,2086,7,88,6,1612,9,3828],"class_list":{"0":"post-18653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-andy-young","9":"tag-app-sports","10":"tag-bills","11":"tag-buffalo","12":"tag-buffalo-bills","13":"tag-buffalobills","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-rochester","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-vod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114439843050515165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}