{"id":856280,"date":"2026-04-06T03:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/856280\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T03:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:52:16","slug":"bills-four-biggest-offseason-additions-address-teams-recent-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/856280\/","title":{"rendered":"Bills&#8217; Four Biggest Offseason Additions Address Team&#8217;s Recent Failures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/bills\/onsi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Buffalo Bills<\/a>, coming off a seventh consecutive playoff disappointment, made changes in four key areas that were seemingly in need of upgrades.<\/p>\n<p>Three of the moves came on the defensive side of the ball, beginning with new coordinator Jim Leonhard. The former Bills&#8217; safety, who was on the Denver Broncos&#8217; staff last year, is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/bills\/onsi\/buffalo-bills-make-best-choice-hiring-jim-leonhard-as-defensive-coordinator-coaching\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spearheading an overhaul in Orchard Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>First-year head coach Joe Brady&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/bills\/onsi\/coaches-joe-brady-trusting-jim-leonhard-to-build-bills-defense-we-can-all-be-proud-of\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ability to bring Leonhard on board<\/a> could wind up being the most impactful addition of the offseason for an organization that has averaged 12+ wins per year since 2020. As Leonhard transitions the Bills&#8217; defense to a 3-4 front, general manager Brandon Beane secured a couple of notable chess pieces to help.<\/p>\n<p>On offense, Buffalo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/bills\/onsi\/dj-moore-triple-crown-wr-breaks-down-bills-trade-for-his-spirit-animal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">added a difference-maker<\/a> to the receiving corps \u2014 another necessary move that should pay dividends.<\/p>\n<p>In order of potential impact, here are the Bills&#8217; top four additions for 2026.<\/p>\n<p>1 \u2014 Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard<\/p>\n<p>The Bills&#8217; defense became stale under prior head coach Sean McDermott, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/bills\/onsi\/playoffs-bills-suffer-another-exit-due-to-same-sean-mcdermott-rooted-shortcomings-broncos\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">repeatedly failing to deliver in the playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After moving on from McDermott, Buffalo found an exciting, ascending coach, who knows the market, to lead the defensive makeover. Leonhard, a 10-year NFL veteran, spent six seasons in charge of Wisconsin&#8217;s defense prior to landing in Denver in 2024. He also spent one season (2022) as the interim head coach at his alma mater.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think Jim Leonhard&#8217;s going to really help the defense be much more aggressive than what they&#8217;ve been,&#8221; said CBS senior analyst <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/QAlEm5L6qgE?si=4Y5be0iKkNygU3iZ&amp;t=168\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pete Prisco on One Bills Live<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Bills, coming off a seventh consecutive playoff disappointment, made changes in four key areas that were&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-856280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116355737084296646","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856280","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=856280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}