Lorenzo Alexander’s 2016 season had him among the league’s best in an advanced metric.
Buffalo Bills Insider Chris Brown provides the details. Here is his report:
Here’s the Bills news of note for June 19.
1 – ‘Zo among league’s best converting pressure to sacks
Pro Football Focus is continuously bringing interesting in-depth statistics and analytics that help fans understand the game better. Recently on their Twitter, they released an image showing the top three edge defenders that turn pressure into sacks.
Buffalo Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander was third in the NFL according to their stats right behind Atlanta’s Vic Beasley and Indianapolis’ Erik Walden. Alexander converts his pressure into sacks 28 percent of the time.
Alexander went to the Pro Bowl last year after a career-best 12.5 sack season. He was named Defensive MVP after his performance at the Pro Bowl, which included an interception late in the game to preserve the victory for the AFC.
2 – McDermott credits Cardale Jones work ethic
The Bills currently have four quarterbacks on the roster in Tyrod Taylor, Nathan Peterman, T.J. Yates and Cardale Jones. All are competing for a role on the roster and the competition will be stiff come August in training camp.
Jones was a fourth-round draft pick in 2016 coming out of The Ohio State University. With the Buckeyes, Jones won the national championship as the starting quarterback in 2015. Last season in the NFL, Jones was inactive for 15 of the 16 possible games but that hasn’t stopped him from trying to push his pro game forward.
“Cardale is absolutely in the mix. I watched him grow in the four months, five months since I’ve been here and gotten to know Cardale,” head coach Sean McDermott said. “Certainly appreciate the way he attacked getting his diploma – Let’s start there; I think that we talk about winning off the field and that’s an important part of it, credit to Cardale as far as that goes.
“The important part for our football team and Cardale is that he continues to stay on the grind and keep his foot on the gas pedal to improve the way he needs to improve, and he’s very aware of that.”
Most NFL teams only carry two or maybe three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, but coach McDermott didn’t rule out four.
“We’ll see, there’s certainly position value at that position in terms of – we saw what’s happened in the past and how people look for quarterbacks,” said McDermott. “We’re going to keep the best 53 and it doesn’t have to be a certain number at this position, we’re keeping good football players and if that means four quarterbacks, that’s what we’ll do.”
3 – BR: Tre White is best Bills pick up
As the Bills are finished with minicamp and headed to training camp in six weeks, Bleacher Report’s, Gary Davenport, decided to take a look at the best offseason addition for each team. Whether it is free agency or the draft, Davenport believed the Bills best addition was first-round draft pick, Tre’Davious White.
Here is what he had to say about him:
But rather than look that far ahead, it’s the player the Bills took at No. 27 who gets the nod here. With Stephon Gilmore moving on to New England in free agency, the Bills had a significant need in the secondary,
The 5’11” White, who was a four-year starter at LSU, can play both the slot and outside. NFL Network’s Mike Mayock called him, “one of the more solid cornerbacks in this draft.”