All the Pieces are Falling into Place for the Buffalo Bills

All the attention surrounding the Buffalo Bills heading into this season has been around the rebuilt offense and the acquisition of Terrell Owens. However during the season a lot of the focus is going to be on the rebuilt defensive line and there are many people that feel that the team will only go as far as that line can take them. There is a lot of pressure from management and fans alike for the Bills to finally make the playoffs and a lot of that pressure is going to land squarely on the new look defense.

The defense has shown steady improvement since coordinator Perry Fewell has taken over and managed to rank as the 14^th best defense in the league last year. Obviously there is still a lot of room to improve but the right pieces have been put into place. Last year the team only allowed 14 passing touchdowns but there were a few areas that need to be improved such as the fact that the team only netted 24 sacks all year long. The pillar of Fewell's 4-3 system will be the defensive line and it will be interesting to see how well they can play in spring training. How the group comes out at the start of the season will have a big impact on the team's playoff push.

A lot of this pressure will be placed on guys such as Marcus Stroud, Kavika Mitchell and Paul Posluszny. Stroud tends to get the most attention when it comes to the interior line, the team is really hoping that inside lineman Kyle Williams can turn the corner and help lead the team to glory. He only was able to record 2.5 sacks last year but there is hope that he will ramp it up this year and help dominate the middle of the field and shut down the run game.

Aaron Schobel is another name that has become known around the league. He is the team's top pass rusher from the outside and has recorded more than 10 sacks three times in the past few seasons. He was injured for most of last season and the loss really put the Bills at a disadvantage for the rest of the season. Just in case Schobel was unable to bounce back from injury, the Bills also selected Aaron Maybin in the first round of this year's draft. Last year Maybin recorded 12 sacks while playing for Penn State and should give the Bills an extra bit of explosiveness from the outside.

Maybin is fast but his lack of size means that a lot of added pressure will be put on veterans such as Chris Kelsay and Ryan Denney during the early downs in the games. While there have not been too many changes on the defensive side of the ball, the Bills were able to build on what they already have and look to be in a very good position for making a playoff run. There were more changes on the offensive side of the ball than the defense, however all the experts are realizing that it is the defense that will be the key to the bills 2009 success.