The Buffalo Bills did what they do best in 2024, putting up a stellar regular season, winning the AFC East, and eventually succumbing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs. This season felt different, though, as if the team is closer to a Super Bowl than ever but just a player or two short.
Because of that, let’s look at the one free agent who can help fill Bills' biggest offseason need. This begs the question, what is the Bills’ biggest offseason need?
On the offensive side of the ball, the team is pretty much set. They have the NFL MVP at quarterback in Josh Allen, one of the best, most cohesive offensive lines in football, and young, up-and-coming skill position players who should get better every year.
That means the biggest need for Buffalo this offseason is to upgrade the defense. With a QB like Allen, the D doesn’t need to be the ’85 Bears. It just needs to not actively hurt the better unit like it did in 2024.
The Bills' defense was 12th in points and 17th in yards allowed last season, which is average at best but also doesn’t tell the whole story. In the big games when Allen and the offense needed the most help, Sean McDermott’s D came up small.
They gave up 35 points in a loss to the Baltimore Ravens, 44 in a loss to the Los Angeles Rams, 42 in a win over the Detroit Lions, and 32 to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship.
So to improve the defense, there are three main areas that Bills general manager Brandon Beane needs to address in free agency and the draft. Buffalo needs to upgrade its pass rush, get a run-stuffing defensive tackle, and strengthen the secondary.
Getting a premier pass rusher in free agency costs more than the Bills can afford to spend on a single free agent due to their salary cap situation, and the 2025 NFL Draft is deep with DTs of all shapes and sizes. It is also a deep DB draft, but adding a play-making cornerback should be a priority when the legal free-agent-tampering period opens on March 10.
The Bills free agent to target is CB Asante Samuel Jr.
The Bills' lack of quality depth of cornerback is a big reason they lost to the Chiefs and missed out on a Super Bowl trip.
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After Christian Benford suffered his second concussion in two weeks, McDermott was forced to play 2022 first-round pick Kaiir Elam, and that was the defense’s downfall. Patrick Mahomes picked on Elam the entire game, and there was nothing McDermott could scheme up to stop that.
Now, Benford’s health is a major question mark, Elam is done, and Rasul Douglas is a free agent, leaving Taron Johnson and Cam Lewis as the only two rotation-quality CBs on the Bills’ roster this offseason.
Buffalo will take a corner in the 2025 NFL Draft, likely with one of its three picks in the first two rounds. However, they should also go after a top free agent in this space, and former Los Angeles Chargers CB Asante Samuel Jr. is that guy.
Samuel, whose dad was a four-time Pro Bowl and two-time Super Bowl champion corner from 2003-13, was a second-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Over the course of four seasons, he’s racked up 176 tackles, 37 passes defended, and six interceptions.
The Chargers are moving on from Samuel because the 5-foot-10, 180-pound cover man cannot play press-man coverage at the NFL level, and he wants no part of stopping the run. Unlike his father, who was a physical shutdown corner, the younger Asante Samuel is a zone corner who will only fit with certain teams in certain systems.
McDermott plays a 4-3 under defense that plays primarily Cover 3. That means a zone corner like Samuel could flourish without having to man-up against bigger, faster wideouts. And if he can play zone, keeping the play in front of him, Samuel could be a playmaking CB. And the best part is he is still just 25 years old.
A smart, athletic corner like Samuel could be a good complement to Benford and Douglas or act as a replacement for Douglas if he leaves in free agency. Either way, on the Bills, Samuel will fit well and be a quality depth piece playing outside corner with Johnson on the inside.
Signing Samuel in free agency alone won’t fix the defense. The Bills need to bring in more corners in the draft and address the defensive line as well to help stop the run and get after the quarterback more frequently. If they do all these things in tandem, there is a chance that the defense could finally join the offense in 2025 as a Super Bowl-quality unit.
