{"id":155977,"date":"2026-02-24T08:28:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977"},"modified":"2026-02-24T08:28:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:28:01","slug":"bills-just-locked-up-their-towering-6-foot-4-defensive-tackle-on-a-new-deal-that-could-secretly-turn-their-front-into-an-unstoppable-wall-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977","title":{"rendered":"Bills just locked up their towering 6-foot-4 defensive tackle on a new deal that could secretly turn their front into an unstoppable wall this season."},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The Buffalo Bills are not waiting for the start of the new NFL year to start addressing their roster, signing a pair of important depth players including a defensive lineman who could take on a bigger role in 2026.<\/p>\n

The team announced on Monday that they re-signed offensive lineman Alec Anderson and defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis to new contracts, boosting the trenches ahead of a season where they will see an almost entirely new coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Phidarian Mathis Earns Return to Buffalo<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bills had picked up Mathis as a free agent last year after he spent the first three years of his career with the Washington Commanders. Mathis appeared in six games for the Bills, making 13 total tackles.<\/p>\n

Mathis originally joined the practice squad in September, but earned a call-up to the active roster after the team suffered some injuries, losing starter Ed Oliver for the rest of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Signing Mathis helps the Bills piece together their unit for next season, when they are expected to undergo some major changes after the departure of head coach Sean McDermott and hiring of former Bills defensive back Jim Leonhard as the new defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

The Bills face more decisions on the defensive line, with several key players headed to free agency including defensive end Joey Bosa and defensive tackles Larry Ogunjobi and Jordan Phillips.<\/p>\n

Bills Establishing New Defensive Identity<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bills are shifting to a new base defense, moving away from McDermott\u2019s 4-3 in favor of Leonhard\u2019s 3-4. Leonhard said he was excited to start working with the players, saying it would not be a major change for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a change for them, but we\u2019re excited as a coaching staff to really be able to create something that is best for their skill sets and fits their personalities,\u201d Leonhard said, via the team\u2019s official website.<\/p>\n

The re-signing is a good sign for Mathis, who has the potential to play a bigger role under Leonhard\u2019s system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is a level of versatility in there that is exciting to think about,\u201d Leonhard said about Buffalo\u2019s roster. \u201cI am big on flexibility and being able to play to your best players and force offenses to try to find your issues and to have to deal with their own problems, not always being reactive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team will likely become more aggressive in pressuring opposing quarterbacks. The Denver Broncos blitzed at the fourth-highest rate in the league over the last few years with Leonhard on staff, while the Bills ranked 29th in blitz rate under McDermott.<\/p>\n

Leonhard said wants to bring that aggressive identity to Buffalo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be an attacking defense up front and in the back end,\u201d Leonhard said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to attack the football. The biggest stat in football is turnovers, so we\u2019re going to be aggressive, we\u2019re going to fly around, we\u2019re going to communicate, we\u2019re going to play well together, but we\u2019re going to cause issues for offense, and we\u2019re going to force them to react to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Buffalo Bills are not waiting for the start of the new NFL year to start addressing their roster, signing a pair of important depth players including… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\nBills just locked up their towering 6-foot-4 defensive tackle on a new deal that could secretly turn their front into an unstoppable wall this season. - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bills just locked up their towering 6-foot-4 defensive tackle on a new deal that could secretly turn their front into an unstoppable wall this season. - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Buffalo Bills are not waiting for the start of the new NFL year to start addressing their roster, signing a pair of important depth players including...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-24T08:28:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bills-Premium-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"XuanTan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"XuanTan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977\",\"name\":\"Bills just locked up their towering 6-foot-4 defensive tackle on a new deal that could secretly turn their front into an unstoppable wall this season. - NEWS USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bills-Premium-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-24T08:28:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T08:28:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ac862d5ceb335ec8f1e374ed4bdb0c06\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bills-Premium-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bills-Premium-1.png\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":1024},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bills just locked up their towering 6-foot-4 defensive tackle on a new deal that could secretly turn their front into an unstoppable wall this season.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"NEWS USA\",\"description\":\"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ac862d5ceb335ec8f1e374ed4bdb0c06\",\"name\":\"XuanTan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f0d0d8858cf9c64fc1f3105c62cff269864cf9a26f88149688bdf4dc953df45?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f0d0d8858cf9c64fc1f3105c62cff269864cf9a26f88149688bdf4dc953df45?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"XuanTan\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bills just locked up their towering 6-foot-4 defensive tackle on a new deal that could secretly turn their front into an unstoppable wall this season. - NEWS USA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bills just locked up their towering 6-foot-4 defensive tackle on a new deal that could secretly turn their front into an unstoppable wall this season. - NEWS USA","og_description":"The Buffalo Bills are not waiting for the start of the new NFL year to start addressing their roster, signing a pair of important depth players including...","og_url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977","og_site_name":"NEWS USA","article_published_time":"2026-02-24T08:28:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bills-Premium-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"XuanTan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"XuanTan","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977","name":"Bills just locked up their towering 6-foot-4 defensive tackle on a new deal that could secretly turn their front into an unstoppable wall this season. - NEWS USA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bills-Premium-1.png","datePublished":"2026-02-24T08:28:01+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:28:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ac862d5ceb335ec8f1e374ed4bdb0c06"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bills-Premium-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bills-Premium-1.png","width":1024,"height":1024},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155977#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bills just locked up their towering 6-foot-4 defensive tackle on a new deal that could secretly turn their front into an unstoppable wall this season."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/","name":"NEWS USA","description":"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ac862d5ceb335ec8f1e374ed4bdb0c06","name":"XuanTan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f0d0d8858cf9c64fc1f3105c62cff269864cf9a26f88149688bdf4dc953df45?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f0d0d8858cf9c64fc1f3105c62cff269864cf9a26f88149688bdf4dc953df45?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"XuanTan"},"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=155977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156011,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155977\/revisions\/156011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/156010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=155977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=155977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=155977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}