Bills Spotlight: Tremaine Edmunds Lifts Teammates
Everyone knows what linebacker Tremaine Edmunds can and has done for the Buffalo Bills on (mostly) Sundays over the past four seasons. After all, the 2018 first-round draft pick has accumulated 376 tackles, 5.5 sacks, four interceptions and 26 pass breakups over 50 games and made the Pro Bowl last season.
But on Wednesday, Dawson Knox talked about Edmunds' role in what is turning out to be a breakout season for the tight end.
"He's a baller day-in and day-out," Knox said. "Any time I've got to match up with him in practice, it's like, you know, good luck to me. I've got to be at the top of my game to either block him or create separation. I mean, he's one of the few linebackers I've ever played against who's bigger than me.
"But he's just a freak, works as hard as anybody, and that work's clearly paying off. And he's a leader on the defense and clearly the defense has been playing great and a lot of that reflects on him."
Edmunds on Wednesday was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career after making six tackles, intercepting a pass and breaking another up in a 40-0 thrashing of the Houston Texans.
Even the analytics service Pro Football Focus, which has given Edmunds consistently poor grades over the last year, acknowledged his standout performance on Sunday by placing him on its Team of the Week.
Edmunds was Buffalo's top defender on Sunday, according to PFF.
Although the Bills already have picked up the fifth-year option on his rookie contract for 2022, they appear to remain unsure about his long-term viability in Buffalo because there's been no movement on an extension.
Edmunds has repeatedly said he's not worried about that. On Wednesday, he talked about the ongoing process of the defense fitting all of this year's pieces together.
"I think it goes back to just doing the stuff that got us to this point, not trying to do too much but making sure that we're doing the things that got us to this point," he said. "That's fundamentals, that's playing hard, that's playing physical. You know, I think that's something that we bring into every game.
"It's not so much focusing on our opponent but focusing on things that we do and making sure that we're not losing focus on that and making sure that we understand the things that got us to this point and just continuing to execute."
The Bills' fun on the field comes from the way they have embraced their roles and their insatiable desire to be the best, according to Edmunds.
"I think how we push each other here at practice is a big key," Edmunds said. "Everybody just makes everybody better out here, and it's not just me. ... I got 10 other guys out there with me that's doing their job. And I think when you have that, other guys are going to be in position to make plays.
"You know, it starts at practice, man. You know, guys are flying around, guys are honing in on their responsibilities and we're talking as a D and we're just bonding out here. And that puts guys in position to make plays."
Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
