{"id":97469,"date":"2026-07-04T22:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T22:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/97469\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T22:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T22:30:10","slug":"bills-mafia-pick-bradley-chubb-to-lead-buffalo-in-sacks-for-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/97469\/","title":{"rendered":"Bills Mafia pick Bradley Chubb to lead Buffalo in sacks for 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

We asked and you answered the call in our latest round of Reacts polls here at Buffalo Rumblings. So, who do Rumblings readers believe will lead the Buffalo Bills in sacks for the 2026 NFL season<\/a>? The original poll generated a lot of good commentary on the subject, which perhaps illustrates just how uncertain things feel on defense right now.<\/p>\n

That of course is natural with the Bills switching to a base 3-4 defensive system that prioritizes attacking the opponent \u2014 this after almost a decade of former head coach Sean McDermott\u2019s nickel-heavy base 4-3 system. The truth is that no one outside of One Bills Drive really well-understands how new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard\u2019s system will operate. He\u2019s never been an NFL defensive coordinator and we can\u2019t say for sure that his college coaching experience or time working with the Denver Broncos\u2019 defense are for certain indicative of what he intends to run with Buffalo.<\/p>\n

But for the purposes of this poll we\u2019re only concerned with sacks, a time-honored football ritual that\u2019s undergone a heavy dose of change in recent years. So who did you crown as the Bills\u2019 (eventual) leader in sacks for 2026?<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a landslide win by any means, but edge rusher Bradley Chubb won with 37% of the vote. Chubb is the latest big-name defender president of football operations\/general manager Brandon Beane has brought in to address the team\u2019s pass rush. Will he buck the trend established in recent seasons by Von Miller and Joey Bosa? A majority of Rumblings readers seem convinced of it.<\/p>\n

Not far behind Chubb and in second place is edge rusher Greg Rousseau, who earned 24% of the vote. Before this coming season, Rousseau had operated exclusively as a 4-3 defensive end. Is he in line for a major uptick in production behind the line now as an outside linebacker\/edge rusher? Time will tell, but his size and measurables could pay dividends for the defensive in his refreshed role.<\/p>\n

In third is Michael Hoecht, who many tend to describe as positionless on defense. That\u2019s not to say he\u2019s an ill fit in general, but rather someone who can play almost every down and from most defensive spots. Hoecht received 21% of the vote, which may be reflective of the uncertainty around his return to action following last season\u2019s Achilles tear injury. When healthy and available for two games last season, Hoecht played like his life depended on it. There\u2019s a chance we could see Hoecht reprise a role Leonhard watched first-hand as a Bills player: That of Lorenzo Alexander.<\/p>\n

Perhaps surprising is defensive tackle Ed Oliver finishing fourth in this poll, with just 9% of voters believing he will lead the team in sacks this coming season. I feel Oliver has as good a shot as anyone to lead Buffalo in sacks, and that\u2019s because he\u2019s at his best when he\u2019s attacking an offense.<\/p>\n

Rookie outside linebacker\/edge rusher T.J. Parker received just 5% of the vote, which is to be expected for a defender just getting his NFL legs under him. In last with only 2% of the vote is defensive tackle Deone Walker, who might just surprise folks in 2026, despite already doing so as a rookie in 2025.<\/p>\n

Are you a prescient group of fans? We\u2019ll find out if that\u2019s true in early January 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We asked and you answered the call in our latest round of Reacts polls here at Buffalo Rumblings.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[131],"tags":[19085,19086,240],"class_list":["post-97469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chubb","tag-buffalo-bills-analysis","tag-buffalo-bills-opinion","tag-chubb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116864078738925020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}