Bills shake up defensive line before playing Chiefs
By Matt Conner
The Bills announce some shakeups along the defensive front before playing the Chiefs.
The Buffalo Bills have made it clear that their defensive performance of the first third of the season is not acceptable. Heading into the team’s Week 6 showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bills have decided to shake things up along the offensive line.
Per NFL reporter Tom Pelissero, the Bills are going to sit Harrison Phillips and Trent Murphy despite the fact that both players are healthy.
A surprise: #Bills DE Trent Murphy and DT Harrison Phillips are expected to be healthy scratches today against the #Chiefs, per sources. Shaking things up after last week's loss at Tennessee.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) October 19, 2020
Both struggled a great deal vs the Titans. Phillips likely doesn’t fit the defensive game plan anyway because of how much the Chiefs throw the ball. Get ready for a lot of Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison at DE. Perhaps the most starter-heavy DE rotation since McDermott arrived https://t.co/Z2rzK4vqhU
— Joe Buscaglia (@JoeBuscaglia) October 19, 2020
The Bills came into Week 5 with an undefeated record of 4-0 despite suffering a steep fall from their 2019 performance on defense. However, their concerns caught up with them in a shocking loss to the Tennessee Titans who won by 26 points in a completely lopsided contest.
Murphy joined the Bills in 2018 after signing a three-year deal worth $21 million in free agency, a deal that brought him over from the Washington Redskins. This season, Murphy has 3 quarterback hits and 1 sack to his name as he plays approximately 50 percent of the snaps. What’s interesting is that Murphy has started 25 consecutive regular season games for the Bills, so this is a definite wake-up call for the veteran from head coach Sean McDermott.
As for Phillips, he also joined the Bills in 2018 as their third round pick out of Stanford. He’s a rotational run plugger and, as noted above, was going to have limited snaps. Still it keeps another familiar face out of the picture completely against the Chiefs.
Both teams are 4-1 coming into the game with hopes of not only winning their respective divisions but reaching the Super Bowl as well. With the race to the top seed—and consequently a first-round bye—wide open, both teams should be hungry to top the other for the right to go to 5-1.