Bills’ Matt Milano forecasted as early top-25 2021 free agent
The Buffalo Bills want to get a contract done with some of their pending free agents sooner rather than later. One name near or at the top of the list is linebacker Matt Milano.
NFL.com recently further proved why the Bills should be looking to get Milano locked up to a long-term deal. We’re still a long ways away from seeing if Milano will test free agency. Maybe he’ll get locked up within the next few weeks. The same can be said for the rest of this list, too. But NFL.com recently named Milano one of the league’s top-25 pending free agents after the 2020 season.
Overall, Milano slots in at No. 24. Here’s the breakdown on Milano’s placement from NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal:
The Bills have found their version of Thomas Davis and Luke Kuechly in Milano and Tremaine Edmunds, with Milano playing the Davis role.
Milano is an important piece for the Bills to lock up. He could be their top-pending free agent thanks to Tre’Davious White having the fifth-year option on his rookie deal flexed. Both White and Milano were 2017 draft picks of the Bills, but as a fifth rounder, Milano has to get an extension or else he’ll be a free agent. There’s no extra-year option on his rookie deal.
Along with Milano, there’s Dion Dawkins, another 2017 draft pick of the team, is also a top-pending free agent of the Bills. However, Milano might have a slightly highly level of importance for Buffalo. In Sean McDermott’s defense, the scheme calls for two main linebackers with how much nickel formation the Bills run. Dawkins is a key player him as the team’s potential long-term left tackle, but perhaps another versatile lineman could be moved in a scenario without Dawkins? In Milano, there’s no one near his level.
In the future when NFL.com updates this list when some of these players get re-signed, if Dawkins still isn’t re-signed himself, he could easily be added to this list.
In regard to Milano, overall, he’s one of two linebackers on the list, with the other right ahead of him at No. 23 overall in the Bucs’ Lavonte Davis.
