Matt Milano

9 seasons, all in Buffalo — 368 tackles, 18.5 sacks, 45 pass defenses as a coverage LB.

A 5th-round pick out of Boston College in 2017, Milano has spent his entire career in Buffalo. The arc shows steady growth from rotational rookie (26 tackles) to the 2022 All-Pro season — 66 tackles, 16 TFL, 12 PDs — followed by two injury-shortened years (torn pec late 2023, partial leg fracture 2024) and a 2025 return to form.

2022 was the apex: 66 tackles, 16 TFL, 12 PDs — All-Pro Second Team.

Milano's 2022 stat line is the kind of three-way coverage-linebacker production teams now pay $15M+ APY for: 66 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, 12 pass defenses, 4.5 sacks. The 12 PDs in particular led all NFL linebackers that season.

It earned him All-Pro Second Team honors and a 4-year, $41M extension — and triggered a flurry of imitator linebackers around the league who modeled his speed-coverage profile.

Injuries cost him 26 of 34 possible games across 2023-2024 — but 2025 has him back at 40 tackles.

Two consecutive injury years (torn biceps/pec in October 2023, leg fracture in 2024) shaved nearly two full seasons off his prime. Combined: 32 tackles in 9 games across 2023-2024.

2025's 40 tackles, 8 TFL, 3.5 sacks is the bounce-back: production rates that map closely to his 2021-2022 All-Pro phase, just compressed into a partial season as he eased back into the lineup.

45 career pass defenses — elite among linebackers, modest as a sack-getter (18.5 career).

Milano is not a blitzing linebacker — his career-high sack total is 4.5, and he averages about 2 per healthy season. What he does at an unusual rate is break up passes: 45 career PDs in 9 seasons.

For comparison, top sideline-to-sideline LBs typically post 30-40 PDs over an entire career. Milano cleared 40 in his first 6 seasons. The coverage value, not the rush, is the contract case.

With Edmunds gone, Milano is the longest-tenured player in Buffalo's defense.

Of the 2017 Bills draft class (which produced Tre'Davious White, Dion Dawkins, Zay Jones), only Milano and Dawkins remain. White was released, Jones traded, Edmunds left in 2023 free agency.

Milano has now started 9 different opening-day rosters in Buffalo, played under McDermott his entire career, and is the on-field communicator of the second level of the defense alongside Terrel Bernard. Continuity inside a system rarely produces stats this clean.

In 2022, 12 PDs and 16 TFL — only 2 LBs in the past decade have matched both lines in a single season.

The 12+ PDs and 16+ TFL combination from a linebacker is a rarity. In the past 10 seasons, only Lavonte David and Demario Davis have matched it — both established All-Pros. Milano's 2022 belongs in that company.

The rarity is structural: coverage-heavy LBs sacrifice run-disruption snaps, and downhill thumpers don't post 12 PDs. Milano played enough nickel snaps to rack up coverage stats AND enough early-down to lead Buffalo in TFL.