Buffalo Bills 2026 training camp position battle primer: DL

In the second installment of this series, we covered the perimeter — DJ Moore’s arrival and the three-way fight behind him on the Buffalo Bills roster. Now we cross to the other side of the ball, where the stakes are higher, and the starting point is uglier. Buffalo finished 27th in pass rush win rate last season, and the front seven Jim Leonhard inherited barely resembles the one that ended the 2025 season in Denver. Joey Bosa, A.J. Epenesa, Matt Milano, and Shaq Thompson are all gone and unsigned. What replaced them is a rebuilt 3-4 front full of new faces, returning bodies, and — for our purposes here — some of the most consequential camp battles on the entire roster. Today we start with the 3-man DL.

Two locks, an open starting job, and a backup nose tackle fight with real consequences

• Starters: Ed Oliver (DT/DE), Deone Walker (NT)
• Third starter battle: TJ Sanders vs. Landon Jackson vs. Zane Durant
• Backup NT battle: Phidarian Mathis vs. DeWayne Carter
• Depth/PS hopefuls: Tommy Akingbesote, Zion Logue, Kody Huisman

Oliver and Walker are locked in — if the football gods allow it

Ed Oliver played three games in 2025. Three. A biceps tear, an ankle issue, and a knee injury limited him to that — and here’s the part that should make you disappointed about the injuries rather than the player: he recorded a sack in every single one of those appearances before landing on IR. When the scheme changed, and everybody assumed his $24 million cap hit made him a goner, the front office restructured instead — converting his base salary to a signing bonus and dropping his 2026 cap number to $13.6 million. That tells you everything about how Leonhard views him as a starting IDL in this 3-4 front.

Deone Walker is the best story on this defense. A fourth-round rookie in 2025 who stepped in immediately, became the one mainstay through every injury the position suffered, and was named first-team on ESPN’s All-Rookie team. A 6’7″, 330-plus-pound nose tackle entering year two in a friendly scheme built around his skills. This guy can become the X-Factor in this defense, unlocking everybody else around him.

The third starting job is wide open — and it’s the battle I care about most on this line

A 3-4 front puts three linemen on the field, and the last of those three spots belongs to nobody yet. TJ Sanders enters camp ahead. Buffalo traded up to No. 41 in the 2025 draft to get him, his rookie year was wiped out by a knee injury that put him on IR in October, and this is effectively his second rookie camp — with the pedigree, the youth, and a real hope inside the building that he grows into, at least, an above-average starter. But he’d better not get comfortable.

Landon Jackson is coming for that job from an angle nobody planned. The 2025 third-rounder was...