We recently speculated in our State of the Bills Roster series that the Buffalo Bills, led by GM Buddy Nix, were comfortable with their current group of outside linebackers. Since Nix took over as GM, the Bills had given serious contracts to both Chris Kelsay and Shawne Merriman, and had youngsters like Arthur Moats and Danny Batten with which to work.
When Nix made public comments about his desire to get bigger and more physical at linebacker, however, it brought pause to our speculation. Nix, however, gave the clearest indication yet that he's satisfied with his current group of outside 'backers in a 1-on-1 interview with BuffaloBills.com.
"We do have a bunch of good young guys," Nix told Chris Brown. "In fact, we feel good about outside linebacker; we need a couple of inside 'backers, and we need some bigger, stronger guys to help us stop the run."
So, as we speculated, expect Merriman and Kelsay to enter the 2011 season as the nominal starters at outside linebacker, with Moats and perhaps Batten used frequently as rotational/situational players. Everyone on the inside, from Paul Posluszny all the way down to Mike Balogun, needs to be looking over their shoulders.