Throughout his first three seasons, Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Ed Oliver was far from a bust, but he occupied a strange space in Bills discourse. Though he had played well, he had largely yet to live up to his top-10 draft hype. He showed flashes in each of his first three years, but now in year four, Oliver has been the game wrecker he was drafted to be. Let’s dive into what is going right for the Bills’ lineman. The Numbers At first glance, the numbers don’t jump off the page for Oliver. He ranks 25th in total pressures among interior defensive players (PFF), but every player ranked above Oliver has played at least 10 games (besides Matt Ioannidis with 9 games). According to their pass rush productivity metric, which measures pressures on a per-snap basis, Oliver ranks fourth among defensive tackles. What is even more impressive is Oliver’s run-defense efficiency. He ranks third in PFF’s run-stop win rate at 12.1% among qualifying defensive tackles. He has also picked up six tackles for losses over his last three games. All this is to say, since recovering from his early-season ankle injury, Oliver has been an incredibly productive pass rusher and…
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