As the Buffalo Bills continue the pipeline from Carolina, one key piece they're looking for in Western New York is their own Luke Kuechly.
The Bills hope they've found that replica in second-year linebacker Tremaine Edmunds.
After an up-and-down rookie campaign in which he flashed ability but lacked consistency, Edmunds has received rave reviews out of camp. At 6-foot-5, Edmunds has the size to be a menace over the middle of the field, making it difficult for quarterbacks to loop the ball over his head. Most 6-foot-5 football players lack the required athleticism to play MLB. Not Edmunds, who owns the speed and change-of-direction needed to be a tackling machine.
During the Bills joint practices with the Carolina Panthers this week, Edmunds garnered praise from Kuechly himself.
"He's big, he's athletic, he runs, he's long, he's like the perfect body type for this defense," the five-time first-team All-Pro said of Edmunds, via Jenna Callari of WKBW. "(Sean) McDermott's got a great defense and I think he's gonna thrive in it."
Edmunds just turned 21 years old in May and has oceans of potential. The young LB chatted with Kuechly after practice this week to pick the veteran's brain.
"I can pick things up from him, see the way he played when coach McDermott was his coach but at the end of the day, I'm trying to be my own player," Edmunds said. "He's a great player, everybody knows that so I'll take stuff from his game, take stuff from other people's game, and apply it to my game and be the best that I can be."
The best Edmunds could be this season in the middle of McDermott's defense is a roving hazard with the wingspan to cover the entire middle of the field and the speed to play edge-to-edge. Edmunds might be a different type of player than Kuechly, but the Bills are counting on the young player to influence their team similarly to how Luuuuuuuuuuke affects the Panthers' D.
