{"id":177305,"date":"2024-06-11T13:31:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T17:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=177305"},"modified":"2024-06-11T13:31:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T17:31:38","slug":"bills-news-matt-milano-buffalo-defense-minicamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/06\/11\/bills-news-matt-milano-buffalo-defense-minicamp\/","title":{"rendered":"Bills News: Matt Milano Returns for Buffalo Defense at Mandatory Minicamp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott announced Tuesday that All-Pro linebacker Matt Milano will be a limited participant during <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/06\/11\/must-watch-players-2024-buffalo-bills-mandatory-minicamp\/\" target=\"_self\">mandatory minicamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Milano suffered a season-ending leg injury during the team&#8217;s Week 5 loss to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/jaguars\/\" target=\"_self\">Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> last October. It was a massive blow to the Bills defense, which had lost cornerback <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/06\/04\/buffalo-bills-free-agent-targets\/\" target=\"_self\">Tre&#8217;Davious White<\/a> to a torn Achilles just one week earlier.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old Boston College product&#8217;s return for minicamp should put him on track to open the 2024 NFL season on Buffalo&#8217;s active roster.<\/p>\n<h2>Matt Milano Back With Bills Defense After Leg Injury<\/h2>\n<h3>Sean McDermott Says Team Will Handle LB&#8217;s Return &#8220;One Day At A Time&#8221;<\/h3>\n<p>McDermott confirmed Milano will begin with individual drills to see how his body responds after a return to football activity. His workload will then increase throughout training camp:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The full Matt Milano update\/plan from Sean McDermott<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Hopefully, for training camp&#8230; when we open up, he&#39;s available&quot;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Bills?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Bills<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CUB8CqrL6M\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/CUB8CqrL6M<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Thad Brown (@thadbrown7) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thadbrown7\/status\/1800561282661359991?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Although the Bills are taking a measured approach, the team&#8217;s eighth-year head coach didn&#8217;t shy away from the importance of getting the 2022 Pro Bowl selection back on the field.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s big,&#8221; McDermott <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/thadbrown7\/status\/1800556167623827575\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told reporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Milano joined Buffalo as a fifth-round pick in the 2017 draft. He&#8217;s established himself as one of that year&#8217;s biggest steals thanks to his sideline-to-sideline playmaking ability.<\/p>\n<h3>Revamped Bills Defense Will Lean Heavily On Milano<\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s been an offseason of change for the Bills defensive group. Along with White, the unit also watched the departures of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/04\/18\/hyde-hinting-retirement-amid-rumors\/\" target=\"_self\">Micah Hyde<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/03\/12\/jordan-poyer-signs-contract-miami-dolphins\/\" target=\"_self\">Jordan Poyer<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/03\/11\/leonard-floyd-signs-contract-san-francisco-49ers\/\" target=\"_self\">Leonard Floyd<\/a>, Jordan Phillips, Tim Settle, Shaq Lawson and Dane Jackson.<\/p>\n<p>Their exits create a lot of questions along the defensive line and in the secondary. That said, linebacker should be a point of significant strength for Buffalo if both Milano and Terrel Bernard, who missed the end of last season with an ankle injury, are back to full strength.<\/p>\n<p>Milano recorded 99 total tackles, 11 passes defended, three interceptions, two fumble recoveries and 1.5 sacks as part of his standout 2022 season. Bernard enjoyed a breakout 2023 campaign with 143 total tackles, 6.5 sacks and three interceptions.<\/p>\n<p>The Bills only feature two linebackers in their base defense\u2014slot corner Taron Johnson plays far more than a traditional third linebacker\u2014so Milano and Bernard will handle most the of key assignments in the middle of the field.<\/p>\n<h3>Buffalo Already Dealing With Other Injury Issues<\/h3>\n<p>While Milano&#8217;s return was a welcome sight for the Bills on Tuesday, it wasn&#8217;t all good news on the injury front. ESPN&#8217;s Alaina Getzenberg provided the full rundown from McDermott about who wasn&#8217;t available on the first day of minicamp:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">McDermott on the absences: &quot;Unfortunately, injury related. We&#39;ve kind of got hit with the injury bug here.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Alaina Getzenberg (@agetzenberg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/agetzenberg\/status\/1800561593782260046?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Being without four reserve linebackers helps explain why two of the three <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BuffaloBillsPR\/status\/1800506322879906138\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tryout contracts signed<\/a> went to the position: Stephen Hillis and Shaquille Quarterman. The other was running back Hassan Hall.<\/p>\n<p>An injury list that long is better in mid-June than mid-September. Nevertheless, a lot of the players stuck on the sideline are those who will be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/06\/01\/2024-buffalo-bills-53-man-roster-projection-june-otas-minicamp\/\" target=\"_self\">fighting for spots<\/a> on Buffalo&#8217;s 53-man roster in training camp, so they are missing out on valuable reps.<\/p>\n<p>Bills mandatory minicamp runs through Thursday. It&#8217;s the last set of on-field practices before training camp kicks off in late July. An official camp start date hasn&#8217;t been announced.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo opens the regular season on Sept. 8 against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/cardinals\/\" target=\"_self\">Arizona Cardinals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: JAMIE GERMANO-USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Buffalo Bills defense received a massive boost when the team opened mandatory minicamp on Tuesday. Which player was back on the field?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5175,"featured_media":177320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,3],"tags":[7705,4374],"class_list":["post-177305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-bills","tag-buffalo-bills-news","tag-matt-milano"],"modified_by":"Will Koshover, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}