One Coaching Change Has an ESPN Analyst Reversing Course on a Bills Draft Pick He Hated

Ben Solak didn’t mince words about TJ Sanders last year. The ESPN analyst called him a bad fit for Sean McDermott’s system and wasn’t shy about it. But now, after Buffalo cleaned house and overhauled its defensive staff, Solak has flipped completely. He’s picked Sanders as the Bills’ most likely breakout player for 2026.

That’s a pretty dramatic shift for a guy who played 12 games as a rookie and barely showed up on the stat sheet. Sanders finished with 16 tackles, one sack and one pass defensed. Not exactly the kind of production that screams “sophomore leap.” But context matters here, and the context changed in a big way.

Why Sanders didn’t work in McDermott’s system

Solak’s original complaint was straightforward. Sanders is 297 pounds with a long, upright frame. That’s undersized for an NFL defensive tackle, especially in a traditional 4-3 scheme. He’s better when he’s slanting, stunting, or sliding outside as a big defensive end in subpackages. McDermott’s defense didn’t ask him to do any of that very often. So Sanders spent most of his rookie year looking lost.

But the Bills fired McDermott after the season and brought in Jim Leonhard as defensive coordinator. Leonhard runs a 3-4 base defense that puts a premium on versatility up front. Suddenly, Sanders’ skill set makes a lot more sense.

“Luckily, that makes Sanders a much more natural fit in new coordinator Jim Leonhard’s defense,” Solak wrote in his article for ESPN. “It uses three-down fronts and needs big defensive ends to draw multiple players in pass protection while blitzes land from the other side of the line.”

So the same guy Solak didn’t like as a draft pick is now the guy he thinks could pop. Funny how that works.

What Sanders needs to prove in 2026

Solak didn’t go overboard with the hype. He compared Sanders’ potential trajectory to John Franklin-Myers, who carved out a solid career as a versatile, unglamorous lineman. But he also pointed out that Sanders isn’t likely to become a star overnight. He’s a candidate to handle the dirty work — eating blocks, drawing doubles, letting the linebackers clean up.

That kind of player doesn’t show up in highlight reels, but he can make a defense function. And Buffalo’s front seven needs some function. The Bills will line up Deone Walker and Ed Oliver next to Sanders on the interior. That’s a decent group on paper, but it needs someone to hold things together. If Sanders can be that guy, the Bills might finally have the defensive front to match their offensive firepower.

Nobody’s penciling Buffalo into the Super Bowl yet. But if a coaching change unlocks a second-round pick who was written off after one year, that’s a win. And ESPN’s biggest skeptic is already on board.