Buffalo Bills vs. Denver Broncos: Both Teams Rebuilding Defenses This Preseason

The Buffalo Bills travel to face the Denver Broncos Saturday at 8:30 p.m. EDT, and this contest features the two teams that finished with the worst rush-defenses in the NFL in 2010. If only both teams had a great offensive line to be able to take advantage of their opponents' shortcomings...

The Broncos finished 2010 last in overall defense and last in defensive points allowed (average of 29.4 points per game). The Bills weren't much better, as they allowed 26.6 points per game, which was fifth-worst in the league. The Bills were last in run-defense, and the Broncos were just ahead of them at 31st.

But that was then, and this is now.

The Bills and Broncos both addressed the defensive side of the ball early and often in the NFL draft. Ironically enough, both teams drafted four defensive players and an offensive lineman with their first five picks.

They were also drafting right next to each other in the draft order, as Denver selected Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller with the second overall pick, while the Bills gladly drafted Alabama defensive lineman Marcell Dareus with the third overall pick.

Dareus and Miller will play key roles for both these teams as they attempt to turn around their defenses and try to create winning organizations again. Continue with the slideshow for a further look into this preseason game.

Is the Bills' Defensive Pass-Rush for Real?

Fresh off their staggering total of nine sacks against the weak Chicago Bears offensive line, the Bills will now take their show on the road to Denver to see if they can continue with the impressive start from Week 1.

If the Bills' pass-rush is for real, we will be seeing quite a few new sack dances that haven't been on display at Ralph Wilson Stadium for some time. The picture of the Marcell Dareus sack dance is one that might expand as he starts gaining more confidence in the coming weeks and months.

Nine sacks is amazing. If the Bills' triangle of Kyle Williams, Marcell Dareus and Shawne Merriman can stay healthy all year, they will each get their fair share of sacks because opponents can't hope to contain all three of them with a single blocker.

It also means that the more double-team blocking that is required, the easier it will be for people like Nick Barnett, Danny Batten, Arthur Moats, Dwan Edwards and Alex Carrington to come in and clean up from an easier path to the quarterback or ball-carrier.

We shouldn't get too giddy about the new pass-rush from one preseason game. Let's see what happens in the upcoming weeks, but so far so good.

Shawne Merriman Is Proving His Doubters Wrong so Far

Shawne Merriman played nine snaps at Chicago, during which time the Bills' defense collected three sacks going up against the Bears' starting offensive line. That must have been very gratifying for Merriman, considering all the abuse he has been reading on his game in the past year.

From the experts (or hacks, if you prefer) at ESPN who had basically convinced themselves that Shawne Merriman's career was history. Here is an example of what they were throwing out there on the wall:

'Do you think Shawne "Lights Out" Merriman can regain his old form and give the Buffalo Bills the dominant pass rusher they have been lacking?'

'Could happen, but I don't expect it at all. What has he done besides get injured since returning from his suspension? I think Merriman is done.'"

NFL.com NFL analyst Bucky Brooks also wrote a story titled, "Bills going all in on Merriman is act of desperation."

These are just a few examples of the public perception from around the league.

The Bills and Buddy Nix are to be applauded for having the guts to take a chance that things would work out with Merriman. There is still a long way to go in the NFL season, but the team appears to be taking the right approach to working with Merriman and bringing him around slowly but surely.

When this season is all said and done, maybe Brooks can write a followup story that says the Bills going all in on Merriman was an act of pure genius!

We will see how this all plays out.

What Did We Learn from Week 1?

Okay, so from Week 1, we observed that the Bills have an improved pass-rush from 2010. The first-team defense did a better job of stopping the run, but the second and third-team look pretty bad, as the Bears ran the ball at will the final three quarters.

The short passing game was the only offense Ryan Fitzpatrick was allowed to run for the first week—no sense in putting too much out there on tape for the rest of the league to start dissecting just yet.

Special teams was pretty bad in the coverage on both kickoffs and punt return coverage. That has to improve, and you can bet Chan Gailey will devote more practice time to that this week.

We also learned that Brad Smith can and will be used in many different facets on offense, and for anyone who wondered why the Bills invested so much in him, the answer was fairly obvious for all to see. The guy is talented and will be very useful in both short-yardage situations, as well as in the red zone.

After reflecting on all of those above topics, I realize this was just one preseason game after about two weeks of practicing that the team had to work together before trotting out there on the field. Plus, that field at Soldier Field was a mess; Chicago took a lot of rain, and the field was pretty badly beaten up.

Let's see how the above issues play out in the thin atmosphere at Denver.

Another Week and More Changes to the Bills

In the span of one short week, Lee Evans and Aaron Maybin are gone, and Andy Levitre is being replaced by Chad Rinehart.

Of the three players in question, I have to admit that I was surprised by two of the three events. I was not surprised by Maybin leaving, as I had just written earlier this week that it was time for the Bills to say good-bye to him—and sure enough they waived him that afternoon.

What is surprising is that there are a number of teams that are expressing interest in Maybin.

That is somewhat baffling, because if they watched the tape, they would see a player who is just very physically over-matched in the NFL. There is a reason the Bills cut him, but the rest of the league needs to see it first-hand to believe it. Well, it appears Maybin is now headed to play for the New York Jets.

At least the Bills will know where to run the ball now when they face the Jets.

Replacing Levitre with Rinehart is a surprise because the prevailing thought had been that Levitre was typically grading out as one of the Bills' most steady interior linemen. I had not read anything that suggested Levitre was hurting the Bills or was holding the team back from taking their offense to the next level. Maybe the Bills are doing this to keep Rinehart more involved in the offense, and the ultimate plan is to rotate all three guards—Levitre, Rinehart and Urbik—to keep them fresh for the entire season.

Finally, we come to the Lee Evans situation. Many were puzzled by the timing of the trade, myself included. But when you think back at what Buddy Nix was allowed to do and what he was not allowed to do because of the lockout (i.e. not being able to trade players at the draft), he really didn't have very many practical options. My preference would have been for Evans to play out the year, boost his stock value, then trade him after the 2011 season to whatever team was interested in him then.

Ryan Fitzpatrick is now on record as stating that Donald Jones will be the wide receiver who will be stepping up to pick up the slack for Evans' absence. From what we saw in Week 1, Jones has a long way to go to make that prediction come true.

Expect to See a Little More from the Starters

When the Bills face off with Denver, they will be just 22 days away from their season-opener at Kansas City. I think the starters will be asked to go a little deeper in the game this week, and we might see the offense expand in the playbook with more than just the short passing game. 

We might expect to see more of the Wildcat offense exposed, as Chan Gailey can take the skills of Brad Smith and use them in multiple ways. Marcus Easley should start getting more targets as well, in light of Evans being traded away.

There are some guys who are hurting as this is being written. Chris White and Kelvin Sheppard, the two rookie draft picks who were brought in to shore up the inside linebacker position, have both missed time due to injuries. White will be out for the Denver game, and we are waiting to see how Sheppard is coming along. Corner Justin Rogers missed the Bears game due to injury, so hopefully he is progressing.

Torrell Troup has a broken bone in his hand and is hoping to play with his hand wrapped up. Roscoe Parrish has a bad hamstring and may not yet be ready to play with that injury; David Nelson should be getting more snaps due to Parrish's absence. Buster Davis was also hurting at practice this week.

Denver's Offense

The ongoing saga in Denver is, who should be quarterback?

The coaches see that Kyle Orton has outplayed everybody else and deserves to be the starter. The fans of course love Tim Tebow and are always clamoring for him.

(In case you have been living under a rock, Tebow is the NFL player who sells more jerseys than any other player in the league—it also means his popularity factor is stronger than his talent level.)

Not to be forgotten is third-string QB Brady Quinn, who may need a change of scenery if he wants to be a starter again.

Bills fans will be interested to see a familiar face in Willis McGahee, as he is now part of the Broncos team. McGahee will be taking over the goal-line carries for the Broncos, just like he did for Baltimore.

Under new head coach John Fox, the Broncos will probably be looking to run the ball more, so this should be a good test for the Bills to see how good their first-team defense is prepared to stop the run. McGahee is part of a running back by committee with Knowshon Moreno.

Other weapons for the Broncos' offense include receivers Brandon Lloyd, Eddie Royal and Eric Decker, but their number of targets will probably be fewer due to the influence of Fox. Another factor will be rookie tight end Julius Thomas, who has wowed the Broncos at camp. The Bills need to be concerned about any team with a good tight end, based on how badly the Bills were burned by tight ends in 2010.

Denver's Defense

Overhauling the worst defense in the NFL doesn't happen overnight, but the Broncos are doing as much as they can to improve it dramatically.

It started with the drafting of All-American linebacker Von Miller. The Broncos also drafted two talented new members for their secondary in safeties Rahim Moore (UCLA) and Quintin Carter (Oklahoma), not to mention linebacker Nate Irving.

The defensive line needed help as well.

For starters, the Broncos have a healthy Elvis Dumervil, so when you combine him with Von Miller, you know the pass-rush will be much better.

In addition, the Broncos added defensive linemen Ty Warren and Derrick Harvey, and they traded for Jeremy Jarmon. Unfortunately, Warren recently tore his triceps, so it appears that both Warren and defensive tackle Marcus Thomas will be missing the game this Saturday. The Bills will see the Broncos once more this year (Christmas Eve), so both Warren and Thomas may be healthy by then. Ex-Bills linebacker Alvin Bowen was recently added to the team as well when Denver claimed him off waivers from Jacksonville.

If you are not able to see the game live, it will re-air on the NFL Network this coming Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EDT.