Bills DT named team's 'best-kept secret' entering OTAs

One outlet has identified Buffalo Bills defensive tackle DaQuan Jones as the team's "best-kept secret" entering OTAs.

Bills DaQuan Jones stops to talk with fans and take a photo with them before leaving the field. The Bills lost to the Chiefs. / Tina MacIntyre-Yee /Rochester Democrat

The big fellas deserve love, too.

Though his impact often doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, few roles within the Buffalo Bills’ defense are more meaningful than that of defensive tackle DaQuan Jones. The former Penn State Nittany Lion is truly asked to do a bit of everything—he has to clog holes in the run game, eat blocks to create advantageous matchups for his fellow pass-rushers, and contribute to the pass rush himself, all while helping to set the tone in the trenches for the entire defensive unit.

And he—when healthy—is stellar in this role, his advanced statistics, courtesy of Pro Football Focus, painting an effective picture of just how impactful he is. In the 2022 NFL season—Jones’s first with the Bills—he tallied 33 total quarterback pressures and 20 run stops, these numbers ranking fourth and first on the team, respectively, amongst defensive linemen. Though his 2023 campaign was limited to just seven games due to injury, the 32-year-old was still impactful, totaling 20 pressures and 10 run stops, per PFF.

These statistics don’t show up in the standard box score, however. In fact, it’d be easy for a fan perusing general statistics to overlook Jones entirely, as on paper, he’s notched just 54 tackles and 4.5 sacks throughout his two seasons with the Bills.

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General stats are ineffective when it comes to quantifying Jones’s impact, and thus, he’s vastly underrated around the league. Bleacher Report has recently identified the tackle as Buffalo’s “best-kept secret” entering OTAs, with writer Matt Holder echoing the sentiment that his significant impact is largely absent from the stat sheet.

“Part of the reason why Jones is under the radar is because he missed a good chunk of last season with a pec injury,” Holder wrote. “Also, he plays a somewhat unheralded position as a defensive tackle, but he's managed to make a significant impact for the Bills. He's earned grades of 72.6 and 86.0 from Pro Football Focus since signing as a free agent two years ago.”

Jones’s presence has also increased the production and impact of his fellow defensive linemen; Ed Oliver, long a talented, but inconsistent defensive tackle who was struggling to take that 'next step,' has established himself as one of the best interior pass-rushers in the league since the arrival of Jones.

And Buffalo fans will continue to feel his impact on the field for the next two seasons, as Jones inked a two-year extension with the Bills in the offseason.