Pressure Is On For Ed Oliver After Buffalo Bills’ Show Of Faith

Ed Oliver has yet to deliver on his status as a top-10 pick, but the Buffalo Bills clearly believe he will eventually vindicate their decision to take him ninth overall in 2019.

The Bills on Saturday agreed a four-year, $68 million extension with the defensive tackle. The deal, per Adam Schefter of ESPN, includes $45 million guaranteed.

Oliver, who is now signed through the 2027 season, ranks 11th among defensive tackles in average annual salary following his extension, according to Spotrac. He will earn an average of $17 million a year.

However, in terms of practical guaranteed money, Oliver is sixth for his position. A lofty position for a player who has recorded five sacks only once in his pro career, doing so in his rookie season of 2019.

Oliver entered the NFL appearing to possess untapped pass-rush potential after being miscast as a nose tackle in the Houston Cougars’ three-man defensive front. That upside has yet to be fully harnessed.

Per Pro Football Reference, Oliver has never recorded 20 pressures in a season. His 2022 tally of 16 was 30 fewer than that of Chris Jones and 20 fewer than Dexter Lawrence. Jones and Lawrence are tied for second among defensive tackles in guaranteed money ($60 million).

Health played a significant role in Oliver’s disappointing statistical performance of last year.

He suffered an ankle injury in the season-opening blowout of the Los Angeles Rams and subsequently missed the next three games, robbing Oliver of the opportunity to start his fourth season in a manner that could have set him up for a bigger payday.

Bills general manager Brandon Beane indicated Oliver was not fully healthy even after he came back into the lineup. Though a return to the field did not facilitate top-tier production in sacks and pressures from Oliver, he did register nine tackles for loss a year after racking up 10.

On top of that, Oliver also had 14 quarterback hits for the second successive season, while his 11 quarterback knockdowns were just two fewer than Chiefs star Jones tallied in a campaign that put him in the running for Defensive Player of the Year.

Those are numbers that reflect Oliver’s ability to create disruption against both the run and the pass. Still, they are not statistics that would seem to justify the outlay the Bills have committed to Oliver.

Oliver is still only 25, though, and the Bills appear convinced that, when fully healthy, he is the type of talent who can mirror the production of the likes of Jones, Lawrence and Javon Hargrave.

With what the Bills hope will be a full season of playing on the same defensive front as edge rushers Von Miller and Greg Rousseau ahead of him, the pressure is now on Oliver to produce impactful plays from the interior more consistently as Buffalo aims to finally get over the hump in 2023.