2024 is a season of transition for the Buffalo Bills, a fact that well-known to anyone paying even slight attention to the team these last six months. Bills general manager Brandon Beane has used the term to describe the upcoming season, which remains true even if the most important position is as solid as it’s ever been in the history of the franchise.

Still, with transition comes new leaders. Not just new leadership with a “C” on their chests, but also opportunities for new statistical leaders for Buffalo. When you have mainstays like Jordan Poyer, Tre’Davious White, Micah Hyde, and Stefon Diggs, the question of who will lead the team in interceptions or receiving yards gets a little bit easier.

So, with this transition comes the opportunity for new names at the top of the leaderboards at the end of the season. Which Buffalo Bills will lead the team in each of the relevant raw counting statistics for the 2024 regular season?

Let me offer a guess on the defensive side of the ball — though I’ll leave the actual stats predictions to you in the comments.

Passing rushing from the edge is one of the concerns for the Bills’ defensive line in 2024, with defensive ends A.J. Epenesa and Gregory Rousseau slated to occupy the starting roles in a heavy rotation system that will hope to get a boost from a healthier Von Miller, free-agent acquisitions Dawuane Smoot and Casey Toohill, and fifth-round selection Javon Solomon. Importantly, Ed Oliver played the highest percentage of Buffalo’s defensive snaps in 2023 (68.10%) among defensive linemen.

precedent of a Sean McDermott defense that has had a defensive tackle lead all defensive linemen in snap percentage each of the last three years, Oliver looks primed for another heavy workload relative to his line running mates. With the return of DaQuan Jones on a two-year deal, Oliver appears likely to once again thrive in an environment that should allow him to lead the team in QB takedowns.

Bernard or Matt Milano were the obvious top two candidates for this prediction. Milano is working his way back from a broken leg suffered against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 5 of the 2023 regular season, and Bernard has emerged as a star in the last 12 months (despite fantasy analysts who don’t watch the team stating otherwise), bringing impact plays to a defense that was looking for periodic splashes in Milano’s absence. For the four full games when Milano and Bernard played together, Milano totaled 27 combined tackles to Benard’s 29.

Since the 2018 season, the middle linebacker in Buffalo’s defense, regardless of Leslie Frazier or Sean McDermott calling plays (Tremaine Edmunds), out-tackled the overhang-centric Milano. While the Bills do have a new defensive coordinator in 2024 (with Bobby Babich appearing likely to also take over play calling), with the re-signing of nickel corner Taron Johnson to a new deal that makes him the highest paid player at his position in football, it doesn’t appear likely that enough of a dramatic shift to defensive philosophy is occurring that it would push Bernard out of the “likely to be the highest grossing tackler on the roster” spot.