Free Agent Profile: LB Matt Milano
Could the Bills' free agent linebacker Matt Milano fit in Washington?
While Washington’s defense was the strength of the team last season and should only improve next year, it’s still not a complete unit. The defensive line is loaded with talent while the secondary played well on the back end. However, the linebacker play in between those two units was inconsistent, with all three linebacker roles up for grabs. Cole Holcomb is highly thought of by the staff and will likely claim one spot, while Jon Bostic is a solid but upgradable Mike (middle) linebacker. Outside of those two, Washington has questions. Kevin Pierre-Louis flashed some potential at the Will (weak side), but is a free agent while rookie Khaleke Hudson is still a developmental prospect.
There are some big name free agents at linebacker, namely Lavonte David and K.J. Wright, who are undoubtedly good players. However, someone that might be more of a ready made fit in Washington is Matt Milano. Milano was drafted by the Bills in the fifth round of the 2017 draft. That was GM Brandon Beane’s first draft in charge of the Bills, having been hired from the Panthers, where he worked under Marty Hurney and Ron Rivera, both now in Washington. Beane hired Sean McDermott, who was Rivera’s defensive coordinator in Carolina at the time, as the Bills’ Head Coach. McDermott and Beane run a similar ship to Rivera, especially defensively, so Bills players that become available will likely get a look from Washington.
The Bills would like to keep Milano but probably can’t afford to do so. He played some safety in college before transitioning to linebacker and fits the mold of the modern NFL linebacker. He’s listed at 6-foot, 223 pounds, which is slightly undersized but he’s athletic enough to hold up in coverage. That coverage aspect is his strength, which would be welcomed in Washington.
The Bills play a lot of zone coverage, much like Washington, and that is where Milano plays his best. He’s excellent at sinking into his zones, keeping his eyes on the quarterback while feeling which routes could be threatening. The first play of this clip shows Milano in an quarters flat zone, meaning he has two deep defenders behind him responsible for a deep quarter of the field each, while Milano has to sit underneath and is responsible for a large area in the flat. On third and 10, Milano drops back into his zone, sitting down at about the first down marker. He keeps his eyes on the quarterback and spots him looking to dump the ball off to the back in the flat as a checkdown. There’s about 12 yards of gap between Milano and the back, which is enough space for the back to secure the catch, make a move to avoid the tackle and pick up the first down. However, Milano makes a good read and breaks on the route early, showing his athleticism to close the gap and make a sound tackle, preventing the back from picking up the first down.
The second play shows similar athleticism and zone coverage ability. He drops back into his underneath zone on the opposite side of a trips formation. The Patriots run a dagger concept to that side. Milano sees the tight end to his side of the field get jammed at the line trying to help block the edge rusher, while he knows he has a cornerback on that side to pick up the tight end too. So Milano looks to the trips side of the field to see if he can help out. He spots the inside receiver breaking off his route and sitting down underneath and the back spotting up as an outlet. Milano begins to relate his coverare to the back, but spots the throw going deeper and works across the field to make the tackle before any other defender.
The third play is similar, with Milano dropping into an underneath zone of what appears to be Tampa-2 coverage. He quickly checks the single receiver to his side and spots him taking an outside release, so Milano gets his head around to the other side and looks for any crossing routes. He spots one and steps up to take it away. The quarterback attempts the throw anyway and Milano gets a hand on it to break it up. On the fourth play, Milano is again the flat defender in a quarters coverage look, but he shows great awareness of the Rams’ common route combinations. He spots the release of the tight end as a choice route release, which the Rams like to use a lot. They often show this release but call the route a “choice out”, or “C.O”, where the receiver makes it look like a choice route but is always breaking outside. Milano anticipates the break outside and immediately positions himself to take that away, forcing the quarterback to work elsewhere.
Milano showed on that last play he’s very aware of route combinations and play designs. It’s obvious when watching Milano that he studies film and understands not only what the offense likes to do, but when they like to do it and how they set it up. The Rams have a strong screen game, but Milano blew up two screen passes before they could be thrown.
The first screen pass is a Sean McVay favorite. They run a play that’s designed to be a play-action bootleg with a jet sweep fake packaged into it. However, the jet sweep fake and the bootleg is all a disguise to get the jet sweep receiver in the flat with a bunch of offensive lineman in front of him as blockers on a screen. Milano, however, is aware of the play and works outside with the jet sweep fake, staying on top of it until the quarterback looks to throw it. Then, Milano drives down on it and is ready to hit the receiver as the ball arrives, but the pass gets tipped. The second screen pass was a more traditional running back screen. Milano focuses on the back the whole way and as soon as the back turns back to the quarterback, he drives on it and takes it away from the quarterback, who is forced to throw it away.
Though the Bills, and Washington for that matter, are more of a zone coverage team, they do occasionally play man, and Milano showed at times he was capable of that too.
On the first play of this clip, the Raiders align their running back outside to the right and Milano follows him out there. That tells the Raiders that the Bills are likely in man coverage, and they have a matchup they like with a running back on a linebacker. Milano, however, gets a strong jam at the line of scrimmage and knocks the running back off his path to the point that the back is almost forced out of bounds. That leaves no throwing window for the quarterback, who had already thrown to a predetermined spot expecting the back to win the route. On the second play, Milano is late to get into alignment over the tight end to the right side of the formation. The tight end runs a simple flat route, but Milano once again jams him at the line and disrupts his release, staying on top of the route the whole time. The quarterback quickly looks to his right and knows he has nothing there, so moves onto another read.
Milano’s coverage athleticism and upside would be a strong addition to Washington, which lacks consistent and reliable coverage at the position. However, in the run game, the downside of his undersized frame can be seen.
With his size, Milano can often surrender 80-100 pounds of weight to offensive lineman, which makes it hard for him to get off blocks when he gets caught by a lineman. The first play of this clip is a good example of that. The Rams run an outside zone run to their left, with Milano aligned on the right side. The right guard helps the right tackle secure the defensive tackle in the B gap before working up to the second level to cut off Milano. Milano has the speed to get around blockers, but if he has any delay in reading the play, he can get caught on blocks, which is what happens here. Milano is just a beat off the snap and that’s all the guard needs to get up to the second level and reach him. Once the lineman gets his hands on him, Milano struggles to get off the block and is sealed on the back side of the play.
On the second play of the clip, Milano reads a potential cut back or end-around, with the tight end sifting back across the line of scrimmage and a receiver looping around the backfield. He attempts to work back across the line, but ends up just getting dragged into a block by the left guard, who bulldozes him to the ground. On the third play, Milano is responsible for the edge on an outside zone run to his side. Technically, Milano didn’t get beat outside, however, he got washed out of the play by the tight end, who was able to force him too far upfield and give the back a path to the edge.
This issues with size means Milano is limited in the roles he can play. He’s not a Sam (strong side) linebacker, or a Mike. Those two roles require taking on and shedding blocks. Milano is more of a Will, who is typically the extra defender and uses his athletic ability to flow freely to the ball and make tackles.
We see a good example of Milano’s range in the run game on the first play of this clip. The Patriots run a speed option, with quarterback Cam Newton taking off to his left while the running back works outside. Newton reads an unblocked defender and can either keep the ball himself or pitch the ball outside to the back. Milano begins the play aligned in the A gap between the right guard and center, just outside the hashmarks. As Newton pitches the ball to the back, Milano works across the field and gets out to the numbers to make the tackle.
The second play shows Milano’s intelligence and awareness again. The Rams show the same look we saw from the Raiders earlier, with a tight end sifting back across the line while a receiver loops around the backfield, but this time instead of it being a fake, they hand the ball off to the receiver. Milano gets a nice early read on the backfield action and scrapes to the edge, where he’s able to get outside the tight end and re-establish the edge, preventing the receiver from getting outside and down the sideline. Instead the receiver is forced to stay patient before eventually cutting back inside where the rest of the defense was ready to help.
On the third play of the clip, the Raiders run an inside zone, but use a jet sweep fake in the same direction. The jet sweep fake forces Milano to step outside slightly, in case the Raiders hand the ball off to that player or use him to create an extra gap for the defense to account for on that side. However, Milano spots the ball being handed off to the back, with his defensive lineman plugging the lanes to the front side of the play. With that information, Milano knows the back will be forced to cut his run back early, so he uses his athleticism to avoid the incoming block from the center and fall back into the path of the running back to make the tackle.
Milano would fit in nicely in Washington, with plenty of crossover from Buffalo’s defensive scheme and Washington’s. He could play the Will linebacker role that Kevin Pierre-Louis played most of last season and give them some improved coverage from that spot. Washington would likely still need to find another option at the Mike, however. In Buffalo, Milano played next to Tremaine Edmunds, who is 6-foot-5, 250 pounds. Edmunds was often the linebacker tasked with taking on blockers, allowing Milano to play more freely. But make no mistake, Washington could use with an upgrade at the Will and Milano could be a strong fit.
Love the upside of the player.. looks to me he’s a 4 year 28-30 mill type of guy
Not a fan. Milano is going to cost at least 11-12m AAV. If we're spending that much, I'd rather spent just a little more and go after Lavonte David, assuming he becomes a FA. Otherwise, we can get KJ Wright, at about half the cost on a short term deal.