Bills free agency: Who's available to play nose tackle for Jim Leonhard in 2026?
Nose tackle is one possible need during free agency and the draft. Deone Walker, who stood out as a rookie in 2025, is likely to be their starter at the position, but what will the rest of the depth chart look like?
This is the fifth of several stories previewing the start of NFL free agency on March 11.
Joe Brady smirked and declined to reveal to reporters last week in Indianapolis which players on the Buffalo Bills' roster could play nose tackle in 2026.
"We do have nose tackles on our roster that honestly fit the prototype that we have," Brady said. "But the big thing is that if we can have flexibility across the defensive lines of having guys that can play the nose and play the 4I, play outside and be able to move inside."
Patriots defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga, celebrating after sacking Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud during an NFL divisional playoff game on Jan. 18,
started a career-high eight regular-season games in 2025. Mark Stockwell, Associated Press
Welcome to the 2026 Bills offseason. We can guess what their defense will look like next season based on what was used by the Denver Broncos, who employed Buffalo's new defensive coordinator, Jim Leonhard, the past two seasons. The Bills are switching from an odd front, nickel base scheme to a 3-4.
Leonhard plans to build his playbook around the players on their roster, but general manager and president of football operations Brandon Beane admitted that some may not fit with the Bills in 2026. Nose tackle is one possible need during free agency and the draft. Deone Walker, who stood out as a rookie in 2025, is likely to be their starter at the position, but what will the rest of the depth chart look like? Do the Bills need to prioritize nose tackle now that they can negotiate with free agents?
In-house: Ed Oliver, Deone Walker, T.J. Sanders, DeWayne Carter, Phidarian Mathis.
Based on the Broncos' defense the past two seasons, do not expect the Bills' nose tackle to line up over the center, as we saw from the old-school 3-4 base defense. Buffalo will use a variety of looks to try to be unpredictable and take advantage of the skill sets on the roster. Walker needs to improve in Year 2. He is determined to get leaner and to prepare to play more snaps in 2026. He also needs to be more consistent with his pad level and handling double-team blocks, but he made numerous splash plays and looks like a possible building block for this defense.
Mathis was re-signed last month because he is a better fit under Leonhard than he was last season with Sean McDermott as the Bills' coach. Sanders and Oliver, meanwhile, are likely to be used more as defensive ends whenever Buffalo is in a three-down front. Carter is the wild card here because he missed all of 2025 with an Achilles tear.
Top of the heap: John Franklin-Myers, Broncos; David Onyemata, Atlanta Falcons; Logan Hall, Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Calais Campbell, Arizona Cardinals.
Franklin-Myers would be a pie-in-the-sky scenario for the Bills. Over the past two seasons, he produced 14½ sacks and 14 tackles for a loss in Denver, where Leonhard was the Broncos' defensive pass game coordinator. Franklin-Meyers, 29, is a perfect fit for the scheme, and the Bills need to try to get more pressure from their interior linemen. He ranked second among Denver linemen in pressures created (39). The problem, however, is Franklin-Myers' price tag. Spotrac projects his market value at $7.87 million.
Onyemata was in New Orleans with the Saints at the same time as Brady and Bills offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael. Onyemata is 33 years old and 10 years into his NFL career. His production also dipped in the past two seasons in Atlanta, but he had double-digit quarterback hits in five consecutive seasons. His projected market value, per Spotrac, is $8.57 million.
It does not matter that Campbell turns 40 in September, and 2026 would be his 19th NFL season. The guy can still play. The six-time Pro Bowl selection has at least five sacks in each of the past four seasons. He has 31 tackles for a loss over the past three seasons. Leadership would be a bonus with Campbell, who has appeared in 155 regular-season games.
Names to know: Khyiris Tonga, New England Patriots; Sheldon Rankins, Houston Texans; Javon Hargrave, Minnesota Vikings; DJ Reader, Detroit Lions; Sebastian Joseph-Day, Tennessee Titans; Roy Lopez, Lions.
Tonga lasted one season with the Bears, who drafted the former BYU standout in the seventh round, and he played fewer than 37% of his team's defensive snaps until he had a breakthrough in 2025 with the Patriots. The 6-foot-2, 335-pound lineman contributed on defense and special teams, plus he lined up as a fullback in short-yardage situations. Spotrac projects Tonga to get paid an average annual value of $3.13 million, and he would fit the Bills' new defensive scheme.
Reader, 31, has not been as effective since leaving the Cincinnati Bengals, but he would bring leadership and experience to a position group that will likely lose DaQuan Jones and Larry Ogunjobi this offseason. Reader, a 10-year veteran, had just four quarterback hits and zero tackles for a loss in 2025. He contributed 24 run stops in 266 snaps against the run, according to Next Gen Stats.
One of Reader's Lions teammates, Lopez, could make more sense for the Bills. Lopez, 28, had a career-high five quarterback hits in 2025 and played 39% of Detroit's defensive snaps. Joseph-Day, a seven-year veteran, had six tackles for a loss and two sacks for the Titans in 2025. He won a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams and reached the NFC championship game with the San Francisco 49ers two years ago.
Under the radar: Neville Gallimore, Indianapolis Colts.
A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Gallimore has experience playing one technique in a 3-4 scheme and broke out in 2025 by totaling career highs in passes defended (3), sacks (3½), and tackles (38), while playing 40% of Indianapolis' defensive snaps across 17 games. Gallimore, 29, previously played for the Rams and Dallas Cowboys.