Bills’ Harrison Phillips on free agency: ‘I would hope to be here’
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Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Harrison Phillips has had a rocky first four years of his NFL career after being selected by the team in the third round of the draft in 2018.
Many ups have come as of late– Phillips found a real home in the middle of the Bills’ defensive line this year. Any downs mostly been attached to injury.
With Buffalo’s exit from the playoffs following their 42-36 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime, attention now turns toward the future. Phillips’ rookie contract with the Bills is up soon. He’ll become a free agent this spring.
As of early this week, there haven’t been any discussions yet on an extension. Phillips has made up his mind, though. He wants to be back.
“I have a lot of personal capital built up here in this organization and people. They know my value better than any other team because they’ve got to see the person that I am,” Phillips said via video conference. “I would hope to be here. There haven’t been any talks yet. But I would love to revenge these three years in a row now, in the playoffs, on the road, losing– yeah, there’s definitely some vengeance.”
At this point it’s too soon to tell what will happen on the business end of things.
Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane had big praise for Phillips when asked about the defender’s future as well.
“Who doesn’t love Harry?” Beane said.
But Beane noted it still comes down to working out the details. Based on what the GM said, it reminds one a bit of the extension for Matt Milano last offseason.
Milano has had some more productivity on the field than Phillips, but both the linebacker and DT have injury history.
While Phillips has played in a double-digit amount of games played in three of his four seasons, in 2019, he tore his ACL after three games, ending his year. Then Phillips also spent a game or two as the odd-man out on Buffalo’s defensive line rotation as a healthy scratch.
But again, in 2021, there was no keeping him off the field. Even with another knee injury in the picture he played in 14 games and at a high level.
For context, Pro Football Focus graded him the Bills’ best defensive tackle this season. Not only that, the football analytics outlet marked him the 14th best at his job in the entire NFL. That’s some huge praise.
But now how do you juggle that injury bug and recent productivity and make a contract that works for both sides? Beane acknowledged that’s his job.
“We’ll have to figure out what his value is, that’s kind of been my conversation with him. Really proud of him. We drafted him here and would love to see him continue his career here,” Beane said.
But this is why Beane is paid the big bucks himself.
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