Bills' LB Terrel Bernard: Defensive Signal-Caller Earns No. 13 Ranking
Bills' LB Terrel Bernard: Defensive Signal-Caller Earns No. 13 Ranking
Health will be key to making sure he is worth a $50 million payday.Owen Klein|
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Buffalo Bills | News, Scores, Schedules & StandingsAs the team enjoys its summer break, Bills On SI will unveil its Top 25 Player Rankings (based upon expected impact) for the 2026 season. The ranking methodology is based on positional value, past performance and expectations for any player. LB Terrel Bernard seeks to rebound after an injury-riddled 2025 to prove his No. 13 ranking.
The Buffalo Bills' defensive shift under new coordinator Jim Leonhard will apply a lot to its linebacker group, and that includes fifth-year player Terrel Bernard, who's coming off a disappointing season.
In 2025, Bernard dealt with ankle, knee and elbow injuries that forced him to miss five games. He got offseason surgery on his knee, which could be a good sign as he aims to prove his worthiness of a four-year, $50 million extension he received the prior offseason.
Bernard finished fourth on the Bills with 65 tackles and tied for third with six tackles for loss in 2025 despite playing in just 12 games.
With the departures of Matt Milano and Shaq Thompson, Bernard is now the alpha in Buffalo's linebacker group, putting more pressure on him to ensure Buffalo's defense shifts smoothly to Leonhard's scheme and improves from its seventh-ranked finish in 2025.
Why is Bernard so important?
PICK! Terrel Bernard takes the ball back for the @BuffaloBills
— NFL (@NFL) September 19, 2025
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Bernard enters his third full season as Buffalo's green-dot defender, meaning he calls the defensive signals. In the wake of Milano's deteriorating health, Bernard took on a bigger responsibility in 2023 and has carried that with him ever since.
Bernard's instincts are the first thing that comes to mind when taking a look at his game. His game-ending interception of Tua Tagovailoa in Week 3 against the Miami Dolphins, when he jumps the route, is a prime example of them.
Athleticism is another strength of Bernard's game, as his 7.03-second 3-cone time was the third-fastest amongst linebackers at the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine. He displays excellent sideline-to-sideline range on the field with it.
Bernard's background
Bernard was born on May 7, 1999 in La Porte, Texas and attended La Porte High School, where he earned first-team all-district honors twice. He was a three-star recruit coming out of high school and chose Baylor over schools such as Houston, Colorado and Texas Tech.
Bernard was a two-time second-team All-Big 12 selection and made the first team in 2021 after recording 106 tackles with 12.5 for loss and 7.5 sacks. After posting 20 tackles and two sacks against Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl that season, he was named the game's MVP.
The Bills selected Bernard in the third round at No. 89 in the 2022 NFL Draft and had his best season in 2023, when his 143 tackles were the 12th-most in the NFL.
The rest of the Top 25 so far:
25. RB Ty Johnson, June 16
24. CB Maxwell Hairston, June 17
23. K Tyler Bass, June 18
22. CB Dee Alford, June 19
21. LB Dorian Williams, June 20
20. RB Ray Davis, June 22
19. S C.J. Gardner-Johnson, June 23
18. G Alec Anderson, June 24
17. TE Dawson Knox, June 25
16. DT Deone Walker, June 27
15. TE Dalton Kincaid, June 28
14. G O'Cyrus Torrence, June 29
Published 6 minutes ago
OWEN KLEINOwen Klein has covered football, basketball and baseball for Penn State athletics as a broadcaster on local radio, including producing Penn State’s 2024 men’s basketball Big Ten Tournament games and calling Penn State football’s Whiteout vs. Washington in November 2024. He has internships with the Buffalo Bisons and CBS affiliate WIVB in Buffalo, NY, in the summer of 2025. He is a Penn State University broadcast journalism student at the Bellisario College of Communications majoring in broadcast journalism and is passionate about college and professional sports, the Pokémon Video Game Championships and the Buffalo Bills.
Follow Kleiner2003Don’t forget San Diego’s July 4 fiasco — then vote the bums out
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Skip to main content OpinionDon’t forget San Diego’s July 4 fiasco — then vote the bums out
By CA Post Editorial Board Published July 1, 2026, 9:57 p.m. ETSee more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The California Post on GoogleRipped from the headlines of the satirical Babylon Bee:
A DEI extravaganza to mark the 250th birthday of the USA!
Oh wait.
That’s not the Bee; it’s actually a thing: San Diego County plans an identity-politics spectacular this July 4.
Wanna go?
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The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted this year to align the county’s Independence Day event with “equity and racial justice” goals.
Per a social media post from the mayor of El Cajon, the three-hour program will feature: a “tribal intimate blessing welcoming to land”; a tribal invocation; the American and black national anthems; local tribal community stories; Latino community stories; Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community stories; LGBTQIA+ community stories; and black and African community stories.
Whew. It’s exhausting just to read about.
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But more to the point: all of this … on July 4 of America’s 250th year? What message does the county of San Diego mean to send?
Not one that elevates fun, family, unity, respect, gratitude and patriotism — traditional Independence Day fare.
Instead, the county stoops to woke pandering.
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Extolling favored groups on the nation’s birthday is e pluribus unum in reverse: ex uno, plura.
It’s divisive. It’s ill-timed. And it’s disrespectful to the nation, to its founding values and to the US Armed Forces who have fought and sometimes died to guard the rights the grievance crowd takes for granted.
In the very recent past, Americans of all stars and stripes could agree on some things, including the Fourth of July and its fun family patriotic fare.
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Remember the iconic jingle, “We love baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet?”
Those were days when Americans united around major holidays, around a shared heritage of freedom and around pride in a country that’s the freest in the world.
No longer.
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These days, the scolds can’t be satisfied, the socialists win elections from New York to Colorado (unthinkable not long ago) and divisive Fourth of July programs emerge in once-moderate places like San Diego County.
Increasingly, elected officials want to shove a thumb in the eye of the nation, its founding, its traditions and its glory.
Enough.
Note to the radicals who rush to tear America down on perhaps its most cherished holiday:
Stop being petulant about losing national elections.
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Love your country even if you don’t love its current leader.
Teach, respect and appreciate the values of 1776: liberty, individual rights, equality, limited government and the rule of law.
Ditch the woke bilge and restore the picnics, US flags and fireworks.
Restore e pluribus unum.
Skip the lecture series and let the people have fun.
And a bonus memo to San Diego County voters: Remember this farce next election.
Just maybe, in another grand American tradition, you’ll do this:
Throw the bums out.
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