How good should Bills expect Terrel Bernard to be in 2026?

The Buffalo Bills dealt with a litany of injuries during the 2025 NFL season. The defense, in particular, was ravaged by injury, especially at the end of the season. In the team’s final game, there were too many plays made by players who hadn’t begun the year with the Bills, and ultimately, those plays stuck out like a sore thumb in what was a close 33-30 loss.

Injuries are the norm, not the exception, in the NFL, so it’s something that every team has to prepare for throughout a season. Keeping starters healthy is always of paramount importance, but sometimes, those injuries are just unavoidable.

In today’s edition of “91 players in 91 days,” we discuss the captain of Buffalo’s defense, a player who has been injured a whole lot over the last two seasons.
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Name:  Terrel Bernard

Number:  8

Position:  ILB

Height/Weight:  6’1″ 224 lbs.

Age:  27 (28 on 5/8/2026)

Experience/Draft:  5; selected by Buffalo in the third round (No. 89 overall) of the 2022 NFL Draft)

College:  Baylor

Acquired:  Third-round draft choice

Financial situation (per Spotrac):  Bernard enters the first year of the four-year, $42.13 million extension he signed last March. For this season, his cap hit is $5.352 million. If Buffalo were to release him, they would carry a dead cap charge of $20.012 million this year.

2025 Recap:  Bernard had a rough go of it from the start, as a pulled hamstring in training camp limited his ramp-up for the regular season and served as a harbinger of things to come. He played in Buffalo’s first six games, totaling 30 tackles, an interception, a pass breakup, three tackles for loss, and two fumble recoveries; however, he suffered an ankle injury in that Week Six loss to the Atlanta Falcons. While he missed just one game due to that injury, its effects lingered throughout the rest of the season. Bernard suffered an elbow injury in Buffalo’s loss at the Houston Texans in Week 12, which caused him to miss the next three games. He returned before the end of the regular season, but a calf injury suffered in Week Seventeen against the Philadelphia Eagles ended Bernard’s season, as he did not return for either of Buffalo’s postseason games. Despite playing in only 12 games and dealing with injury for many of them, he was fourth on the team in tackles with 65. He had seven tackles for loss, three pass breakups, one interception, two fumble recoveries, and two quarterback hits.

Positional outlook:  Bernard is one of eight players listed at inside linebacker on the current roster. Joe Andreessen, Dorian Williams, Keonta Jenkins, Jimmy Ciarlo, Theron Gaines, and Otis Reese IV are healthy. Veteran Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles is on injured reserve. Rookie Kaleb Elarms-Orr is listed at linebacker, but he plays ILB.

2026 Offseason:  Bernard had surgery to address his ankle issues, but he is completely healthy and participating in training camp practices.

2026 Season outlook: This season is a big one for Bernard, who thrived under former head coach Sean McDermott’s system. Injuries were really the only thing holding him back—that is, unless you consider his smaller stature to be part of the reason for said injuries—and when he was healthy, he was a consistent presence around the ball for the Bills on defense. With new defensive boss Jim Leonhard in town, Bernard has some new responsibilities. How will he perform in a new defense?

At the most basic level, Bernard is a football player, and a good one at that. This change in system could help him, especially if there is more “attack” and less “read and react” in his role. Bernard didn’t earn his big extension by accident, and he didn’t earn the “C” on his chest by mistake, either. If he’s fully healthy, and that’s a big “if” given his checkered injury history, the Bills’ defense is going to be better because of it. Whether he’s paired with Dorian Williams or Kaleb Elarms-Orr in the middle, or even if someone else steps up and earns time, the Bills and their new defensive boss definitely want Bernard available and at his best.

The question for Bernard isn’t whether he’ll make the roster, or even whether he’s going to start or what role he’s going to play. The real question is whether No. 8 can hold up and remain available for all 17 regular season games and beyond.