Kaleb Elarms-Orr is quietly earning more playing time on Buffalo Bills defense

Kaleb Elarms-Orr was the talk of Buffalo Bills training camp and preseason. It’s time to check in on the rookie linebacker after he played 16 snaps against the Patriots, the most to date in his NFL career.

The currently shaky state of the team’s inside linebacker position warrants this KEO evaluation too.

Elarms-Orr played eight snaps in Week 1’s win over the Texans, 12 against the Lions, and nine against the Chargers.

KEO’s 15.5% defensive snap rate pales in comparison to inside linebacker starters Dorian Williams and Terrel Bernard who’ve appeared on 67.1% and 96.1% of Buffalo’s defensive snaps through four games.

But I have an inkling Elarms-Orr is going to continue to become a larger part of Buffalo’s inside linebacker unit as the season progresses.

Partly because he’s playing quality football. Partly because the team’s other inside linebackers aren’t thriving in Jim Leonhard’s scheme right now.

On those limited snaps, KEO has nine tackles without a miss. He was credited with four receptions allowed in his coverage area for 61 yards in the first three contests of the 2026 campaign but no receiving production on nine coverage snaps against the Patriots.

He’s identifying plays and getting to the football in a flash all while smoothly covering plenty of ground in coverage to close throwing lanes.

Let me show you.

Watch how explosively KEO filled his lane on this tackle for loss on Rhamondre Stevenson on a critical third down late in the third quarter:

Read his key. And hit the accelerators. No hesitation. Impact tackle. That’s textbook. But it wasn’t the only standout play from KEO against the run in Week 4.

On this play, notice his twitchiness attacking the line of scrimmage and how assertively he stacked and shed the left guard to help slow Stevenson on this short gain:

I’ve scouted hundreds of linebacker prospects over the years, and the vast majority of them really struggle getting off blocks early as professionals, regardless of the round in which they were drafted.

Elarms-Orr made it look easy on that play. Very authoritative.

But if you’ve followed me for any period of time you know how much I harp on the importance of coverage for the modern-day linebacker.

And against the Patriots, KEO showed veteran-like presence in that regard too.

Watch here how, after mugging the A-gap alongside Bernard before the snap, he smoothly and swiftly floated down the seam and initially checked the three pass-catcher side before getting his eyes back to Drake Maye while continuing to get vertical depth:

KEO’s smooth sink clogged the throwing window to Romeo Doubs down the middle which caused a second pat of the football by Maye and thereby gave Greg Rousseau an extra split second to get a hit on the quarterback and force an incompletion.

Outstanding.

Back to one more subtly awesome run-defense rep against the Patriots.

On this play, KEO didn’t just initiate first contact with the tight end at the second level…as he bench pressed the blocker, he first peaked to the outside to steer the running back away from the outside running lane before working back to the inside to help with the tackle:

That’s veteran-level awareness, processing, and effectiveness beating the blocker in space on an inside run.

Something else I noticed, from a more general and schematic standpoint, about KEO’s outing against the Patriots — he’s was the team’s main dime linebacker. That means, when Jim Leonhard used one linebacker and six defensive backs on the field KEO was typically that linebacker against the Patriots.

And through four games, dime is the second-most utilized personnel package by the Bills defense at 27.1%, which is being used a little less than one percentage point higher than base, per Fantasy Points data.

I’ll admit — it’s been reasonably easy to overlook Elarms-Orr in his first four NFL games.

But I believe he’s about to see the field more frequently and start making a variety of plays on this Bills defense.