Matt Milano

LB·

Buffalo Bills

Tier 2Round 5, pick 163 in 2017

Updated November 12, 2026

76.6

Model Score

Down from 78.5 last year

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Matt Milano is an LB for the Buffalo Bills (updated November 12, 2026).

Model Score by season

Down 1.9 from last season.

How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →

STM Take

An elite linebacker back from a broken leg.

The case for

Two Pro Bowls plus 2022 1st-team All-Pro plus the 2025 tier 2 (#9) post-tibia recovery establishes elite LB career résumé.
Boston College 5th-round origin plus 100+ tackles in multiple seasons gives him real outlier-positive draft-slot-vs-outcome arc.

The worry

2024 tibia injury plus the 2025 post-recovery return puts continued durability question on every 2026 projection.
Buffalo's cap structure around Josh Allen's QB contract limits the extension runway if the late-prime ceiling closes.

What to watch: Whether Milano earns his third Pro Bowl in 2026 plus holds tier 1 (top 10), the threshold for closing the structural elite chapter case.

Full take and bio

Two Pro Bowls plus 2022 1st-team All-Pro plus the 2025 tier 2 (#9) post-tibia recovery establishes Milano as one of the best linebackers of his generation. The Boston College 5th-round origin plus nine years of NFL starter reps gives him the structural Hall-of-Fame trajectory. The 2026 question is whether Milano earns his third Pro Bowl plus holds tier 1 territory or whether the structural post-tibia decline closes the elite chapter.

Milano came out of Boston College as the Buffalo Bills' 5th-round pick (163rd overall) in 2017 and has made two Pro Bowls (2022, 2023) plus earned 2022 1st-team All-Pro recognition. He broke his tibia in 2024 and missed extensive time. His STTM career runs tier 1 (#3) in 2020, tier 2 (#12) in 2021, tier 1 (#6) peak in 2022, tier 3 (#19) in 2023, and tier 2 (#9) in 2025 post-tibia recovery.

Comps

Coming out: one of one, no NFL player had a college career this close.

Of his 20 closest coming out: 1 star, 4 starters, 10 backups, 5 didn't stick.

Matt Milano Injury StatusNot listed

Matt Milano is not on the injury report as of Nov 11. Source: the official NFL injury report, refreshed daily.

Draft & College

Round 5, pick 163 to the Buffalo Bills in 2017, out of Boston College (ACC). He went about where consensus had him.

Taken#163

Consensus board182nd

Our college model#136 LB

In college, 2016, 13 games: 59 tackles, 12 TFL, 6.5 sacks, 1 INT. (partial record) Coming out: 4.67s 40 yd, 24 reps bench, 35" vertical, 126" broad.

What this pick usually becomes. Of the 500 players taken as a fifth or sixth-rounder between 2012 and 2021, 26% earned a second contract and 16% became starters. The median one started 2 career games.