Buffalo Bills 2024 free-agent analysis: DE Casey Toohill

Pretty clearly a depth signing, right?

The Buffalo Bills continue making moves in free agency, having recently signed former Washington Commanders defensive end Casey Toohill.

Drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2020, Toohill was waived and picked up by Washington later that year where he’s been ever since. Toohill started eight games with the Commanders in 2023, after Washington shipped out both Chase Young and Montez Sweat.

Let’s not kid ourselves, Toohill isn’t likely to rocket up the depth chart to surpass Von Miller, Greg Rousseau, and A.J. Epenesa. Toohill is here for depth. I’ll GIF up his five sacks from last year below and give some impressions from the film, but this is pretty much a known situation.

Sack 1

Toohill benefited from the stunt (like he’s supposed to) and waded through some clutter until it was a one=on-one situation. At the pause, his left arm punches and finds the shoulder pad to create space. That allowed Toohill to stay clean and break free for the sack.

Sack 2

This is a “process” sack if I’ve ever seen one. The offensive play design appears intended to get receiving options open quick with a half-field read rolling right. Toohill had to trust that the coverage behind him had those targets locked up so he could hassle the quarterback. Toohill never even appeared to glance back and finished his assignment.

Sack 3

Toohill should receive full marks for this sack. He established himself as the low man and created contact at the shoulder in textbook form. He even got a nice pop in there, which rocked his man back and made it easier to collapse the pocket and break free at the right moment.

Sack 4

I think it was a post on X/Twitter from Buffalo Rumblings’ own Bruce Nolan who made a Trent Murphy reference regarding Toohill. I seem to remember Murphy recalling a story from his younger days where he drove to a rival field and worked out until he vomited on their field. That story was presented as one holding up the virtue of his hustle mentality. This is actually a Casey Toohill story I’m telling right now.

Sack 5

With Toohill playing on a team that included Chase Young and Montez Sweat, one of the reasons I wanted to focus on his five sacks is that depth players will sometimes benefit from the extra attention given to teammates and/or sometimes just wind up in the right place at the right time.

Notably, this is the only sack I would consider to be strictly “right place, right time” and all players will have that on the highlight reel from time to time. Other sacks had him benefit from support from his team, but not to the point of discrediting Toohill.

The Final Straw

Interestingly, four of Toohill’s sacks came when he was a rotational piece with the Commanders (Sacks 1 through 4 above). While it’s likely there’s some benefit from the ripple created by Young and Sweat still being on the team at the time, I was happy to see Toohill’s own efforts being a major contributor.

I’m stealing Bruce’s comparison of Casey Toohill to Trent Murphy. Toohill should be considered depth, but my hunch is that this means “depth who will see time in the rotation” rather than “break glass in case of emergency.” For the record, that’s also the kind of depth that can change. Could another step forward from Kingsley Jonathan or an as-yet-unsigned player step up and push Toohill down the chart? I wouldn’t be shocked.