It didn’t take Rasul Douglas long to make an impact in Buffalo.
In three games since the Bills acquired him from the Packers in a deadline trade, the one-time Eagles 3rd-round pick has two interceptions, two forced fumbles, four pass deflections and 12 tackles.
He’s provided instant stability to a secondary riddled with injuries and has played every snap for Buffalo the last two weeks.
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Douglas returns to Philly this weekend for the second time since the Eagles released him before the 2020 season.
“His personality is the first thing that we noticed in the building,” Bills assistant head coach Eric Washington told the Buffalo News. “The guy is a pro. Eager to listen and to learn. Very humble attitude. He’s got a growth mindset. He’s a smart player. He knows how to find the football. We’re very excited that he’s here.”
The Eagles, 9-1, face the 6-5 Bills Sunday at the Linc. The Bills have lost four of their seven games after a 3-1 start, and they’re 1-3 on the road.
Douglas played at the Linc last November with the Packers and had eight tackles and a pass breakup in the Eagles' 40-34 win.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Bills acquired him at the trade deadline along with a 5th-round pick in 2024 for a 3rd-round pick in 2024.
Douglas said the Bills’ defensive coaches – led by long-time Eagles assistant coach Sean McDermott – have done a nice job paring down the playbook to make his mid-season transition easier.
“I’ll be like, ‘What’s that?’ and they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, we haven’t run that in a while,’ ” Douglas told the Buffalo News. “I don’t think they want to blow my mind with all the calls and stuff. …
"(Defensive backs coach John Butler) tries to make it simple and easy for us to not have to go out there and think too much and just be able to play fast.”
Douglas is now 29 and in his seventh year out of West Virginia, and his career has had plenty of twists and turns along the way.
He spent his first three seasons with the Eagles, playing in 46 games and starting 18. He won a Super Bowl ring as a rookie in 2017 and had five interceptions in an Eagles uniform.
He spent 2020 with the Panthers and started 11 games before a wild few months that saw him released by the Raiders, Texans and Cards in the span of a few weeks.
Early in 2021, the Packers – desperate for healthy defensive backs – signed Douglas off Arizona's practice squad, and he responded with a breakthrough season: Five interceptions and two pick-6’s for a 13-4 Packers team. He added four more INTs last year and another this year before heading to Buffalo.
In all, Douglas now has 17 career interceptions. Oddly, the Eagles draft picks over the last decade with the most INTs are Jordan Poyer with 24 and Douglas with 17. And they’re both now starters in the Bills' secondary.
“He’s a smart football player,” McDermott said. “The game makes a lot of sense to him. So there’s a reason why he can (do) what he did (when he arrived in Buffalo). He came in on a short week, I believe got here Wednesday, didn’t practice, and then played. That’s hard to do. Learn an entire defensive game plan from scratch and do that.
“Then, now, he’s started to really, I think, get into a rhythm of how he can make the defense work for him. Once you get a feel for what’s expected, what’s required, then you say, ‘OK, I can do some things.’”
The Bills bring the NFL’s 4th-ranked scoring defense to the Linc this weekend. Buffalo is allowing just 17.3 points per game, and they’re 7th in pass defense, 5th in passing yards allowed per play, 2nd in sacks per pass play, 2nd on third down (behind only the Eagles) and tied for 2nd in takeaways.
Including his seven games with the Packers, Douglas is the 5th-highest-rated corneraback in the NFL so far this year. His 88.2 grade so far is by far the best of his career.
Along with Poyer and Douglas, the Bills’ terrific secondary includes safety Micah Hyde and corners Dane Jackson and Taron Johnson.
“We’ve got two great safeties back there who communicate well,” Douglas said. “They have a degree in communication, so they kind of help me get on the same page and allow me to play fast.
“It’s been pretty smooth. The coaches have done a good job with meeting with me in the mornings and stuff, just making sure I know everything, all the calls that we’re going to play in the game and in practice.”
Douglas on Sunday became the first former Eagle with a two-INT game since Rudy Ford of the Packers – Douglas’s former teammate – picked off Dak Prescott twice at Lambeau last November in a 31-28 Packers win over the Cowboys.
“Boy’s a stud, you know what I mean?” defensive tackle Ed Oliver told the Buffalo News. “That boy is covering and taking that thing away.”