Buffalo Bills hiring Bobby April III as OLB coach

Oct 22, 2015; London, United Kingdom; Buffalo Bills linebackers coach Bobby April III at practice at the Grove hotel in preparation for the NFL International Series game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

New Buffalo Bills head coach Joe Brady is deep into building his first coaching staff, key moves that could reveal much about how Buffalo's first season under the first-time head coach goes at season's end. As a first-time head coach, it was expected that Brady would rely on those he had prior coaching relationships with and also those who bring a cachet of NFL coaching experience.

With the Bills' latest defensive coaching hires, it's clear that Brady and Buffalo's new first-time defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard are leveraging both aspects. Ian Rapoport reports through sources that the Bills are hiring Bobby April III as the team's new outside linebacker coach. April should be a familiar name with Bills Mafia as a prior coach with the organization and someone whose father, Bobby April Jr., was a long-tenured special teams coach with Buffalo (2004-2009) with a deep football coaching resume that dates back to the late 1970s.

The younger April also has a defined coaching history that includes a prior stint as Bills linebackers coach (2015-2016), as noted above. Most recently, April held the role of defensive coordinator for the Stanford Cardinal football team (2023-2025). In terms of familiarity, Leonhard and April worked together for the University of Wisconsin Badgers' defense.

April's coaching career began with Louisiana-Lafayette (2004) where he worked as a student assistant before heading to Tulane University in a graduate assistant capacity from 2005 through 2006. April then made his way to Portland State University as the football team's special teams coordinator/inside linebackers coach (2007-2009). He made one more collegiate jump to Nicholls State University in 2010 as special teams coordinator/safeties coach before heading to the NFL ranks.

In 2011, April was hired by the Philadelphia Eagles as a defensive quality control coach, a position he held through the 2012 NFL season. From there, April made his way to the New York Jets in the capacity of defensive quality control/assistant linebacker coach for the 2013 season, before a promotion to linebackers coach for the 2014 campaign.

In 2015, April joined the Bills as linebackers coach, serving in that role through the 2016 season. After that, April returned to college coaching, joining Wisconsin (2018-2022) where he coached outside linebackers and worked with Leonhard before his latest and prior role with Stanford.

The #Bills are hiring Bobby April III as their new OLBs coach, source said. He was the DC at Stanford the last 3 years, and previously to that, he worked with Jim Leonhard at Wisconsin. April was with the Bills 10 years ago, as well.

- Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 2, 2026