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Bobby Babich knew the reaction before he asked the question about Matt Milano.

“So you guys know Matt, right? He’s a man of many words,” Babich recently said to a group of reporters. The Buffalo Bills’ linebackers coach waited for the laughter to subside, then he underlined his sarcasm.

“He’s a man of many words.”

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Milano is an All-Pro entering his seventh season. He’s in his prime, an elite performer on a Super Bowl contender, but he’s often overlooked when considering the game’s best defensive players.

That’s because — as much as Milano scares ball carriers — he won’t say boo.  Oh, he plays loudly. In 15 games last year he amassed 99 tackles, 12 for losses, 1.5 sacks, seven quarterback hits, two fumble recoveries, three interceptions (one for a touchdown) and 11 pass breakups. But you never see him holding court at his locker stall or cracking wise in television commercials.

If ever there’s an example of an underrated All-Pro, then it’s Milano, perhaps the NFL’s quietest superstar.

To help fill the silence, The Athletic spoke with teammates about the best Bills player we don’t know enough about.

Dion Dawkins, left tackle: Lano is just different, man.

Josh Allen, quarterback: Outside of the facility, I’m not really sure what goes on with him. He kind of goes incognito. You never know what he’s up to, so it’s a really cool vibe. I wish I was like that.

Damien Harris, running back: He walks his own path, and I think that’s commendable, especially in today’s society. Everybody wants to clique up. Everybody wants to fit in. That’s not Lano.

Siran Neal, defensive back: I call him a quiet assassin — on and off the field. Matt’s laid back. He’s real cool. But when it’s time to go, it’s go time. Even when we’re kicking it off the field, he’s the same way.

Allen: I’m not sure if he’s Batman, a vigilante at night who just goes out and fights crime. He very well could be. He comes in bruised up sometimes and didn’t even play that week, you know?

Stefon Diggs, receiver: He’s got an energy about him.

Tyrel Dodson, inside linebacker: He doesn’t want much out of life. If he has his people around him, his good friends around him and some good food, that’s all he really cares about.

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Dawkins: If you look at Lano, he just looks like he could be on a episode of “Jersey Shore” or he could be in a relationship with Snooki or JWoww or something like that.

Allen: He probably has fake Instagram and fake TikTok because he just doesn’t want anybody to know he’s alive other than when he’s on the football field.

Harris: He’s like a magnet for people. Everybody wants to be around him because he’s a special person. But he walks to the beat of his own drum.

Dawkins: I know he loves the water. He loves boats. He likes to fish. He likes to work out. He likes to eat clean. He likes techno music. He likes to play football. That’s about it.

Dodson: We always talk about the food we like to eat. I think we’ve hit every single restaurant in Buffalo there is, Giancarlo’s, Hutch’s, you name it.

Dawkins: So me and Lano, when we first got here, we were roommates at the Armour Heights (Apartments). Being an O-lineman, I was always eating, always having snacks. He was nothing but celery dipped in ranch, carrots and ranch, dried-up broccoli and ranch. I would always try to offer him something, but he’d be, like, “Nah, nah. I’m OK.” He had me thinking that he was weird. You don’t want an Oreo? What kind of person is that? Then one day, he said, “Let me get a couple of those Oreos” and crushed a whole sleeve. That was a good day for Milano to show that he wasn’t a weirdo.

Matt Barkley, backup quarterback: I did walk by Matt Milano with a certain cologne that he recognized, and he called it out. I don’t know anyone who has ever done that. … Santal 33. Yeah, it’s a pretty nice cologne, but he recognized it.

Jordan Phillips, defensive tackle: He’s not even, like, a serious guy; that’s the thing. But he’s very conservative in how he expresses himself. He’ll say some funny stuff.

Micah Hyde, safety: Because he doesn’t talk much, when he says the right, little word in a given situation, it’s really funny. It’s just Lano.

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Harris, with the New England Patriots the past four years: He’s a pain in the ass. He digests opposing offenses well. He was one of those guys that he was always in the right place at the right time.

Diggs: He’s always around the ball. He kind of gives me an offensive-player vibe, but he’s on defense. He’s agile. He can catch a pick here or there. He done dropped a few. I’ve gotten on his behind about it, but he’s a hell of a player.

Tyler Matakevich, linebacker: He’s so friggin’ good. He’s one of the best defensive players I’ve ever been around.

Dodson: So consistent. You know what you’re going to get out of Matt Milano seven days a week and twice on Sundays. You know you’re going to get your TFLs, interceptions, PBUs, big hits. You know he’s going to be around the ball.

Diggs: He has a skill set that’s sideline-to-sideline. He’s fast. I’ll run by him, but he can keep up with a lot of guys in the league for a ‘backer.

Hyde: Nobody can block him.

Diggs: He makes plays that don’t show up on a stat sheet. He’s wrecked a play or two without getting the PBU or the sack.

Phillips: He’s my favorite player on the team.

Babich: Guys want to be Matt Milano. They want to have the success Matt’s had.

Matakevich: He’s got his routine. He’s been in the league long enough and has accomplished enough that the younger guys come to him and try to get under his wing. They ask what he’s doing to get ready, and he kind of shrugs and says, “I don’t know, man. I just go to my routine.”

Babich: They see that in individual (drills). They see that in the way he executes our defense. They see how physical he plays. They see how fast he plays. We’re always saying, “We’ve got to make plays. That’s what we do at linebacker.” Matt Milano makes plays.

Phillips: You don’t get too much out of Matt, but when you do, it’s a sight to see.

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Matakevich: He’s not a flashy guy. He’s not hooting and hollering, or “All eyes on me.” That’s not who he is. That’s not his character. He’s more just go-with-the-flow.

Harris: In today’s day and age, it’s all about broadcasting who you are, what you’re about. “I’m this. I’m that. Learn this about me.” It’s all about projecting. He’s all about keeping his inner peace, keeping his headspace to himself. It’s really respectable.

Phillips: Even when we’re out, you’ve got to get him real riled up, you know? Once he gets there, then everybody starts making a big deal about it. So he goes right back into his shell.

Dawkins: He could be more of a superstar if he spoke, but I think Milano is at a place in his life that he’s comfortable. He likes that altitude he’s like flying at — stress-free, problem-free and winning. A lot.

Allen: He’s a frickin’ baller when he’s on the field, and every team knows about him, but not every fanbase knows about him, which is crazy because he’s an All-Pro. He’s extremely underrated.

Neal: I’ll put him in top four, top three linebackers in the league. He’s a dog. He’s fast. He can cover. He can play in the box. He’s smart. You want an all-around linebacker? That’s your go-to guy.

Dodson: I don’t think he’s that underrated to me. A lot of guys around the league, linebackers I train with, people know who Matt Milano is. If you go all the way to Cali to Minnesota to Washington and ask any linebacker about Matt Milano, they’re going to say, “I watch a lot of Matt Milano tape.”

Harris: Whether playing on the same team as him or playing against him, he’s not underrated at all. Maybe among fans or the media …

Phillips: Just because he doesn’t have that big persona and whatever else, he just gets the work done on the field. He is 100 percent underrated.

Diggs: 100 percent! Look at guys like Jordan Poyer, guys that have been in the league … It looks like damn near all our team. I kind of fall in that somewhat too: Guys that have proven themselves but they’ll always keep trying to prove themselves. Some guys never stop trying to prove it. It’s a mindset, and a lot of guys are like that their whole lives. It’ll keep driving you in that chase for perfection.

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Babich: Matt puts in the work. Matt wants to be great.

Allen: I think he thoroughly enjoys just not being talked about.

Neal: The spotlight can put people under pressure or put them on a pedestal. Some people don’t like it, and I don’t think he likes it. That’s why he don’t like to talk about himself, and I don’t blame him. He shines without the spotlight.

Barkley: He’s just so simple. When you picture like a minimalist desk setup, that’s Matt Milano. He’s just so minimalist, so simple, like, nothing …

Gabriel Davis, receiver: So Josh went into his DMs and saw Milano had messaged him. Milano had sent him some messages about some minimalistic interior design stuff. He sends Josh all these pictures of, like, living rooms that have minimal things and look good. Josh’s reply was, like, “Nice.” Matt replied that he didn’t mean to send that to him.

Barkley: See? Exactly what I said!

Allen: Milano is a guy that maybe owns three outfits in total. He wears a black shirt, a gray shirt and a white shirt. He wears a black hat, and that’s it.

Hyde: His fashion sense? Um, I would say … neutral boho? Like, boho being, like, well … How would you describe boho? Like the cement, the woods …Hey, Nick! How would you describe boho?

Training camp coaching intern Nick LaSala: Boho?

Hyde: Earth tones, I guess. Sometimes he throws in some black and a white T-shirt or some gray.

LaSala: He’s like SpongeBob. You open his closet and he’s got all the same thing, just black T’s.

Phillips: When I first got here — and I’m not saying he isn’t this way anymore — but he was very by-the-book, “I’m not doing anything out,” very generic swag, nothing. He was all about making the team, all team-issued gear, whatever (head coach) Sean (McDermott) says goes, not varying anything. But when I came back last year, Matt was wearing his own shorts to practice. He had his own swag. He walked different. He had his confidence. You could see the growth from him, and it translated on the field.

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Allen: You don’t ever have to worry about him doing the wrong thing. He’s going to do his job, and he’s going to have your back at the end of the day.

Neal: My favorite Matt Milano play? I would say last year against the Titans, the pick six, all the way to the end zone. They tried to tackle him and spinned off them into the end zone. That shows Matt can do anything.

Matakevich: That was pretty sweet, but I just love any time he’s running down the sideline, smacking somebody.

Hyde: Obviously, the pick six was a big play, but maybe young Lano, making that fumble recovery after Leonard Johnson hit it out and him running down the sideline against the Raiders in 2017. That was a big game for us. I think that moved us to 5-2 at that point of the season. We didn’t know anything about anything that year. I don’t even know how we made it to the playoffs. We talk about that a lot.

Dodson: His open-field tackling against Kansas City last year, I think that’s the reason we won that game. He’s the best in the league at it.

Hyde: No, I’ll change my answer to the Mike White hit last year. I would say that play is Matt Milano in a nutshell.

Dawkins: That Jets play is probably the one that took him over the top.

Phillips: Matt came in and hit him, folded him like a lawn chair.

Allen: And by the rules, just absolutely delivering one of the biggest booms I’ve ever seen.

Dawkins: You think you know a guy and then things happen and you’re like, “Oh, s—!” He just took a different step in his career.

Matakevich: There’s a vibe he puts out in certain situations, like third-and-short or the last drive.

Dodson: He’s calm, man.

Harris: There were times in New England when I’d try to beat him on a route and get a good jump. He’d say, “Good job, bro. Next time, do it like this and maybe don’t give it away so much.” I’m, like, “Damn, dude! He knew what I was going to run, and now he’s coaching me how to run my routes!”

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Phillips: He’s making jokes out there. He’s having a good time.

Harris: It wasn’t even trash talk. It almost seemed genuine.

Trent Sherfield, receiver, previously with the Miami Dolphins: He doesn’t give off that arrogant, a-hole vibe. That goes against what we think about linebackers, right? They’re supposed to be mean. Matt’s not like that. He just plays his butt off.

Harris: Out of all the teammates I’ve had and all the people I’ve been around the league, Lano is like the alpha without having to be the alpha just based on the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he performs on the field.

Allen: He’s a supremely confident guy. He oozes confidence the way he stands there. He’s, like, “I got it.” He knows he’s got it.

Phillips: You should do a video of every time he gets up after making a play. Watch him. It’s the smoothest, coolest thing you’ve ever seen. Nobody else does it. He rolls and gets up all nice and natural. I don’t know how to explain it. Just smooth, like butter.

Harris: For somebody that’s as quiet and reserved and to himself as much as Lano is, it’s an interesting combination. That range is crazy. I’ve never really seen anything like it.

Allen: He just flies under the radar, and that’s just kind of his style.

Diggs: It’s very rare. It’s damn near like a dinosaur or a unicorn. Those guys are hard to find, and when you do find them you better keep them around.

(Illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic)

(Top photos of Matt Milano: Timothy T Ludwig, Bryan Bennett / Getty Images)

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