Buffalo Bills should comb league for offensive tackle depth

Aug 27, 2023

Buffalo Bills General Manager Brandon Beane is leading the effort to reduce the roster to 53 players by Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline.

Cleaning out the notebook as the Buffalo Bills continue the process of establishing an initial 53-man roster:

1. Roster decisions. The Buffalo Bills and general manager Brandon Beane have some mechanics to work out before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline to cut down to 53 players.

Defensive end Von Miller: He tore his ACL on Nov. 23, and spent all of training camp on the physically unable to perform list. He ramped up his activity last week, which he said included wearing a mouthpiece to re-learn his breathing. If he remains on PUP, he is out Weeks 1-4, minimum. If the Bills think Miller is trending toward being ready earlier, they must carry him on the 53-man roster Wednesday. The old PUP rule was six games, but now with a four-game absence, it makes sense to keep Miller there, meaning he doesn’t count toward the 53.

Backup quarterback: Kyle Allen was underwhelming and Matt Barkley is injured (right elbow). Cleaning out the backup quarterback position on the eve of the regular season is rare, but it happened in 2019 in Denver when I covered the Broncos. Joe Flacco was the starter and rookie Drew Lock (thumb) was injured. The Broncos cut Jeff Driskel and claimed Brandon Allen off waivers from the Los Angeles Rams. Brandon Allen was familiar with the system (Kyle Shanahan Offensive Tree) and ended up starting three games (1-2 record) in November.

Cutting, re-signing veterans: If the Bills want to carry Miller and linebacker Baylon Spector (week-to-week with a hamstring injury sustained against Chicago), might the Bills cut defensive end Shaq Lawson and middle linebacker A.J. Klein with the agreement to re-sign them Wednesday? As veterans, Lawson and Klein aren’t subject to waivers.

One day away from initial 53-man rosters being set around the NFL, Jay Skurski answers readers' questions in this week's Bills Mailbag.

Backup offensive tackle: See below.

2. Offensive tackle depth issues. Watching exhibition games over the last three weeks made it obvious the Bills aren’t alone in having sub-optimal backup offensive tackle depth. The protection was leaky. The run blocking shoddy. The penalties plentiful.

If the Bills want to upgrade their options behind left tackle Dion Dawkins and right tackle Spencer Brown, it will likely require a trade. Teams will keep tackles that have even a sliver of value.

On Sunday, New England was in throw-darts-at-a-board mode by trading for offensive tackles Tyrone Wheatley, Jr. (for running back Pierre Strong) and Vederian Lowe (for a sixth-round pick) from Cleveland and Minnesota, respectively.

Wheatley prepped locally at Canisius High School when his father was the Bills’ running backs coach, and then played at Michigan and Stony Brook.

Buffalo Bills linebacker Baylon Spector is “week to week” with a hamstring injury, coach Sean McDermott said Sunday.

The Bills have three 2024 sixth-round picks if they want to explore line depth.

3. Middle linebacker quandary. The Bills’ final day of practice Aug. 10 in Pittsford was also the last time Terrel Bernard was a participant. His hamstring injury kept him out of all three preseason games.

Bernard was dividing first-team snaps with Tyrel Dodson during the first two weeks of camp, and he was trending toward getting the Week 1 assignment.

Now? If Bernard practices this week, the Bills must decide whether five practices (plus multiple walk-throughs) is enough of a ramp-up for him to start Sept. 11 at the New York Jets.

Middle linebacker in the Bills’ system, because they wear the “green dot” (relaying coach Sean McDermott’s play call to other 10 defenders), is not a rotational position like No. 2 cornerback. But it sure appears as though this will be unsettled a few weeks into the regular season.

Here is The Buffalo News’ final projection on how the Bills’ initial 53-man roster might look following cutdown day.

4. Tale of two quarterback trades. In the first round of the 2018 draft, the Bills traded Nos. 12, 53 and 56 for Nos. 7 and 255 to move up five spots for quarterback Josh Allen.

Allen is 52-24 as a regular season starter, and his 138 touchdown passes are tied for third-most in a quarterback’s first five years.

In the first round of the 2021 draft, the 49ers traded four first-round picks (Nos. 12 and 29 in 2021 and first-round picks in 2022-23) to move up nine spots for quarterback Trey Lance.

Lance is 2-2 as a starter and was flipped to Dallas for a fourth-round pick on Friday.

I’m not ready to call Lance a bust, though. He was basically going to redshirt in 2021, but a preseason finger injury scrapped the 49ers’ hopes of working him into the game with a package of plays. They committed to him entering last year, but he broke his ankle in Week 2. Circumstances mean his story isn’t over.

“My confidence is always at a good level,” Benford said. “Whenever they put me on the field, I'm ready. That’s how I look at it.”

5. Personnel usage. During Allen’s only possession against Chicago, the Bills ran 13 plays (including penalties), and offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey used three personnel groupings.

“11” personnel (3WR-1RB-1TE) – Nine snaps.

“12” (2WR-1RB-2TE) – Three snaps.

“21” (2WR-2RB-1TE) – One snap.

6. Taylor’s market. Do the Dolphins really need running back Jonathan Taylor? Does any team? The Bills don’t.

"Buffalo Bills defensive end Kingsley Jonathan proved again in Saturday’s exhibition game that he’s a better player than a lot of backup offensive tackles in the NFL," Mark Gaughan writes.

Indianapolis has given Taylor’s camp a Tuesday deadline to find a trade partner. Good luck. Taylor is entering the final year of his rookie contract, so the Colts can’t command a premium price such as a first- or even third-round pick. But the unspoken point:Taylor’s yards per carry dropped from 5.5 in 2021 to 4.5 in ’22, and his touchdowns dropped from 18 to four.

7. Preparing for the Jets. On to the Jets for the Bills. Defensive end Greg Rousseau said last week he will start looking at Jets tape “right after (the Chicago game).” Nickel back Taron Johnson said he will start “within 10 days of playing them. I don’t want to do too much, too soon. I would rather build up to it.”

Back in the old days (OK, before 2020), when the preseason was four games, on teams I covered, the starters would start walking-through Week 1 material on a side field while the backups were preparing for the fourth preseason game.

Reach Ryan at [email protected] or 716-849-6133. Follow on Twitter at @ryanohalloran.

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