Just days after the Buffalo Bills lost a starting linemen of their own due to injury for an extended time, the team announced the signing of former starting lineman from a divisional foe on Monday.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the Bills are signing former Jets guard Brian Winters.
In a surprise of sorts over the weekend, the Jets released Winters, just hours after the equally surprising news of the injury to Feliciano. It’s expected that Winters will come in and have a chance to lock up Feliciano’s vacant spot. Feliciano started at 16 games for the Bills at right guard in 2019.
Winters started nine games for the Jets at the same position last season. The former third-round pick of the Jets in 2013, Winters has started 79 of 89 games played in his career. Overall, Pro Football Focus tabbed the 29-year-old an average player at his position a year ago, with a 62.4 grade and only allowed one sack in 526 snaps played.
Winters was part of one of the worst O-line groupings in the league in 2019, as the Jets struggled mightily on offense due to their poor play in the trenches. Numerous injuries in the unit, such as Winters’ shoulder, attributed to their brutal effort.
While a new signee, Winters will have to go through COVID-19 protocols with the Bills, such as being tested for the virus multiple times, before he’s allowed to head to the team’s facility in Orchard Park for workouts with his new teammates. According to general manager Brandon Beane over the weekend, that could take about five days.
On paper, Winters is clearly a player that’ll be tossed right into the competition to start at right guard for the Bills. But that job isn’t going to be handed to him. Since Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott took over operations in 2017, he’s employed a system of giving starting jobs to those who earn it.
Not only has he shown a willingness to do so, McDermott also said as much over the weekend during his opening press conference for training camp.
“We have options right now. It’s rare that before you even set on the field you lose one or two players,” McDermott said. “This is why you bring players in and try to build with depth because things like this do happen. It’s really, honestly, next man up. Next man up, it’s an opportunity for them. I don’t want to get into names because there’s a lot of guys we have confidence in.”
Winters joins a few other “options” that he’ll have to beat out for starting time, including Evan Boehm, Daryl Williams, and another former teammate of his with the Jets, Spencer Long. With the Winters signing, it appears more likely that second-year pro Cody Ford will stay at right tackle in 2020, instead of moving to guard.
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