Don’t overlook the Bills’ re-signing of offensive lineman Quinton Spain this offseason.
In doing so, Buffalo will have all five starters on their offensive line returning next season. From left to right, those guys are Dion Dawkins, Spain, Mitch Morse, Jon Feliciano and Cody Ford.
With the moving parts of the salary cap that is the modern day NFL, that’s a rarity to have happen. An offensive line’s success depends on the group’s chemistry just as much as it does on the individual talent on it sometimes. Everyone returning for the Bills is big.
In the middle of that crew is Morse at center. The five-year vet has seen plenty in the league. Chatting with the Buffalo News, Morse recently disclosed how lucky he feels about having Spain and everyone else back again in 2020.
“I think it’s unprecedented to have an offensive line staying the same completely for two consecutive seasons, at least on paper,” Morse said.
But the 28-year-old acknowledged that things just won’t come together just because the O-line is the same on paper.
“At the same time, you’ve got to put in that work,” Morse said. “So we’ve just got to go in there and attack the days and attack the weeks and push each other to get better.”
Furthermore, Morse and the Bills should want to improve also because… well they weren’t really great, either. In 2018 the Bills’ offensive line was so bad that they made last year’s crew look like All-Pros. Pro Football Focus ranked the group their 21st best line last season. Some might want to argue they were better than that, but not by much. They were a middle of the pack type of unit, not among the NFL’s best.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t improve, and the argument can be made that returning everyone is a first step in the right direction.
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