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The Buffalo Bills selected three offensive linemen at the 2021 NFL draft. Of that trio, one got some good news and one got some bad news.
Pro Football Focus announced their best and worst grades for every NFL team’s rookie classes from the preseason. The Bills’ top-drafted lineman, Spencer Brown in Round 3, landed somewhere in the middle.
It was actually Buffalo’s lowest-selected rookie, seventh rounder Jack Anderson, who was graded as the Bills’ best rookie. At the bottom was lineman Tommy Doyle.
Here are the marks and analysis from the football analytics outlet:
Highest: G Jack Anderson, 75.7
Lowest: T Tommy Doyle, 40.3Anderson looks like much welcomed interior depth at this point. He wasn’t asked to do much in the run game at Texas Tech, but Anderson has looked excellent in that regard so far. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to crack the active roster, but he’s back in Buffalo on the practice squad.
If Anderson ends up being even just a depth piece for the Bills, that’s a huge win for Buffalo. Often times a seventh-round pick may never even see any time on a NFL roster in their career.
Anderson receiving early rave reviews from PFF certainly is a welcomed surprise. Perhaps there’s a chance that he’s called up from Buffalo’s practice squad at some point in 2021.
On Doyle, the grade matches the eye test. Throughout the summer, he was inconsistent and struggled in pass protection. One of the biggest reasons he likely made the Bills’ final roster is because he is a fifth-round rookie.
The Bills might have felt that he would have gotten claimed on the wavier wire if they cut him.
All is not lost on Doyle, though. He’s young and has time to grow.
One thing to consider on this list, of course, is strength of competition.
First-round pick Greg Rousseau, in his own right, looked good in the preseason. But he might not have graded as well as Anderson because he was facing the opponent’s backups in the exhibition season. Rousseau saw playing time against many NFL veterans.
That’s not to take anything way from Anderson. A positive sign is a positive sign.
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