The Bills had some distinct changes to their offensive line in their Week 2 win against the Miami Dolphins, as compared to their opening-day win against the New York Jets.
In Week 1, from left to right, Dion Dawkins, Quinton Spain, Mitch Morse, Cody Ford and Daryl Williams started on Buffalo’s offensive line. They did in Week 2 as well. However, against the Jets, all five played every snap on offense. Versus the Dolphins, that was not the case, at least it wasn’t for the guard position.
Spain still played a lot, 95 percent of snaps. Ford had a larger dip to 70 percent while Brian Winters clocked in 34 percent of snaps. In the opener, Winters only played in one snap total.
On Monday following the 31-28 win, McDermott spoke via video conference and discussed the reasoning behind the switching up of players, even after saying in the preseason he’d like to not do so again in 2020. Last season Ford and Ty Nsekhe rotated at right tackle. The coach attributed the decision to one main topic: A lack of exhibition games to test things out.
“Just taking a look at [the offensive line] from an offensive strategy standpoint. Looking at some things. The first kind of week, three four weeks, you’re trying to find out who you are as a football team and what gives you the best chance to win, different matchups, different looks. And so that’s where we are at some positions now. In particular because we haven’t had the preseason games to do that,” McDermott said.
“I’d say it’s a combination of both,” McDermott added. “We feel good about Cody, we feel good about Brian and Quinton Spain inside there, among others. Just trying to find combinations that work best.”
Crediting a lack of preseason games to the O-line changes makes sense, certainly. But it’s still a bit questionable to do so because of the timing of it. The offensive line substitutes took place in the second half, ata time when the game was not over. In fact, Miami took the lead at one point.
It’s subjective, but Pro Football Focus sheds some light that might also speak to another factor at-play here for McDermott and the Bills, some poor play, specifically from Ford.
Overall during the first two weeks of the season, the football analytics outlet has graded Ford a bad mark of 52.4. Following Week 1, Ford was at an even worse 49.6 grade… so technically he did improve upon his grade against the Dolphins… just barely barely.
In terms of Winters, he isn’t light years ahead of Ford, but his 61.3 grade on his handful of snaps is certainly better.
Spain isn’t innocent here, either. He also had a worse performance in Week 2, per PFF. After clocking in at a solid 68.4 vs. the Jets, Spain’s overall season mark dipped to 58.3 after Week 2.
Like always, PFF’s marks are to be taken with a grain of salt. But they do add some context as to possible reasons why the Bills had some of this movement going on in the trenches during crunch time against the Dolphins.
On the positive front, after a few more games, Jon Feliciano, the team’s 2019 starter who is dealing with a pectoral injury, is aiming for a Week 4 return when Buffalo faces the Las Vegas Raiders. That’s what he openly said on social media earlier this offseason after he was injured.
But even if we’re getting close to that game… there’s reasoning for the Bills coaching staff to not wait a second to try and figure this situation out.
First, Feliciano is a nice enough fella, but he’s no doctor.
And even more importantly, before the Raiders, the Los Angeles Rams and perhaps the NFL’s best defensive tackle, Aaron Donald, head to Orchard Park in Week 3.
Need we say more?
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