Who is going to be the starting five on the Buffalo Bills offensive line when the Pittsburgh Steelers come to town? Your guess is as good as anyone’s.
In that area of the field, Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott remained mum on Tuesday. Last week, the coach said the position battle at guard continues heading into the regular season which begins on Sunday.
With the opener now only days away, it’s still ongoing. McDermott said via video conference that those two spots are down to Jon Feliciano, Cody Ford and Ike Boettger.
As far as naming two starters out of those three? McDermott won’t be doing so before Sunday, as he even suggested that a rotation is not off the table.
“We’ll see. There’s good competition there, as I said last week,” McDermott said. “I think we’ll know a little more as the week goes on… Comfortable rotating if we want to rotate but also comfortable with a little continuity if we go that route as well. Very confident in both Ike and Cody and in Jon.”
Of those three, Feliciano is the one most expect to be the starter. Ford and Boettger, specifically the first, is where some question marks remain.
Since trading up to select Ford at the 2019 NFL draft, he’s been in and out of the lineup due to injury. Additionally, Ford’s play has been inconsistent.
Still, the Bills have continued to insist he’s a pro-caliber lineman as Buffalo has consistently started him when healthy.
Because of that, Ford is the one most can envision as the likely starter vs. the Steelers, however, Boettger did have some good showing last year when filling in for an injured Ford.
Heading into 2021, Ford has always seemed like he knew nothing would be guaranteed this year. Earlier in training camp he discussed how his main focus this offseason was to improve his mental side of the game after his bouts with a few injuries.
“It was so much pressure of just being in the NFL and still figuring things out,” Ford said in late July. “This whole offseason I’ve dug deep. I went back home a few times.”
“I started talking to a mental coach,” Ford added. “That was the one thing that really helped a lot was to be able to talk to someone other than a coach or a teammate or even just a friend. It was me just getting my feelings out.”
Looking ahead to this week, expect McDermott to unveil his plan for the offensive line until the game begin on Sunday. McDermott is never one to tip his hand to an opponent in any manner.
But a betting man would certainly bet on the coach to pick five and not six.
In the past, both McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane have expressed a fondness for continuity on the offensive line and the growth of chemistry between players as something that could help improve a unit. A rotation would be the opposite of that.
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