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Buffalo Bills report card following the third quarter of the 2020 NFL season.
We’re rounding the final turn of the Buffalo Bills’ 2020 regular season. At 9-3, the Bills are still in the pole position in terms of grabbing a playoff berth from the AFC East.
However, the work is far from done. While the team itself will be looking forward to their final four games, let’s take a look back before we do the same.
Here’s Bills Wire’s third-quarter report card heading into the final stretch:
Studs and duds from the Buffalo Bills’ 34-24 win over the San Francisco 49ers in Week 13.
The Buffalo Bills are putting their final reviews on their latest matchup, this one being their recent 34-24 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football’s Week 13 matchup.
In the effort, we saw the Bills (9-3) really hand it to the Niners (5-7). Many times in 2020 the Bills have let teams grind back into games. Despite the 49ers’ best efforts, Buffalo was having none of that as a late touchdown in garbage time made the scoreboard a lot closer than it really was.
After looking at the tape and letting the dust settle, here are eight studs and three duds from the Bills in their over the 49ers:
As a whole, the Bills offensive line had a strong game, in particular, in pass protection. Holes weren’t always there for the backfield, but more good than bad. If we’re going to single out one, we’ll go with Ike Boettger. He replaced Brian Winters in the starting lineup against the Niners, a bit of a pressure situation there and he still earned the highest bump via Pro Football Focus’ grades this week among all of Buffalo’s linemen. He jumped from a 72.0 to 75.9 on the year.
In his best season of his career, filled with big game after big game after big game, quarterback Josh Allen had his best outing of 2020. Perhaps not surpassing 400 passing yards, he still completed 80 percent of his passes (32/40) for 375 yards with four touchdowns. The Niners had no answers for him.
After only two 100-plus yard game in his career with the Cowboys, Cole Beasley had his four… in 2020. Among those, his 130 total receiving yards against the 49ers was a career-high. Not to mention the nine catches and touchdown he grabbed en route to that.
After another double-digit catch day at the office for Stefon Diggs in Week 13, he’s now tied for the NFL lead in receptions with 90. Each week Diggs appears in such lists and it feels like a lazy add, but he deserves it. Diggs had a critical fourth-down grab against the Niners which stood out, along with a toe-touch on the sideline early.
Interception? Check. Leading the team in tackles (12)? Check. A massive stop at the goal line leading to, not once, but twice, huge plays directly after his play occurred? Check. Micah Hyde led the Buffalo secondary in a big way.
For the third time in four games, Tre’Davious White took the ball away from the opposing quarterback. He did once again, like last week, when they were close to scoring, too. Aside from one catch by Brandon Aiyuk with White in coverage early, we didn’t hear White’s name much at all against the 49ers.
Like Hyde, Tremaine Edmunds had a fantastic stop along this goal line, with his going for a turnover on downs. The Niners had almost not chance on that great read by Edmunds. While not perfect against the run, Edmunds did make his impact felt against the pass and is even rushing the passer a bit more as of late.
The Bills’ defensive line was kept mostly quiet because the Niners’ passing attack was a quick-strike one. Quarterback Nick Mullens got the ball out very fast over and over again. But Vernon Butler did stand out a couple of times rushing the passer, and running back Tevin Coleman won’t forget him after Butler completely blew him up near the goal line as well.
Buffalo Bills offensive line options without Cody Ford.
The Bills will no longer have the services of offensive lineman Cody Ford this season. On Friday, Bills head coach Sean McDermott announced that Ford’s season is done and reportedly it’s due to a meniscus injury.
Buffalo (7-3) has had some time already this year without Ford as he’s dealt with ankle and other knee issues in 2020. But now that Ford won’t be playing for the foreseeable future, who will?
In terms of replacing Ford, the Bills have a few directions they can go in. But one thing that’s for sure, the outside of the line will remain the same as Dion Dawkins and Daryl Williams will stick at left tackle and right tackle, respectively. According to Pro Football Focus, both Dawkins (79.1 grade) and Williams (78.1) have had strong years so far. Williams does have an ability to play guard, but if tackle isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Leave him there.
In the middle, we already know, and rightfully so, that Mitch Morse will be at center. McDermott announced on Friday that Morse will start at center, and now considering Ford’s injury, it’s the smartest move to make.
Now, the guard spots. The key cog here is Jon Feliciano. He’s going to get out there for the Bills, but where? This decision probably comes down to Ike Boettger vs. Brian Winters.
If the choice is Boettger, Feliciano goes to right guard and Boettger is on the left. On the flip side, Feliciano can hit the left side and Winters can go at right guard.
In the Bills’ last two games, both Boettger and Winters started. Prior to that, only Winters started in Week 7 against the Jets. Boettger played most of the game only after injury occurred. That sign could point to the coaching staff having more faith in Winters over Boettger.
But of course, let us now count on the fancy stats.
Without hard, concrete numbers to just offensive linemen on like we have for a wide receiver or quarterback, we’ll look to what the analytics say on the matter.
Per PFF, Boettger would be the better choice to play despite his lack of experience in comparison to Winters. PFF has graded Boettger a 72.0 overall mark so far this season, which is good for the 16th best grade to any guard in the NFL. Winters currently sits at 58.2.
From left to right, the analytics play for the Bills’ offensive line could be Dawkins, Boettger, Morse, Feliciano and Williams. But signs could be pointing toward the coaching staff wanting the more experienced Winters in the lineup. Boettger has appeared in just 12 games in his career and only has made two starts, both this season. Winters has appeared in 99 games ad started 87 of those.
As of right now we won’t have a clue as to which route the team will go. But, we do know when quarterback Josh Allen leads Buffalo’s offense onto the field for the first time this weekend, we’ll get the answer to this question.
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Who is a 2021 free agent for the Buffalo Bills?
The Bills have, at least, six games remaining in the 2020 NFL season after their bye week. Most expect the year will extend longer than that. Exactly how long remains to be seen.
But after that slate, however far it extends, some guys could be playing their final games of their career with the Bills. It is what it is… there’s the business side to things, right? Contracts come to an end and people move on each year.
So let’s take a look at which Bills players fall into this category. Here’s the full list of upcoming 2021 free agents for the Bills via Spotrac:
Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott explains why C Mitch Morse did not play in Week 10 vs. Arizona Cardinals.
The Bills were without Mitch Morse in Week 10 against the Arizona Cardinals. Buffalo’s starting center was at the game, but he didn’t play.
Sounds a lot like he was benched.
But wait, what? Was he? No he wasn’t, per Bills head coach Sean McDermott on Monday. The bench boss gave some of the most eye-raise responses of his entire tenure with the Bills on this one.
First, McDermott confirmed Morse is currently healthy after suffering a concussion in Week 8 against the Patriots. But classified him not playing as a “coach’s decision.” Here’s McDermott’s first full response to why Morse was dressed and on the team’s active roster against the Cardinals, but did not play:
“He was healthy, coach’s decision right there. Mitch is a good player. Just felt like that week, being last week, we felt like we had some momentum with the group we had in when Mitch went down and we wanted to take one more look at it.”
Later in his weekly video conference call, McDermott was short. Also kind of confusing as well.
“No he was not benched,” McDermott said, before adding: “That lineup will be determined every week” when responding to whether or not Morse is his starting center moving forward.
Finally, McDermott fully classified the choice to not play Morse was “strictly a football decision.” Morse’s health did not factor into the situation, nor did any off-field actions like missing a practice session or being late to a meeting.
The whole thing was a pretty interesting set of exchanges for the head coach. Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll also echoed the explanation on the decision.
“[The starting O-line vs. the Cards] played a couple games together and that’s the direction we decided to go with last game. That doesn’t mean anything for next week or the week after that. Just had some continuity going with those guys, they’ve done a good job in there together, and we’ll see where we go with that,” Daboll said.
The five the Bills let take every snap along the offensive line against the Cardinals, from left to right, was Dion Dawkins, Ike Boettger, Jon Feliciano, Brian Winters and Daryl Williams.
Along with Morse not playing, Cody Ford, who’s dealing with an ankle injury himself, did not play, either. McDermott said he doesn’t know for sure when Ford will be back at this point, but the Bills are heading into their bye week, anyway. Perhaps because of that, the coaching staff did not want to be pressed into calling one guy their starter or not. They have two weeks to make that decision, but at least for one game, Morse wasn’t.
Now, for the numbers. Or the only ones we’ve got, which come via the folks at Pro Football Focus. Subjective numbers, yes, but some context.
Morse originally went down against the Patriots in Week 8 and both McDermott and Daboll referenced that game in their responses. What they could’ve liked from that outing was Boettger.
In that contest, PFF graded him the Bills’ top player on offense, a 94.1 overall mark. His performance went hand-in-hand with the best run game effort the Bills got all season, in due part to the offensive line’s efforts. The Bills had 190 rushing yards in Week 8.
Against the Seahawks last week, perhaps the Bills thought the game just… didn’t go the way of a rushing style of attack. Against a Russell Wilson-led team, the Bills probably knew it’d be a shootout vs. the Seahawks, and they guessed right considering it was a 44-34 final score.
So over that time period, Morse gets healthy, and maybe the Bills don’t want to say he was benched, but losing your job due to injury is one way guys benched all the time.
We wish Morse the best in terms of health, but we’re trying to break down a coaching decision here.
Via the eye test against the Cardinals, the Bills offensive line… wasn’t great. They never really are better than an average unit, but despite not being sacked, quarterback Josh Allen was certainly on the run a bit more in Week 10. The run game, as usual, was just never established.
Using PFF’s guidance, the position that provided the most let down? Feliciano at center, Morse’s spot.
Feliciano’s PFF mark had a huge overall drop from Weeks 9 to 10, 68.4 to 61.8, respectively. By comparison, Boettger and Winters saw their numbers move up slightly, just a point or two.
So where could the Bills go from here? We’ve got a bye week so we don’t know. But perhaps the Bills might look to keep Botteger at left guard with Morse at center and Feliciano at right guard. The best way to explain way this is to just to lay out exactly how the interior offensive line’s numbers current stand heading into the bye week via PFF’s grading system, player-by-player:
Again, we can take PFF with a grain of salt. Maybe even a massive one. But another thing worth noting is that the Bills have tried to stick Ford into the lineup as much as possible when he’s healthy this season, despite any poor play or grades from the analytics folks.
Because of that, it might be a better guess that Ford, the former second-round pick the Bills traded up for, gets out there over Boettger, a former undrafted rookie free agent.
Regardless of all that, some verbal tip-toeing for sure from McDermott which should turn some heads.
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Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots injury report from Thursday ahead of Week 8.
Here are the full injury reports for the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills on Thursday ahead of their Week 8 meeting at Bills Stadium:
Davis practiced for the first time since being signed of Jaguars practice squad. … Thuney, Harry, Herron were injured in Week 7 vs. the 49ers. … Edelman has been on the injury report with a knee injury all season but has yet to miss game action. … Mason has dealt with the calf injury over the last few weeks and missed just the Week 4. … Gilmore was a new addition to the Patriots’ list on Thursday. … Edelman is not expected to play vs. Bills
Ford, Norman, Lewis missed the Bills’ Week 7 meeting with the Jets. … Hughes did not practice Wednesday but was upgraded. … Milano played in a limited role against the Jets. … Hyde laid a big hit along the sideline against the Jets, injuring himself. … Jefferson and Butler were limited on Wednesday but did not practice on Thursday. … Hyde is trending toward not playing vs. the Patriots.
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Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots injury reports for Week 8.
Here are the first full injury reports for the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills ahead of their Week 8 meeting at Bills Stadium:
Davis practiced for the first time since being signed of Jaguars practice squad. … Thuney, Harry, Herron were injured in Week 7 vs. the 49ers. … Edelman has been on the injury report with a knee injury all season but has yet to miss game action. … Mason has dealt with the calf injury over the last few weeks and missed just the Week 4.
Ford, Norman, Lewis missed the Bills’ Week 7 meeting with the Jets. … Hughes finished Week 7’s outing. … Milano played in a limited role against the Jets. … Hyde laid a big hit along the sideline against the Jets, injuring himself.
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Takeaways from the Buffalo Bills’ Week 4 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Buffalo Bills have a knack for making things interesting, don’t they?
In a contest that got a little too close for comfort once again, the Bills hung on as they topped the Raiders 30-23 in their first ever trip to Las Vegas in Week 4.
En route to the victory, we saw another strong day from the offense while the defense did make good plays, but was leaky as well. Regardless, it’s another notch in the win column as Buffalo remains undefeated in 2020.
With that, here are five takeaways from the Bills’ win over the Raiders:
The Bills offense once again showed they have arrived during a clutch moment. How many times in the past have the Bills… not only been a let down, but you could feel the let down coming? A thing or two goes wrong, and you can almost see the flood gates about to open? In back-to-back weeks, the Bills offense has instead slammed the door shut on an opponent who were crawling back into a game and quarterback Josh Allen played a big part in rallying the troops.
Once again this came at the expense of a terrible third quarter, but nonetheless, the offense bailed this defense out. After holding a 17-6 lead, the Raiders scored on a three-yard pass from quarterback Derek Carr to tight end Jason Witten just before halftime, and then followed that up with a field goal after the mid-point of the game. That brought the score to 17-16.
After punting one time to start the second half, the Bills put up back-to-back touchdown drives to put the Raiders away. Again, it was awkwardly close in the final score, but the Raiders put up a late score in garbage time.
This is not the type of Bills team folks are used to seeing, but this squad has become convincing that they can do this on a pretty consistent basis.
Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll on changes made by team’s offensive line.
Week in and week out, the Bills haven’t had the same offensive line on the field at all this season, despite Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott stating before the start of the campaign that he really just wants to have the position group settled and ready to go.
Putting the Bills behind the eight-ball immediately this season in terms of their O-line depth was the loss of Jon Feliciano to a chest injury. Another change could be en route in terms of Buffalo’s offensive line structure come when Feliciano is healthy as well, but that’s a discussion for another day.
The topic at-hand currently is the benching of Quinton Spain in Week 3, who was signed to a contract extension this offseason. Cody Ford was moved to Spain’s spot at left guard, while Brian Winters got his first start with the Bills at right guard.
And it sounds like we’re still only getting started with the musical chairs on the O-line based on what Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll said on Monday via video conference. Daboll did not commit to Week 3’s combination at guard sticking around.
“That was just a decision for that game, that week, that we came up with. Have confidence in all three of those guys… how it shakes out going forward, we’ll see. It’s a good group to work with,” Daboll said. “We just felt that was the direction we wanted to go with… and basically that was it.”
Not exactly the most most deceive stance taken by Daboll, which came just a week after McDermott addressed the offensive line shake up against the Dolphins in Week 2. In that game, Spain did start, but the Bills briefly moved to their lineup for the Rams.
A week ago, McDermott downplayed the situation and said it’s just some tinkering around the team was doing. Evidently it was much more than that though, considering the Bills completely removed Spain from the lineup vs. the Rams.
“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 last week.
It’s anyone’s guess what the Bills will go with against the Raiders in their next game in the trenches at this point. While subjective, Pro Football Focus does provide us some context on how Buffalo’s offensive line has played through three games.
At the tackle position? Very well. Daryl Williams clocks in as the NFL’s 13th best tackle to date, while Dion Dawkins lists at No. 30. Williams was even named to the football analytics outlet’s Team of the Week for this past weekend. But inside? It’s been messy all around. Spain clocks in at a 56.3 overall to lead the way, which is a below average grade for PFF. The rest of the interior of the line falls in at: Ford (51.3), Winters (52.2) and center Mitch Morse (55.0). Again, PFF can be taken with a grain of salt… but that’s not a great start.
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Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott discusses the changes made to his team’s offensive line Week 2 vs. Miami Dolphins.
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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