Tag: Tommy Doyle

Bills sign OL Justin Murray, place Tommy Doyle on injured reserve

#Bills sign OL Justin Murray, place Tommy Doyle on injured reserve:

The Buffalo Bills have addressed their offensive line depth.

The team announced on Tuesday that lineman Justin Murray was signed.

Murray’s addition comes amid some health concerns the Bills are having in the trenches. The corresponding move Buffalo made highlights that.

The team also officially placed Tommy Doyle (ACL) on injured reserve. His season is over.

Murray, 29, spent the past three years with the Arizona Cardinals. He originally entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2016 with the Denver Broncos, spending time on the practice squad.

Murray made his NFL debut with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2018.

A versatile piece, Murray has spent most of his career on the right side of the offensive line. He made 12 starts at right tackle in 2019 and then made seven in 2020 at right guard.

Doyle had previously been a depth option for Buffalo on the right side of their offensive line. Doyle was injured in Week 3 when he was filling in for right guard Ryan Bates (concussion).

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Sean McDermott provides numbers Bills injury updates, post Dolphins

Not a good day for the #Bills on the injury front:

The Buffalo Bills, quite literally, were beaten up against the Miami Dolphins.

In Week 3, the injury bug bit the Bills during their 21-19 loss. Entering the game, Buffalo was already shorthanded as they missed several starters such as safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer.

Now the list grows as head coach Sean McDermott updated the health status of several players on Monday, one day following the loss.

Find the full list of updates below:

Bills OL Tommy Doyle suffered season-ending injury vs. Dolphins

#Bills OL Tommy Doyle suffered season-ending injury vs. #Dolphins:

The 2022 NFL season is over for Buffalo Bills offensive lineman Tommy Doyle.

Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott announced that Doyle had a season-ending knee injury he sustained against the Miami Dolphins in Week 3.

McDermott said via video conference that Doyle tore his ACL, however, the team has yet to officially place Doyle on the injured reserve list which would end his year. That will likely come in due time.

Doyle had been dealing with injury early in 2022 already. He missed the first two weeks of the season due to a foot issue.

Playing in a reserve role, Doyle was replacing Ryan Bates in the lineup against Miami when he went down.

Doyle ended up playing in 37 total snaps on offense during the contest. Late last season, Doyle started to see some time with the starting offense as an extra blocker on certain packages, but injury has prevented him from taking another step forward in his development in 2022.

Without Doyle, the Bills will likely have to look at adding more depth pieces to their offensive line. Currently on the practice squad Buffalo has three offensive linemen: Rookie Alec Anderson, Ryan Van Demark and Greg Mancz.

Mancz was elevated from the Bills’ practice squad prior to Sunday’s game against the Dolphins.

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Bills vs. Colts: OL Tommy Doyle sustained foot injury

#Bills vs. #Colts: OL Tommy Doyle sustained foot injury:

Buffalo Bills offensive lineman Tommy Doyle sustained a foot injury in his team’s 27-24 win over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1 of the preseason.

Head coach Sean McDermott noted Doyle’s injury via video conference on Sunday, one day following the game.

While Doyle was spotted during practice wearing a walking boot on his injured foot, it does not appear to be serious. Per McDermott, no players suffered a serious injury in the game. Only minor.

The coach did not elaborate on Doyle’s injury specifically, but minor means minor. The boot could be precautionary.

Doyle is in-line to lock up a key depth tackle spot on the Bills’ offensive line this summer. Toward the end of the 2021 season, Doyle started to see more run playing as an extra linemen on certain packages Buffalo would run on offense.

Bills Wire will provide further updates as they become available.

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Bills 2021 rookie class does not fare well in ESPN ranking

#Bills 2021 rookie class does not fare well in ESPN ranking:

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ESPN did not look fondly upon the Buffalo Bills’ 2021 NFL draft rookie class.

The former world-wide leader ranked the first-year pros from every team in the NFL, head-to-head. The Bills ended up at the No. 27 overall spot. Only five other teams had a worse ranking than Buffalo.

Here’s the breakdown on the Bills’ rookie class:

27. Buffalo Bills
Why they’re ranked here: The Bills draft class’ biggest contributions came from their top three picks, as Greg Rousseau and Boogie Basham were each part of a strong defensive line rotation while Spencer Brown played 726 snaps on the offensive line. Rousseau recorded 30 pressures and 38 defensive stops, but injuries limited Basham to just 200 snaps in total. Brown played over 600 snaps at right tackle, and although he allowed just one sack, he gave up 30 pressures and accrued a 51 PFF pass-blocking grade.

How their top pick fared: Rousseau flashed the kind of athleticism and size that makes him a problem for offenses to deal with, as he was a useful part of Buffalo’s defensive front. He was particularly impactful in the run game, but his pass rush was more inconsistent. He posted an eight-pressure game but also has five games in which he failed to record any pressure at all.

Best value pick: Brown became a starter on the Bills offensive line, spending most of his time at right tackle but even filling in at left tackle when needed. He recorded two elite run-blocking performances, which was his stronger area of play, and was rarely a liability in pass protection.

Overall, Buffalo had a class consisting of seven total players. Those not mentioned above include offensive lineman Tommy Doyle (Round 5), returner Marquez Stevenson (Round 6), safety Damar Hamlin (Round 6), and cornerback Rachad Wildgoose (Round 6).

Of that secondary group, only Stevenson and Doyle made some meaningful impact down the stretch run of the Bills’ 2021 season. Hamlin was a special teamer himself while Wildgoose left Buffalo when the New York Jets signed him from the team’s practice squad.

What really doesn’t help the full group in such a ranking is their positions on the defensive line for Rousseau and Basham. As referenced, the Bills run a big rotation along the defensive line, so even when they did get in the lineup, snaps were limited as opposed to someone like Brown– and rookies on other teams that they are being compared to.

But with all these players being only one year into their careers, there’s still plenty of time for them to turn into impact makers. Even along the defensive line as veterans could potentially be moving on from the Bills as early as this upcoming offseason.

With Buffalo’s No. 27 spot, in a bummer, they aso rank as the lowest team in the AFC East in this poll. One actually fares very well.

Here’s a quick rundown of how the rest of the division ranked in ESPN’s poll:

1. New England Patriots

7. Miami Dolphins

20. New York Jets

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Bills put exclamation point on romp with Tommy Doyle’s big-man touchdown

Tommy Doyle of the Buffalo Bills with a big-man touchdown for Buffalo

The final touch on an almost perfect performance by the Buffalo Bills came in the fourth quarter Saturday against the New England Patriots.

Up by 30 points, Josh Allen threw his fifth TD pass of the game … to offensive lineman Tommy Doyle. from 1 yard.

Tyler Bass, who was having a rough game on PATs, hit the upright but it doinked through to make it 47-10.

How about this for an NFL first in the postseason era since the Super Bowl started?

In fact, when the Bills scored TDs on their first 5 drives it marked the first time that happened in a playoff game in the Super Bowl era.

Bills activate Tommy Doyle from Reserve/COVID-19 list

#Bills activate Tommy Doyle from Reserve/ COVID-19 list:

The Buffalo Bills activated rookie offensive lineman Tommy Doyle from the team’s Reserve/COVID-19 list. The team announced the move on Tuesday.

In a corresponding transaction, offensive lineman Bobby Hart was released to make room for Doyle on the 53-man roster.

Doyle went onto the designation just last week on Dec. 1.

That was the same day defensive tackle Star Lotulelei and rookie offensive lineman Spencer Brown were taken off of the designation.

With Doyle coming off the list so soon, that indicates he is a player vaccinated for COVID-19.

Per NFL rules, the only way a player can come off of the COVID designation in less than 10 days is if they are vaxxed.

Doyle, a fifth-round pick of Buffalo at the 2021 NFL draft, has only played a depth role on the Bills’ offensive line this season.

In total, he has appeared in six games and only 15 snaps on offense in those outings.

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PFF names Bills’ best & worst graded rookies from 2021 preseason

A surprise No. 1 for the Bills’ rookie class via @pff_bills:

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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, 40.3

Anderson 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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Top MAC prospects to watch for the 2021 NFL Draft

The MAC is back and has some NFL prospects to watch

The Mid-American Conference kicks off the 2020 season with a “better late than never” approach on Wednesday night. MACtion is back!

Here at Browns Wire, we approach college football from an NFL Draft perspective. That means the MAC isn’t always prominent in the focus. The 2021 NFL Draft might go without a single player from the conference hearing his name called, a year after just two players from the conference were selected.

There is still some viable NFL talent in the MAC, however. Here are some of the MAC prospects to watch with an eye for the 2021 NFL Draft, in no particular order:

Malcolm Koonce, EDGE, Buffalo. The best prospect in the MAC this year, Koonce is on the Senior Bowl watch list for his ability to rush the passer and finish plays behind the line. At 6-3 and a well-framed 250 pounds, he’s got a nice first step and good hand usage on the edge. Koonce is smart and quick enough to handle short-range coverage and run defense too.

Quintin Morris, TE, Bowling Green. A converted WR whose physical attributes (6-4, 251) project much better at tight end. He’s got strong hands and runs routes more like a wideout. His game against Notre Dame last year — 10 catches — was an eye-opener. Morris is on the Senior Bowl watch list and has a chance to get some buzz in the hybrid WR/TE role that is becoming more popular in the NFL.

Mike Caliendo, OG, Western Michigan. An unheralded physical presence, Caliendo will need to prove himself with Luke Juriga (now in the NFL) not playing center next to him. He’s a punishing run blocker with good natural bend and balance in pass protection.

Christian Albright, OLB, Ball State. Albright plays with a ton of energy and impressive power for a 6-2, 240-pound off-ball LB. He is at his best attacking gaps and blitzing. His play reminds me some of current Bills LB A.J. Klein.

Tommy Doyle, OT, Miami. He’s easy to spot at 6-foot-8 with long arms to match. Doyle opted out for the draft before the MAC announced its return, but he will play for the Redhawks. Doyle is a limited athlete but knows how to mitigate his deficiencies. He’s a better NFL prospect than former Toledo OT Storm Norton, who has kicked around practice squads and the bottom of active rosters for several seasons.

Jaret Patterson, RB, Buffalo. Patterson is a touchdown magnet; he scored 19 times in 2019. At 5-9 and 195 pounds, he’s got some stylistic similarities to Kenyan Drake of the Cardinals, only in a more diminutive package. He catches the ball well and has a natural slipperiness that makes him tough to hit squarely. With his strength to run through glancing blows, Patterson is a guy with a fun NFL future.

Treshaun Hayward, LB, Western Michigan. The reigning MAC Defensive Player of the Year for his 142-tackle effort, Hayward is everywhere on defense. He’s one of the surest tacklers around and very quick to the point of attack. At worst, Hayward has the makings of a special teams ace in the NFL.

D’Wayne Eskridge, CB, Western Michigan. Yes, I’m aware Eskridge plays wide receiver for the Broncos. But his NFL future is at cornerback, where he also played some out of injury-related necessity. His quick feet and savvy from playing the other side of the ball make him an appealing slot corner prospect with upside.

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