Analyzing Bills Offensive Line Play After Steelers Preseason Game

Article written by Antonio Rodriguez.

Before we dive into things, I’d like to wish Tommy Doyle a speedy recovery and we’ll see you next year big fella!

Ok, time for the nitty gritty….
The NFL is a cruel, cruel league. With all the hopes in the world, even with a simple preseason game, you can be reminded of the cruel reality of not having the complete team you thought you had. In this specific case, I got smacked by the reality of seeing that my offensive line isn’t as complete as I thought it was.
I want to start by airing out my frustrations that lie specifically with Spencer Brown. I have always been pro-Spencer Brown, but no matter how many times I rewatch a game, I’m just not seeing the progressions that I thought I’d see by now. I gave Brown a mulligan due to not being healthy and having back issues. There are 3 things that plague him no matter what:
1. PLAYS TOO HIGH
2. STIFFNESS
3. IMMOBILITY
Let me explain. I’m well aware that Brown is 6 feet, 8 inches tall. With that said, the ability to stay low, shoot from the hip, kick slide, recover quickly, change direction with the outside rusher is all doable. You can go watch Dawand Jones (who’s a rookie) do all those things I’ve mentioned and is even heavier then Brown.

Here is Spencer Brown’s stat line:
27 Snaps
2 Penalties
2 Hurries
0 Sacks
When you watch Brown’s first couple series with the Bills, I think people see TJ Watt not getting to the QB and the thought is “he’s doing his job”, but if you really watch, you see TJ Watt just stop rushing and act as a QB spy or try to read the play. Did he win a couple? Yes. The positive in me wants to say“he stopped rushing cause Brown kept stopping him in his tracks”, but the realist in me says, “Watt was never rushing hard to begin with”. I was alarmed seeing him pull from the right tackle spot around to the 2 hole and while he did his job, he absolutely got destroyed. He was on the ground while the linebacker went on about his business. It was a product of not being low and assuming he’s the strongest guy on the field. The immediate gut-wrenching question I asked myself was, “Are we in trouble?!”

Markus Golden has Spencer Brown levitating. Brown called for hold here. lol #Steelers #NFL pic.twitter.com/41dKOGxvl1

— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) August 20, 2023

If we take a look at the other side we saw Dion Dawkins struggle mightily.

When it comes to Dawkins, we know what we have. A middle of the road left tackle that you don’t move on from unless you find a top 5, potential all-pro left tackle. What I saw with Dawkins made me cringe, but not enough to make me say that we’re doomed. If you watch the film, you see that it’s all correctable. We saw Allen take DEEP 5-7 step drops. Those drops are not something we’ve seen before and we’ll probably never see again. A simple change in how far a QB drops back (when we’ve rarely seen him drop him hat deep in the last 5 years) can really mess up an entire approach. Even when Dawkins got beat and tried to recover we didn’t see Allen sense and step up into the pocket, which would allow Dawkins to ride the momentum and use it against the edge rusher.

My biggest issue that I had with Dawkins was he was getting beat cause his punches weren’t quick enough and on top of that he was trying to get cute with the hand fighting to the point the edge rusher on one play grabbed his arms and pretty much threw him out of his way. When Dawkins did get his hands in, it was by the shoulders and not under the pads. Which is all correctable and we know exactly who he is since he’s been here. We saw Dawkins and Brown play 27 snaps as more of a “get your act together” type of message than anything else.

Here is Dion Dawkins’s stat line:

27 Snaps
1 Penalty
3 Hurries
0 Sacks

OLB Nick Herbig was earmarked as light coming out… look at him bench press 320-pound Dion Dawkins for the pressure on Josh Allen. #Steelers pic.twitter.com/62pYPVOciU

— Tyler Wise (@TriggeredWise) August 19, 2023

Look, at the end of the day tackles are going to get beat off the edge.
What I’m looking at when watching an OT are the following things:

• Did he win the initial steps?

    • If he got best off the ball, how did he recover?

     • Was his kickslide to long? Too short?

     • Was he balanced throughout?

     •  How was the leverage? 

     • Was punching effective? 

• Did he create a pocket?

•Did the QB step up?

Outside of our starting OTs, Ryan Van Denmark had another solid outing at left tackle seemingly locking down LT2 and as long as he stays away from the right side, I think he’ll be fine. David Quessenberry is David Quessenberry. A solid vet, but not a guy you’d really want starting to protect Josh.

I don’t think anyone would argue when I say “Buffalo, we have a bad right tackle problem”.

Buutttt let’s get on to the good part, shall we?!

HOW ABOUT THIS BILLS INTERIOR LINE?!??

Whew, that felt good to type. O’Cyrus Torrence, Mitch Morse and Connor McGovern have me giddy and beaming with pure joy when I see them play. The way that they stay low, are so aware of what’s going on and are constantly aiding each other is a thing of beauty. Let me stop drooling for a second…….
*Yes,there was some miscommunication on assignment*

*Yes, there were some pre-snap penalties*

*Yes, a block or 2 was missed as a result of miscommunication*
BUT GUESS WHAT?! THATS WHY THEY PLAY TOGETHER, TO LEARN EACHOTHER IN PRESEASON!
*Ok, back to my gushing*
This line played against a 34 defense without much game planning. There were stunts and blitzes that effected the middle more than anything else and the interior 3 did everything possible they could.
Mitch Morse had a nose over him his entire time in and held strong. As a guy who grew up playing center, the absolute hardest job in football is snapping the ball and facing a beast of a man right in front of you.

Here is Mitch Morse’s stat line:
16 Snaps
0 Penalties
0 Hurries
0 Sacks

We know what we’re getting with Morse as i always state. A guy who you know is going to get the job done. A guy that will fight on every block. A guy that will never make it easy. The beautiful thing was, when the going got tough, he had his guards by his side.

One of those guards is Connor McGovern and he’s been a pleasant surprise on how good he’s actually been.

Here is Connor McGovern’s stat line:

16 Snaps
1 Penalty
0 Hurries
0 Sacks

McGovern lost one bad pass block, which I believe he thought was supposed to be a double team, which was evident of how he never fully got in front of the nose. Outside of that he showed an amazing amount of awareness. On a play that I thought should’ve got more love on an individual basis, Pittsburgh was playing a 34 with their 3 lineman on the right side offensive line and 2 linebackers on the left (over McGovern and Dawkins). #50 was a potential blitzer, which McGovern pointed out and on the snap, 50 went to the flats to cover the RB, which was recognized by McGovern who then immediately went to aid Morse while making sure there was no delayed blitz. It was a solid moment. A small moment, but one of those moments that make you shake your head and say, “yea, we got a good one.”

Speaking of getting a good one. O’Cyrus Torrence anyone? I know, I know “it’s preaseason”, but let me have this one. O’Cyrus Torrence is a beast of man and does not lose much.
Here is O’Cyrus Torrence’s:

27 Snaps
0 Penalties
0 Hurries
0 Sacks

Torrence continues to stand out whether it be in 1v1 situations or in awareness situations where he has to help on a double team. There was one play where he literally was helping both Morse and Brown at the same time and it was a thing of beauty. Like I said, it’s the little things that make this journey of a season great. Torrence is our RG1 yesterday, today and hopefully for a very long time in the future.

To sum it all up, was it a bad outing in general? Yes. Were there actually a lot of positives? Yes. It depends on how you want to take this. I throw penalties out the window in preseason for the most part, but blocking a guy, is blocking a guy, no matter if it’s practice, preseason or in season. It still has to be done. I was encouraged by the 2nds for the most part, including David Edwards and the great Ryan Bates.

I look forward to seeing this group continue to grow and see what happens at RT. Kind of discouraged that Gouraige didn’t get an opportunity there. This is my depth chart from what I’ve seen:

LT: Dawkins, RVD

LG: McGovern, Bates, Edwards

C: Morse, Bates

RG: Torrence, Bates, Boettger

RT: Brown, Quessenberry 

On to Chicago!!

Follow me on Twitter @RodriguezOL2