New Pieces on Bills' Offensive Line Starting to Move in Same Direction
At least three of the five offensive linemen who opened last season as starters for the Buffalo Bills won't be out there for them to start this coming season.
Two of them, right tackle Daryl Williams and left guard Jon Feliciano, aren't even on the team anymore. The other, right guard Cody Ford, has long since lost his starting job and may be looking at losing his roster spot altogether after general manager Brandon Beane added veterans Rodger Saffold, Greg Mancz and David Quessenberry and drafted Luke Tenuta in the offseason.
What it all means, according to center Mitch Morse, is that "there's lots of work to do," especially because their position coach, Aaron Kromer, also is new.
Actually, Kromer held the same job for the Bills in 2015 and 2016, but none of the players he's coaching now were with the team then.
None of the major adjustments can be made until the team is allowed to start hitting in training camp and the preseason. But as far as OTAs, which are going on now, the Bills feel they're making progress.
Morse will be lined up between two of the new starters — Saffold on the left side and Ryan Bates on the right. Spencer Brown, who took over at right tackle when Williams was moved inside to guard after Week 3, will return to that spot. Dion Dawkins is the left tackle.
Bates had been a backup for the better part of three years until being promoted to starter near the end of last season. Then he signed an offer sheet for starter's money with the Chicago Bears as a restricted free agent after his contract expired. But the Bills matched it.
Morse certainly has no complaints.
"[Saffold] has clocked in a bunch of hours on the field, a hundred and some games under his belt starting," he said. "The guy has seen pretty much everything. ... So when you get a guy like that, pick his brain. He's very forthcoming and very generous with knowledge and information, he's not afraid to tell you what he thinks, and in the best way possible. And that's what we need.
"There's always good dialogue from what he likes from the center, how he's going to help me out. And it's just really exciting to be a part of."
Morse claims Kromer has "got us firing on all cylinders" and is more than happy with new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, who was promoted from quarterbacks coach when Brian Daboll left to become head coach of the New York Giants.
"He's a great delegator of what he wants to the people he works with," Morse said. "I think he's more of a peer to those coaches than just a superior, which I think is great, because you have guys who have a lot of experience underneath him and it's free-range dialogue and they're working with Kromer and all those guys. ... I think he's going to rise to the occasion.
"You know, we're all going to have growing pains, especially as players. He's done a great job of merging what we had before to what his vision is. So right now we're trying to marry those two, and that's a kind of a fun thing to do."
Last week, Dawkins said he appreciated Kromer for treating his players like individuals and not robots. Tuesday, Morse echoed those sentiments.
"He tries to work everyone's advantages," Morse said. "So maybe he doesn't coach me the same as he had coached someone else, just because, physiologically, we move differently or we're playing different positions.
"Now ... like every O-line coach, there are certain things that are undeniably what we're going to do as an offensive line. But at the same time, there's certain things that certain guys he'll let do because they play to their individual strengths."
Like wide receiver Gabriel Davis, Morse has witnessed Dorsey "blow his top" at times. He didn't say it like it was a bad thing, though.
"Dorsey is a ferocious competitor," Morse said. "I mean, absolutely killer competitor, and it's kind of fun to see him blow his top every once a while. But it comes from a good place. It's never malice. It's just that he wants to succeed, wants us to succeed so bad. So we'll have to see. It's so new right now, so young. We'll see what we look like in training camp. ... It'll be kind of fun to see where it goes."
Bills offseason schedule
OTAs
June 1-2
June 6-7
June 9-10
Mandatory minicamp
June 14-16
Training camp
TBA at St. John Fisher College and ADPRO Sports Training center
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Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
