Buffalo Bills: Cody Ford should remain the starter at right tackle
By Daniel Bruce
Bright spots from 2019
Despite some struggles last season Ford did show well in some games, mostly against star edge rushers.
With Nsekhe out for Weeks 12 and 13, the tall task of slowing down Von Miller and DeMarcus Lawrence fell on the rookies shoulders. The two stars combined for 1.5 sacks in the two games but were regularly thwarted by Ford.
Twitter took notice to how the young tackle faired against superior competition:
Not the play to show but can we just talk about Cody Ford. In 5 days he went against Von Miller and Demarcus Lawrence and absolutely killed it at right tackle pic.twitter.com/gDRNZgHfSt
— Nate Mendelson (@mendelson_nate_) November 29, 2019
Ford does great when edge rushers use power against him, he uses his large frame to make him hard to push back into the pocket, most rushers will attack the outside with him.
Here Tennessee rushes their nose tackle to the outside and Ford didn’t budge when the defender tried to collapse the pocket:
RT Cody Ford #70 showing improved handwork, tenacity, very wide base, good mirroring and strength against NT Austin Johnson, who lined up at DE on this play. Ford’s learning to play RT position ...one #DraftTek felt wasn’t going to be strong suit. pic.twitter.com/Xxegke9NZm
— Dean Kindig (@TCBILLS_Astro) October 9, 2019
Like mentioned above, Ford is great in the run game with the way he aggressively finishes blocks. During the preseason the young tackle finished off a great pancake by drilling the Lions defender to the ground, showing his great power in the run game:
Cody Ford [#70] with a nice pancake block at the 5-yard line on this touchdown run.#OUDNA | #BoomerSoonerpic.twitter.com/yFlm9gnfVt
— 𝕆𝕂𝕃𝔸ℍ𝕆𝕄𝔸-𝕍𝕊-𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕎𝕆ℝ𝕃𝔻 (@soonergridiron) August 24, 2019
If Ford can build on his strengths and shore up his inconsistencies there’s no doubt he can be a capable tackle in this league.