Buffalo Bills: Top 5 players with the most to prove in training camp

Cody Ford

Cody Ford had an up and down rookie season in 2019. Playing on the offensive line is never easy and not having a lot of statistics to quantify a player’s production can sometimes make it difficult to truly track how good a player of that position is.

Ford was drafted as an All-American out of Oklahoma in 2019 when the Bills took him in the second round. The offensive tackle saw action in 16 games and gained valuable experience playing against some of the toughest defensive lines in the league.

Unfortunately, Ford also made his fair share of rookie mistakes. The offensive tackle allowed seven sacks, tied for tenth most in the NFL at his position, according to Pro Football Focus. Ford also accumulated eight penalties during the course of the season.

Penalties for an offensive lineman are understandable. Most of those penalties are holding calls and holding happens on every play of every football game, but it only gets called when it is blatant.

Sacks on the other hand, are a non-negotiable. Giving up sacks is the one thing offensive linemen cannot do in pass protection. They kill drives and squander scoring opportunities.

Ford must use training camp to show that he is improved from his rookie year. He must use the reps in training camp to be better disciplined and develop the proper technique for pass protection. He needs to improve, and quickly.