This coming season, the Buffalo Bills second year running back was projected to be the most improved on this team.
The Buffalo Bills have done an excellent job in the NFL Draft and because of that have built an excellent foundation of young talent. Entering this season, there are a number of players who could be candidates for earning the most improved title including Josh Allen, Tremaine Edmunds, Dawson Knox and Ed Oliver.
However, NFL.com’s Cynthia Frelund selected running back Devin Singletary as the one player on the Buffalo Bills who will be most improved.
"With Frank Gore now a Jet, this is Singletary’s moment to show out. His ability to break tackles and move the chains was the key to his rookie campaign, as he gained 10-plus yards on 23.3 percent of his rushes outside the tackles in 2019 (the highest rate among backs with a minimum of 60 such rushes, per Next Gen Stats). He projects to see a big jump in production, even with 2020 third-round pick Zack Moss competing for snaps."
Singletary was a third-round pick by the Buffalo Bills last year and had a slow start to the year due to a hamstring injury suffered in Week 2 against the New York Giants. However, once he returned Singletary became the featured back and the key piece of the Bills rushing attack.
He finished the year with just under 1,000 yards from scrimmage with 775 rushing yards and 194 receiving yards and four total touchdowns.
While Frank Gore is gone, it is hard to imagine that Singletary will see the bump in touches to warrant being the most improved player. In the second half of the year, Singletary wasn’t really competing with Gore for touches but this coming season Zack Moss will likely command more than the veteran.
The Buffalo Bills used a third-round pick this year on Moss and the fact that they used such a high draft pick, it feels like this backfield is heading more to a committee. If the Buffalo Bills used Singletary primarily, or even gave him a 70/30 split in carries, he could have that breakout year.
However, based on what Moss brings to this offense this is probably going to be more of a 50/50 split and Moss could be the primary back near the goal line, which gives him a higher touchdown potential.