Buffalo Bills reportedly bringing in veteran center for visit
The Buffalo Bills are reportedly bringing in veteran center Jonotthan Harrison for a visit.
Prior to the roster cutdowns, it seemed like Evan Boehm had a good chance making the Buffalo Bills 53-man roster. The main reason was that he had the most experience at the center position outside of starter Mitch Morse.
When considering Morse’s injury history, having an experienced center is important for the Buffalo Bills. Well, the team elected to release Boehm, although they did re-sign him to the practice squad, they may still be looking for a veteran center.
According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Bills are bringing in Jonotthan Harrison who was previously with the New York Jets.
Center Jonotthan Harrison is visiting the Buffalo Bills later this week, per source. Seven-year NFL vet with 42 career starts was released by the Jets.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) September 9, 2020
As Fowler notes, Harrison is a seven-year veteran and has 42 career starts, including 18 over the past two years with the Jets. Harrison was released over the weekend and it caught quarterback Sam Darnold off guard according to ESPN’s Rich Cimini.
Even though Harrison is experienced, there are some questions about his play. Michael Nania tweeted out that the former Jets’ center was one of the worst in pass and run blocking.
Burgess: 36 tackles, 9 missed tackles vs. run (20.0% miss rate - 57th / 59 qualified LB) + 1.4 yards per coverage snap allowed (51st / 58)
— Michael Nania (@Michael_Nania) September 5, 2020
Harrison: 20 pressures allowed, 389 protection snaps (5.1% pressure rate - 28th / 31 qualified C) + 47.7 run block grade (worst among C) https://t.co/wCegfrtbGU
The addition of Harrison would certainly give the Buffalo Bills a center who has starting experience to be that primary backup for Mitch Morse. However, he doesn’t seem to provide much versatility, which is something the Buffalo Bills under Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott have valued.
This is also the second New York Jets offensive lineman that the Buffalo Bills have shown interest in since the start of training camp. Shortly after the Bills found out that Jon Feliciano would miss the start of the year they elected to sign guard Brian Winters, who was primarily a starter for the Jets since 2015.
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The Buffalo Bills could just be doing their due diligence to evaluate the players out there considering there weren’t any preseason games to get game film on these players. However, the backup center position is one that the team should be looking to improve at some point in the season.