Buffalo Bills: Breaking down what T.J. Yeldon brings to this offense

This is what T.J. Yeldon brings to this offense for the Buffalo Bills and why he could see a big workload.

The Buffalo Bills coaching staff had a tough decision to make ahead of this weekend’s game against the Baltimore Ravens. Last week against the Colts, the Bills lost rookie running back Zack Moss to an ankle injury for the remainder of the season.

While he wasn’t necessarily the starter, he was a key part of this offense and split most of the work with Devin Singletary. He was more of the goal line back and asked to pick up those tough yards in short-yardage situations.

This is why I thought it made sense for the Buffalo Bills to look to undrafted rookie Antonio Williams, who is more of that bruising back that can replicate what Zack Moss brought.

However, Sean McDermott on Thursday said that T.J. Yeldon would be active and step into Moss’ roster spot. While he isn’t able to replicate what Moss brought to this offense, he does bring a different skill set that could really help this offense against a tough Ravens’ defense.

Why T.J. Yeldon can help the Buffalo Bills offense

One of the things that T.J. Yeldon does very well is he is an above-average pass catcher out of the backfield. Yeldon was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars and in two of his first four seasons in the league, he had 50 or more receptions.

The best season Yeldon had was in 2018 when he had 55 receptions, 487 receiving yards, and four receiving touchdowns. He also has shown to be sure-handed with a high catch percentage for his career and has caught 73.4% of targets thrown his way.

The reason this is important is that while the Baltimore Ravens don’t have many weaknesses, they have struggled at times to contain running backs coming out of the backfield on passing plays. In Week 14 against the Cleveland Browns, the Ravens allowed a season-high 42 points and one of the big reasons the Browns found success was Kareem Hunt had a big game with six receptions, 77 yards, and one receiving touchdown.

While T.J. Yeldon is not Kareem Hunt, teams have tried to target running backs in their passing game more frequently against the Ravens. Even this past week, the Tennessee Titans tried to get Derrick Henry involved in the passing game and he tied a season-high with three receptions.

The Buffalo Bills replacing Zack Moss with T.J. Yeldon won’t give them exactly the same type of running back and they may need to use Josh Allen more as a runner in those goal line situations.

However, this week Yeldon could be a key part of their offensive gameplan as a receiver out of the backfield and could have success with some of the struggles the Ravens have shown against pass catching running backs.