Dion Dawkins is coming off his first Pro Bowl season with the Buffalo Bills but it isn’t enough to move him up in the rankings by Pro Football Focus
The Buffalo Bills entered this offseason with plenty of questions on their offensive line but those questions were primarily on the interior as the offensive tackle position is pretty well set. On the right side should be Spencer Brown, who is entering his second season with the team, and on the left side is Dion Dawkins.
The former second round pick has been a key part of this offensive line since his rookie season in 2017 with 74 career starts. In fact since 2018, Dawkins has started every game but two, which the two absences came last season.
The left tackle is one of the most important positions on the roster as it is typically responsible for protecting the blindside of a quarterback. The Bills recognized what they had in Dawkins and signed him to a contract extension before the 2020 season.
He has continued to play at a high-level week in and week out and was nominated to his first Pro Bowl last season.
Pro Football Focus ranks Buffalo Bills’ left tackle Dion Dawkins too low
Recently, Pro Football Focus put together their rankings of offensive tackles and had Dion Dawkins all the way down at 21st. Ben Linsey wrote:
"Dawkins has been one of the steadier starting left tackles in the league over his five years as a starter in Buffalo. He’s earned a PFF pass-protection grade above 75.0 in all five seasons and has been the 14th-most valuable tackle in the league since 2020, per PFF WAR. That reliability and consistent play was rewarded with Dawkins’ first Pro Bowl appearance in 2022."
The fact that Linsey created tiers for his rankings could have contributed to Dawkins being lower because he was behind the tier titled “Young Tackles Trending in the Right Direction” which included Philadelphia Eagles’ Jordan Mailata, Detriot Lions’ Penei Sewell, and New York Giants’ Andrew Thomas.
It is tough to make a strong argument that any of those three are better than Dawkins right now at this moment in time. The fact that Linsey highlights the fact that Dawkins is 14th in PFF WAR over the past two seasons is a perfect example that he should be ranked somewhere in the Top 15.
It will be interesting to see once the regular season rolls around and the Buffalo Bills are back on the field if Dion Dawkins moves up in rankings like these.