For the last five seasons, every time the Buffalo Bills have been eliminated from the playoffs, there is constant chatter about the changes that fans want to see within the organization. Sometimes it has to do with the roster, sometimes the coaching staff, and sometimes within the front office.
Either way, the Bills are very much about continuity with Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott. Very rarely do they make any huge changes, but we have seen it done before for various reasons.
Outside of the wide receiver position the last two seasons, the Bills are usually pretty good at addressing big needs. With this upcoming offseason, whether it’s in January or February, the Bills are going to have to address a big time problem that has been surprisingly ignored this season.
Bills have (and will continue to have) offensive line issue going into offseason
From left to right, the guys that are there to protect Josh Allen are Dion Dawkins, David Edwards, Connor McGovern, O’Cyrus Torrence, and Spencer Brown. This unit has been together since last season.
In Allen’s MVP season last year, he was only sacked 14 times which was a career low for him. His offensive line did such an amazing job last season, so you would think that with them running it back this season, it would be a near identical performance. Well, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
This season, Allen has been sacked 40 times. The only game that he wasn’t sacked was against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is funny because Buffalo didn’t have Dawkins or Brown in that game going up against pass rushers like Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt.
The offensive line has dealt with injuries, but they have also not been as solid against the pass rush. Against the Texans, Buffalo gave up 8 sacks. There’s been seven games where Buffalo’s offensive line has given up 3+ sacks. Now, you could argue that some of those sacks are on Allen because he tried to make a play scrambling outside the pocket, but the sack still falls on the offensive line.
Going into the offseason, the Bills have two pending free agents in Connor McGovern and David Edwards. So, not only do the Bills have to figure out what went wrong with giving up as many sacks as they did, but they may also have to replace McGovern and Edwards if they don’t bring them back before free agency.