Getty Baltimore Ravens offensive guard Ben Powers celebrates a 2020 field goal.
The Buffalo Bills had one of the league’s top offenses in the last season, but the team’s playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals exposed one glaring weakness — the interior offensive line and its ability to open holes for the run game and keep quarterback Josh Allen protected.
The Bills brought in veteran guard Rodger Saffold last offseason to bolster the line, but the acquisition didn’t work out as intended. Saffold struggled this season, with Pro Football Focus rating him as the lowest of all players on the Bills’ roster. As the USA Today’s Bills Wire noted, Saffold’s overall grade of 44.0 put him 74th of 78 qualifying guards in the NFL.
Now, PFF is predicting that the Bills will move on from the free-agent Saffold and replace him with a veteran Baltimore Ravens lineman.
Bills Making Moves on Offensive Line
The analysis outlet noted that the Bills don’t have many weak points on offense outside of slot receiver, but could use a boost to the interior of the offensive line. The Bengals exposed this weakness in their divisional-round win over the Bills, keeping consistent pressure on Allen.
“Powers is coming off a career year in 2022, with his 86.5 pass-blocking grade the second-best mark among guards this season,” the outlet noted. “Powers allowed zero sacks and just one quarterback hit during the regular season, playing in front of three different quarterbacks over the second half of the campaign.”
“The 6-foot-4, 338-pound behemoth struggles a bit as a run blocker, but if he could do enough to get by in Baltimore, odds are he can hold up in the pass-happy Bills offense.”
Ravens G Ben Powers through 633 pass blocking snaps this season:
•1 Sack
•1 Hit
•11 QB hurries
•13 QB pressures
Powers could be an affordable upgrade for a Bills team tight against the salary cap. Bills general manager Brandon Beane has already warned that the team won’t be making any big moves last year.
“There’s not going to be a Von Miller signing. … We’re going to be creative,” Beane said in a season-ending press conference, via the Buffalo News. “We’re going to try and win. It’s up to me to figure it out. We have to hit on draft picks, we have to find low-cost free agents that can find roles, whether it’s a key backup, solid starter, whatever it is.”
Run Game Could Change in 2023
With changes to the offensive line likely coming this offseason, Buffalo’s run game could see its own changes. Lead running back Devin Singletary is set to become a free agent, and there is no clear indication of whether the team will try to re-sign him. Rookie James Cook to an increasingly large share of carries as the season went on, but the Bills under head coach Sean McDermott have employed a running-back-by-committee approach and the team would likely add another back if Singletary were to leave.
Beane has also made it clear that he wants quarterback Josh Allen to take fewer risks in his game, which could limit the number of times he runs the ball.
“The only thing I’d get on to him is he’s got too many bruises on him,” Beane said, via the Democrat & Chronicle. “And we’ve got to work on taking less hits. That’s the only reason I’m going to ever criticize Josh is just take less hits.”