Offensive free agents available for Bills to consider this summer

With just a few weeks left until training camp begins, the Buffalo Bills will begin identifying the players who best fit their roster to field an initial 53-man roster in September. But is everyone already in contention for a coveted roster spot?

I don’t believe the Bills will sign a significant free agent this summer (“significant” in this case defined as “a player who, once acquired, immediately becomes a very high probability to make the roster” – like receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling after this year’s draft and edge rusher Leonard Floyd in the summer of 2023).

But what would happen if they did?

One of my favorite TV shows of late is “The Grinder,” a comedy starring Rob Lowe and Fred Savage. In the series, Savage plays an Idaho lawyer whose life is suddenly turned upside down by the return to town of his brother (played by Lowe), who is trying to acclimate to life outside of Hollywood after years of playing a lawyer on television. This, of course, leads to all sorts of mischief when the fictional lawyer decides to help his real-life lawyer brother with his cases. In the series, Lowe’s character, Dean Sanderson, is known for continually and wistfully challenging his brother’s statements that “that’s not how it works” with a distant look and a response that he often says works in his scripts:

“What if we could?”

While it may seem unlikely to the author, we’re going to follow Dean Sanderson’s lead and pick a few offensive free agents the Bills could sign this summer, if they see fit. This won’t be an exhaustive list of all available players, so feel free to share your ideas in the comments (and let me know if anyone else likes “The Grinder”).

Offensive line

The Bills are currently projected to have two offensive line positions filled by different people in 2024 compared to 2023. The center position saw stalwart Mitch Morse released and signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars, with that spot reportedly being filled by former left guard Connor McGovern. Meanwhile, the former McGovern’s left guard spot is currently expected to be filled by former sixth-string offensive lineman and utility player David Edwards.

What if the Bills don’t like what they see at the start of training camp? There are two ways to approach that, hence the grouping of the two names above.

Option 1: The Bills don’t like what they see from McGovern at center. When he signed with the Bills as a free agent from the Dallas Cowboys in 2023, there was a lot of talk that he might have played his best as a guard rather than a center. In that scenario, the Bills need a center to return McGovern to the position he played well last season, and they don’t think fifth-round rookie Sedrick Van Pran-Granger is ready for that right now.

Throw in Mason Cole, who has the same Morse/VP-G body type (6’5”, 298 pounds) that the Bills seem to value with the historical quickness to get out on pin/pull and zone blocks to connect with moving targets (82nd percentile in the 10-yard distribution). At just 28 years old, Cole has never allowed more than two sacks in a season during his stints with the Steelers, Minnesota Vikings, and Arizona Cardinals. He’s not a top-tier starter (or his likelihood of being available this time of year would be significantly lower), but he fits the prototype the Bills have established at the position if both of the scenarios listed above (McGovern not showing up, VPG not ready) occur simultaneously.

Option two: …is that the Bills like what they see from McGovern at center, but David Edwards hasn’t found the form he had during his time with the Los Angeles Rams alongside current Bills offensive line coach Aaron Kromer. In that case, former Seattle Seahawks lineman Phil Haynes could be the choice.

Inconsistency has always been Haynes’ mantra. A practice squad player who showed impressive linear movement for his size (6’4″, 322 pounds) at the NFL Scouting Combine, Haynes finally got his chance to play meaningful snaps in Seattle in 2022, and went on to play 631 snaps between that year and 2023. He, like most of Seattle’s offensive linemen, had moments of brilliance mixed with forgettable games – but there’s enough potential left in a player who’s not yet 29 that you’d want to see him paired with an offensive line coach like Aaron Kromer. That’s especially true given the work Kromer did with similarly sized Bills rookie O’Cyrus Torrence, who had one of the quietest rookie seasons in recent memory since a high draft pick by the Bills (and for an offensive lineman, that’s a good thing).

Players in technical positions

• Jamal Agnew, WR (most recently of the Jacksonville Jaguars)

I still believe there will be one team in the NFL that really gets ahead of the curve with the new kickoff rules for 2024 and is able to steal a game or two before the rest of the league catches up. We’ve seen this type of trend before in the league (remember the Wildcat?) and if the Bills don’t feel like they have a returner who can execute on their vision, Agnew could be the choice.

A year after posting a 29.0 punt return average in 2022, the former Jaguars wide receiver is also averaging a 10.2 punt return average in his career. The Bills drafted a backup nickel back who can potentially be a kick return weapon in Penn State’s Daequan Hardy, but one of the other top contenders for that spot is projected starting receiver Khalil Shakir. Current third-string running back Ty Johnson could also be in the mix here, but if the team’s top two options are a Day 3 rookie and a starting receiver — but they still want to make an impact in the return game before other teams figure out the new normal — Agnew makes sense this summer.

Bills running back Ty Johnson had a 63.3% rushing success rate in 2023, which would have been the best running back in the entire NFL if he had carried enough balls to qualify. By the end of the season, he was Buffalo’s second-leading rusher behind James Cook, with Latavius ​​Murray relegated to pass-blocking and not recording a single carry in two playoff games.

But Johnson’s career success rate is 48.7%, and I just said the sample size in 2023 is small. What if Buffalo wanted to upgrade that position with a proven pass catcher who can play special teams (as a third running back should)?

If McKinnon can accept a three-man time split again in Buffalo, he logged the second-most special teams snaps of his career (169) in Kansas City last year. He has nine receiving touchdowns and 545 yards for the two-time defending Super Bowl champions in 2022, and would give the Bills a third legitimate player at the position if Ty Johnson doesn’t maintain his effectiveness at a higher volume for the team in 2024.

…and that’s how things get messy. I’m Bruce Nolan of Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on Rumblings Cast Network!