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The Buffalo Bills have a stout offensive line that boasts both a strong prospective starting group and solid depth throughout the roster. As a result, there are some strong NFL players who are going to be released from this team in September. However, if the Bills run into some injury issues, the coaching staff can rest easily knowing that general manager Brandon Beane has fortified the team’s depth.
In today’s edition of our “90 players in 90 days” series, we profile one such depth player—a veteran lineman looking to make an impact with a new club.
Name: Jamil Douglas
Number: 77
Position: OL
Height/Weight: 6’4” 309 lbs
Age: 29 (30 on 2/28/2022)
Experience/Draft: 4; selected in the fourth round (No. 114 overall) by the Miami Dolphins in the 2015 NFL Draft
College: Arizona State
Acquired: Signed with Bills on 4/2/2021
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Douglas signed a one-year contract worth a total of $995,000. That includes a $75,000 signing bonus, which also represents the number that the Bills will have as a dead-cap charge if they release Douglas prior to Week 1.
2020 Recap: After starting five games at right guard for the Tennessee Titans in 2019, Douglas did not start one game in the 2020 season. He did appear in 14 games, playing almost exclusively on special teams. In the Titans’ Week 9 and 10 contests against the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts, respectively, Douglas appeared on over 50 percent of the snaps in a reserve role. Of the 105 snaps he played on offense last season, 75 of them came during that two-game stretch. For the season, he neither committed a penalty nor allowed a sack.
Positional outlook: Douglas finds himself in the midst of a crowded interior offensive line group, with Mitch Morse, Jon Feliciano, Cody Ford, Jordan Devey, and Ike Boettger all returning from last year. Forrest Lamp, Syrus Tuitele, Jack Anderson, and Steven Gonzalez have all been added to the mix this year.
2021 Offseason: Douglas is healthy and he participated in offseason activities.
2021 Season outlook: Barring injuries, phenomenal play on the part of Douglas, or some other oddity, the veteran is not likely to make the final roster. Buffalo is Douglas’s sixth team since he entered the league in 2015, and I imagine that he’ll be looking for a seventh when roster cuts are made in early September. The Bills just have too much depth here for a fringe player to squeak on to the roster. Fun fact from Douglas’s bio, however—he played tight end and halfback in high school. Can you imagine trying to tackle that mass of humanity coming at you full speed?