90 Buffalo Bills players in 90 days: Tackle Luke Tenuta

The Buffalo Bills typically carry either nine or ten offensive linemen on their 53-man roster. Of those players, seven or eight are usually active on game day. With 13 linemen on the current roster, that means that right around half of those players won’t be on the active roster when games start in September.

With a solid mix of veterans on the depth chart at present, breaking in as a young player is going to be very difficult in the early going. Still, that doesn’t make it impossible for a young player to make the final cut.

In today’s edition of “90 players in 90 days,” we profile one of those young offensive linemen who will try to make a big enough impression to stick with the club when September comes.

Name: Luke Tenuta

Number: 67

Position: T

Height/Weight: 6’8” 319 lbs

Age: 22 (23 on 9/1/2022)

Experience/Draft: R; selected by Buffalo in the sixth round (No. 209 overall) of the 2022 NFL Draft

College: Virginia Tech

Acquired: Sixth-round draft choice

Financial situation (per Spotrac): Tenuta’s four-year rookie contract is worth a total of $3,812,684. For the 2022 season, he carries a salary cap hit of $743,171 if he makes the final roster. His dead-cap number of $152,684 represents the totality of the guarantees on the contract.

2021 Recap: Tenuta was an All-ACC Honorable Mention in his final year with the Hokies. He started 12 games, 11 of which were at left tackle. The one game where he didn’t start at left tackle? He started at right tackle, which is where he played for the duration of the 2020 season.

Positional outlook: Tenuta joins a tackle group that has a pretty clear pecking order established in the early stages. The starters are going to be Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown. The veterans vying for the swing tackle job are Bobby Hart and David Quessenberry. Those two veterans will have to unseat Tommy Doyle, a second-year man. Cody Ford can also play tackle.

2022 Offseason: Tenuta is healthy, he attended rookie minicamp, and he’s ready to go for his first professional training camp.

2022 Season outlook: I think it’s unlikely that Tenuta finds himself among the top four offensive tackles this year, as Dawkins, Brown, Doyle, and Quessenberry are likely to be that top-four contingent. Tenuta is likely battling Hart for a look on the practice squad, and that’s a battle that I assume he’ll win. Tenuta is big, physical, and athletic, but he’s not on the same level as Doyle or Quessenberry quite yet. He’s a worthwhile project moving forward.