The Buffalo Bills’ starting offensive line has not been on the field together during training camp. That changed on Monday, when they were finally together for some light work in one-on-ones side by side. On Tuesday, they took their first snaps together as a group during team work.
Projected left guard Rodger Saffold started training camp on the NFI list following a rib injury suffered in a car accident this summer. He was finally activated on Sunday, August 7, and has been ramping up to team drills. Head coach Sean McDermott said his conditioning was behind due to the injury, so a ramp-up period was expected. When he worked into team drills Tuesday, he was the final piece.
Also taking a long time to ramp up was right tackle Spencer Brown, who had a procedure on his back this offseason. He was limited in practice for the first two weeks, only doing individual and one-on-one drills before graduating to team drills late last week.
Projected right guard Ryan Bates was out for a while with general soreness, center Mitch Morse had a veteran rest day earlier this week, and left tackle Dion Dawkins missed two practices with a personal issue last week.
While the starting five was out, the Bills subbed in David Quessenberry and Tommy Doyle at multiple positions, while Greg Mancz appeared as the next man up in the rotation. Bobby Hart and Cody Ford both got first-team reps, as well, when the Bills were down four starters at one point. Greg Van Roten and Luke Tenuta are among the group of linemen who have not receiver any first-team reps to this point.
Ike Boettger remains on the PUP list with his Achilles injury and is likely to continue on that list into the regular season. His late-season injury means he could miss the entire year recovering from it with a 10- to 12-month recovery time.
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