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ESPN analyst says NFL teams should copy this Bills' offensive strategy

ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky credited part of the 2024 Buffalo Bills' offensive success to their usage of an extra offensive lineman.

Anthony Miller

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Despite many believing that the Buffalo Bills' offense would falter in the 2024 season given the offseason departures of Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis, the unit has been quite effective thus far, ranking in the top half of the league in yards per game at 336.5 through eight weeks.

ESPN analyst broke down Buffalo’s early-season offensive success during a recent appearance on NFL Live, particularly keying in on one strategy that he feels has helped the unit in a bevy of ways and should be utilized by other teams across the league—the usage of a sixth offensive lineman.

"One of the things that they do better than anybody is, Joe Brady, their play-caller, goes with six offensive linemen on the field,” Orlovsky said. “Number one, it simplifies defense. They have to put seven bigs on the field. You get one-on-one coverage more often than not on the outside and it does a great job of making sure that Josh's reads are very clear with good pockets in protection. These are simple reads for a quarterback. Go routes, crossing routes, check down, easy, six offensive linemen on the field.

"They can run the football out of it. The thing I like the most of this in their run game is when they put those six offensive linemen in, it gets the run started. They don't have negative plays in their run game. It gives everyone else on the offensive line a chance to lean on defensive linemen. Again, six offensive linemen on the field, seven bigs by the defense. There's that simple coverage structure. You get a one-on-one with the extra offensive lineman blocking that rush end and look at the soft vacancies within the defense. I think more teams should do this candidly in the NFL."

ESPN broadcasted Buffalo's statistics when using an extra offensive lineman, with the team leading the NFL in rushes (54), yards per run (5.2), and yards per play (6.8) with a sixth man up front. That extra lineman has helped in protecting Josh Allen on pass plays, as he has been sacked a league-low 10 times. It has helped them in the running game, as they are tied for fourth in the NFL in runs for first down percentage at 28.8%. The usage of a sixth offensive lineman isn't necessarily new for the Bills, but it's been particularly effective this year.

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All the attention has been on the Bills' skill-position players like Keon Coleman, Amari Cooper, James Cook, Kahlil Shakir, and Dalton Kincaid. That said, the offensive line has been generally stellar, with the likes of Spencer Brown and Dion Dawkins headlining one of the top units in the league. Alec Anderson, who is Buffalo's extra lineman in six-man sets, has also performed admirably in his role, playing well as a run blocker while allowing just one pressure in pass protection, per PFF.

Buffalo's offense has been one of the big reasons the team has started 6-2 and is dominating the AFC East. More credit should be given to the offensive line for how much they have helped them look arguably better than 2023 thus far.

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Anthony Miller
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