Backup Lineman Has New Team

Jamil Douglas started five games, played in 29 during two seasons with the Tennessee Titans.

Jamil Douglas’ first year with an NFL tends to be his most productive.

If things continue as they have, therefore, the Buffalo Bills will need him this season. The Bills signed the veteran offensive lineman to a one-year deal Tuesday.

The 29-year-old was scheduled to be a restricted free agent this offseason, but the Tennessee Titans did not tender a qualifying offer necessary to retain his rights. That allowed him to sign with any other team.

With Buffalo, he joins a team that went 13-3 and reached the AFC Championship game last season and then kept the bulk of its offensive line intact with offseason moves.

Douglas spent the past two years with Tennessee as a primary backup on the interior of the offensive line. In 2019, he started five games (four at right guard, one at center), appeared in 15 and played 39 percent of the total snaps on offense. Last fall, he played 14 games without a start and was on the field for just nine percent of the offensive snaps.

The Titans went 2-3 in the games he started.

Before that, he had a similar two-year tenure with the Miami Dolphins. In 2015 as a rookie, he started six games (four at right guard, two at center) and played 50 percent of all the offensive snaps. The next season, his services were not required nearly as much. He spent most of the year on the Dolphins’ practice squad and played just one game.

Douglas spent almost all of 2018 as a member of the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad.

He entered the NFL as a fourth-round pick by the Dolphins out of Arizona State, where he was a three-year starter and an all-conference performer as a senior.