The Buffalo Bills are expected to be without guard Jon Feliciano for the next 8-12 weeks as he recovers from a chest injury.
Feliciano, 28, started 16 games for the Bills as a right guard last season after joining the team in free agency. Feliciano’s loss is significant, but Buffalo has a fair amount of internal options when it comes to who might replace him while he’s away.
Here is a look at five options.
Cody Ford
Let’s first get the big name out of the way.
Could the Bills realistically slide Ford to protect before giving him a chance to see what he can do with the right tackle in his second season? It didn’t seem like a realistic option when Feliciano was healthy, but the Bills could at least consider the move now.
Ford had its ups and downs as a rookie on the right tackle and some draft analysts declared that the guard would be his best position as a professional. Time will tell if those analysts are correct, but we can find out what the Bills’ best position is as soon as possible.
Kicking Ford to protect can only happen if the Bills trust Ty Nsekhe and Daryl Williams to handle the right tackle job.
Daryl Williams
Realistically, Daryl Williams may be the best option to replace Feliciano.
Williams, 27, is coming off a bad year at Carolina, but a lot of it has to do with how it was used. The Panthers played Williams at left tackle, left guard, right guard, and right tackle in 2019. Few, if any, players would succeed in being moved so much in a year.
Williams’ best move comes from the right side of the line.
Williams, a former All-Pro second team in 2017, has played in 56 games (41 starts) since joining the league.
Spencer long
Buffalo showed in March that they understood the importance of OL depth when they took the Spencer Long contract option for 2020.
Long is another veteran option on the Bills’ list. Like Williams, Long would bring a lot of experience to the lineup. She has appeared in 67 games (44 starts) since joining the league in 2014.
Long, 29, knows the Bills’ system after appearing in 14 games with the team a season ago.
Evan Boehm
Evan Boehm, like Spencer Long, can play in the center or on the guard. You can get a closer look at the guard after the news about Feliciano.
Last season, Boehm recorded eight starts with the Miami Dolphins. Five of those starts came on the right guard with the other three occurring in the center. He also started on guard at times during his tenure with the Cardinals. Since joining the league in 2016, Boehm has appeared in 55 games (21 starts).
Ike Boettger
Boettger is probably the dark horse of the previous names, but the Bills clearly like the old Iowa lineman.
After signing Boettger as UDFA after the 2018 NFL Draft, the Bills tried to put Boettger on his practice squad only to lose him to the Kansas City Chiefs. Once the Chiefs released Boettger, the Bills added him to their roster again.
Despite much better talent and depth at the OL in 2019, Boettger was able to win a job on the 53-man roster. It may take a further step in its development in the third year.
In his two league seasons, Boettger has appeared in six games.
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