Now entering the final year of his rookie deal, the big lineman faces an uphill climb to make the final roster
The Buffalo Bills under general manager Brandon Beane have done a fantastic job building depth along the offensive line. Beane hasn’t been shy about his desire to build the Bills up front, and while his choices along the defensive line haven’t always been successful, his decisions along the offensive line have worked out more often than not.
One thing the Bills seem to do every summer is make an innocuous trade of a reserve lineman for a late-round draft choice. While it doesn’t seem to be something that would help much — adding a sixth-round choice doesn’t often move the needle for most — Beane frequently uses the late-round picks acquired in those trades to move up in drafts.
So, when examining Buffalo’s depth chart along the offensive line this summer, we have to look at it in two ways: First, which players do we think will make the team? And then, secondly, which players could we see being flipped elsewhere to a team in need of help up front?
In today’s installment of “91 players in 91 days,” we discuss one such lineman — a big, versatile player whose career has been derailed by injury so far.
Name: Tommy Doyle
Number: 72
Position: T
Height/Weight: 6’8” 320 pounds
Age: 26 (27 on 5/6/2025)
Experience/Draft: 4; selected by Buffalo in the fifth round (No. 161 overall) in the 2021 NFL Draft
College: Miami (OH)
Acquired: Fifth-round draft choice
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Doyle enters the fourth and final year of his rookie contract, which was signed in 2021 at a total price of $3,795,724. For the 2024 season, Doyle carries a cap hit of $1,133,931. Buffalo is on the hook for a dead-cap charge of $78,931 should they release Doyle.
2023 Recap: After working his way back from an ACL tear suffered in Week 3 of the 2022 season, there was some hope that Doyle could break camp with the team as the sixth lineman. After all, he had been cross-training at guard and tackle for the better part of two seasons. However, that hope was short-lived, as Doyle suffered another knee injury in a preseason game. He was placed on Injured Reserve on August 21, thereby ending his season before it began.
Positional outlook: Doyle finds himself in a crowded positional group, as the team has two clearly established starters at tackle in Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown, two young players who impressed last year in limited roles in Alec Anderson and Ryan Van Demark, and a veteran vying for a role as a backup in La’el Collins. Buffalo added Travis Clayton and Tylan Grable via the 2024 NFL Draft, and Richard Gouraige returns after spending last year with the team on the practice squad.
2024 Offseason: Doyle was present at OTAs, but he didn’t participate due to ongoing injury recovery.
2024 Season outlook: I don’t see a safe pathway to the roster for Doyle, as I think his role has been usurped both by low-cost young players (Anderson and Van Demark) and a bigger-ticket free agent (Collins). If those three are on the roster in addition to the interior group (O’Cyrus Torrence, Connor McGovern, David Edwards, and Sedrick Van Pran-Granger) and the starting tackles (Dawkins and Brown), that leaves Doyle fighting with Clayton and Grable for a hypothetical tenth spot on the 53-man roster.
While it’s possible that the Bills keep 10 linemen, I don’t think it’s likely given the positional versatility of Collins and Anderson. If Doyle shows out and stays healthy this preseason, perhaps the Bills will try to flip one of those other players via trade in order to keep Doyle. Moving Doyle would also be an option in that scenario, though.
Either way, I think it’s unlikely that Doyle makes the team, but given how hard he’s worked, the flashes of ability we’ve seen in the times that he was healthy, and the obvious respect he’s garnered from the coaching staff, he’s not someone to write off entirely, either.