Bobby Johnson: The Source of O-Line Issues (in my opinion)

[Rigotz]

Like many of you, I listen to daily podcasts, read the beat reports, and read this message board daily.

The commentary is consistent: "Brandon Beane did a bad job with our Offensive Line."

 

Here's my take ... it's not Beane. It's Bobby Johnson, our O-Line coach.

Bobby Johnson joined the Bills staff in early 2019, his first time as head O-Line coach in the NFL:

 

2018: Brandon Beane drafts Wyatt Teller in the 5th round.

2019: Wyatt Teller traded for a 5th and 6th round pick.

The next year Wyatt Teller becomes a pro-bowl player.

 

2018: Brandon Beane signs Quinton Spain to a 1 year deal, followed by a 3 year extension.

2020: Quinton Spain is benched in favor of Cody Ford and Brian Winters. He is later released.

The next year Quinton Spain becomes a pro-bowl caliber player.

 

2019: Brandon Beane drafts Cody Ford in the 2nd round. He is lined up at Right Tackle and struggles badly.

2020: Cody Ford is lined up at Right Guard and struggles. Quinton Spain is released and Cody Ford is flipped to Left Guard and struggles.

2021: Cody Ford is named starting Right Guard to begin the season, then is benched in week 2.

 

2020: Brandon Beane signs Darryl Williams to a cheap 1 year deal at RT and he is a huge success. 

2021: Darryl Williams begins the year at RT, then is flipped to RG in week 2, then moves back to RT.

 

2021 Offseason: Big contract extensions for Darryl Williams and Jon Feliciano. Both are sub-standard players in 2021.

Spencer Brown drafted in 3rd round. Benched in week 1, starter in week 2, which again changes entire o-line.

 

Or how about Ryan Bates this year? Clear upgrade at LG and was left rotting on the bench all regular season.

 

The problem is not bringing in guys, it's being completely clueless about our own Offensive Line players.

We change their positions endlessly and let the good ones go. That is 100% certain.

 

Beane is certainly partially to blame, but I'm looking at Bobby Johnson as the guy in the O-Line room every day, completely clueless about his own players.

 

Edited February 14, 2022 by Rigotz

[LEBills]

I agree we need a new OL coach, the talent is not amazing but should be more serviceable than this

[Mr. WEO]

Why does Bobby Johnson keep trading all of these studs?

[uninja]

There seems to be an issue with how the Bills coach the guard spots.

 

We've now had two players (Spain & Teller) play poorly at the guard spots, leave, and immediately play much better. One time I can chalk that up to a poor player/scheme fit, but two times? That to me flashes 'coaching issue.'

[CSBill]

You lost me at “Like many of you.”

[NI Bills Fan]

Of course we cant be 'sure' the blame for poor O line play is on Bobby Johnson, but I agree that it's strange that all/most of the takes/opinions so far havent included him as a potential reason.

 

I was listening to the locked on Bills podcast this morning and kept wondering why none of the listener questions about the o line mentioned him.  Joe Marino (the host) didnt mention Johnson either which was surprising as he's usually thorough and extensive when it comes to diagnosing issues.

[LeGOATski]

I just heard on the Locked On Bills podcast that PFF graded Cody Ford the best Olineman in the game. 2nd best offensive player overall.

 

LOL

 

Regarding coaching vs talent, I expect Bobby Johnson to be shown the door sooner than later. The OP nicely layed out the series of events surrounding this line. After spending 3 years acquiring all sorts of players for this unit, their next move is to acquire a different coach. 

 

That's not to say the talent is adequate. They've definitely missed on their evaluation of the interior line. But maybe a new coach/new personnel guy can help out with that. 

10 minutes ago, NI Bills Fan said:

Of course we cant be 'sure' the blame for poor O line play is on Bobby Johnson, but I agree that it's strange that all/most of the takes/opinions so far havent included him as a potential reason.

 

I was listening to the locked on Bills podcast this morning and kept wondering why none of the listener questions about the o line mentioned him.  Joe Marino (the host) didnt mention Johnson either which was surprising as he's usually thorough and extensive when it comes to diagnosing issues.

He says the staff has miscalculated the talent of this line, and not honest with themselves. That's sort off calling out their OL coach and personnel guys in an indirect way...

[GreggTX]

I definitely agree about Spain and Teller, but you can't dismiss lack of talent as an issue. As I've said for a long time, OL needs to be the #1 priority this offseason. I also agree on Feliciano and Williams -- They are both struggling. Ford, Bates and Boettger are all really bad.

[die hard bills fan]

Can't disagree.

[colin]

ya man, our OL state today, and who they have shipped out of town vs who they kept just shows a bad job up at the top.

dawkins, spain, morse, teller, brown, 

 

how much better is that then the trash we started the season with?

[Pete]

Protect your $250 million QB!

[dpberr]

If you're over the age of 18, you're Robert, not Bobby.  Bobby is a name for children, pets and personal watercraft. Should have been a red flag during the interview.

 

I kid. 

 

The Bills under the current regime are terrible at hiring OL coaches.  We got duped by the best agent in the business - Juan Castillo's agent.  No one is more elite at finding his/her client a job. 

[Man with No Name]

i don't see any possible way he can keep his job without a major turn around this year. Does Daboll take any blame for this? How much power of suggestion does he have with the linemen, their positions, and the overall schemes that are called based on our talents? 

[thenorthremembers]

Gonna be honest.  I just think Cody Ford and Ike Boettger arent very good at playing guard in the NFL. 

[Big Turk]

New England showed it best of all throughout the years with Scarnecchia coaching them, one of the best in the business...they literally would plug UDFA street free agents in there and they would play well.

[TheFunPolice]

enough with the "slimming down" stuff that this team seems fascinated with....

 

Feliciano was pretty good... a physical mauler type with a mean streak. So he loses 20 pounds and becomes a weaker version of himself. 

 

BUT HE'S MORE FLEXIBLE! Yay

 

BTW, he's out multiple weeks with a muscle injury anyway. 

 

Dawkins getting Covid really messed him up, and you can tell he's still not right out there. 

 

 

[BillsVet]

27 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

Wait the offensive line coach gets the blame for attempting to coach up the pedestrian unit of talent he was given?… sorry Beane and McD get much more of the blame.

 

This whole thread is like blaming lower-middle management for lower revenue when the CEO is burning $100 bills in the parking lot.  

 

McBeane have largely misfired on OL since day 1, save perhaps Dawkins when he was drafted.  Spencer Brown is a TBD at this point, but all the rest - UFA's - have eventually shown to be underwhelming.  It's almost as if they see OL like the old RW era days when linemen were an afterthought on draft day.  Unless they absolutely needed them, and then they drafted them high (Wood and Levitre).

 

Perhaps the voice from amateur and pro scouting is getting drowned out by McD and the admin-GM type exec in Beane.  This isn't a 2021 issue, it's dating back a few years.  And it goes without saying that the contracts they've handed out to re-sign someone or ink a new UFA haven't been good either. 

 

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, LeGOATski said:

I just heard on the Locked On Bills podcast that PFF graded Cody Ford the best Olineman in the game. 2nd best offensive player overall.

 

OMG Seriously?  If ever there were an indictment of PFF's grading system for offensive line.

That's just...offensive?

 

What did Locked On Bills (is that Joe Marino?) say about that.

 

1 hour ago, LeGOATski said:

The OP nicely layed out the series of events surrounding this line. After spending 3 years acquiring all sorts of players for this unit, their next move is to acquire a different coach. 

 

It seems to me that the OP missed Big on one point:

-Bobby Johnson came in after a 2018 Disaster on OL

-2019 saw Dawkins, Morse, rookie Ford, and otherwise a bunch of pretty much "Just Guys" including Nsekhe, Feliciano and Spain into a serviceable OL.  Run game wasn't great, but it was present: Bills were 6th in the league for rush attempts, and 8th in the league for rush yards.  Singletary saw 5.1 YPC.

-2020 saw a fantastic pass game emerge behind such notables as Brian Winters and Cody Ford, or Boettger and Winters, at guard, and play seemed to spark a bit when Feliciano returned.

 

So the same guy who could coach up a bunch of guys into a decent OL in 2019 and 2020, is now totally incompetent? 

 

I'm not gonna say that coaching, or the protections called, don't have something to do with it.  But it's supposed to be Bobby Johnson's fault that Dawkins, who emerged as a franchise LT in 2019 and continued to play well in 2020 after his big payday, is now playing like crap?  Or that Williams, who  was given a "prove it!" deal at RT in 2020 and locked it down, lost his job to a rookie who looks promising, but makes rookie mistakes and would never see the field if 2020 Williams was playing?

 

I think there may be some nuance there being missed.

 

I grant it as a valid point that Spain improved after moving to Cincinnati, but the improvement wasn't immediate - he didn't look so great last season and was a delayed signing to a 1 year vet minimum deal - not what you offer a "pro bowl caliber player".  He's playing well now - but he's also playing for a new contract, as he did in 2019.

 

I also grant it as a valid point that Teller has become one bodacious Hawg Mollie guard.  But it's not like he played like crap under Johnson and then played better in Cleveland.  He never played for Johnson, he was traded just before the season.  We don't get a parallel universe to see how he would have developed here.

 

1 hour ago, LeGOATski said:

He says the staff has miscalculated the talent of this line, and not honest with themselves. That's sort off calling out their OL coach and personnel guys in an indirect way...

 

I don't think there's an argument that the staff miscalculated the talent of the OL.   They clearly made a mistake trading Teller and keeping Bates and Boettger ahead of him.   I think that's a philosphical error - I think Beane over-emphasizes versatility in his developmental OLmen at the expense of them learning to "do one thing well". 

 

Ford is looking like a bust.  That happens. 

 

But Dawkins, Williams, Feliciano and Boettger all played more servicably last season, so I think there might be something else going on. 

 

Maybe last season they had nothing to do but stay home and watch film and this year they're out knocking the "J" out of Jacksonville the night before the game.  There was a rumor here near the start of the season that Dawkins was unfocused on football and out running around with Bennie the Butcher.

 

34 minutes ago, thenorthremembers said:

Gonna be honest.  I just think Cody Ford and Ike Boettger arent very good at playing guard in the NFL. 

 

Ford is running out of chances.  This was supposed to be his year, being able to work on himself in the off-season.  Maybe playing with an injured arm/shoulder in 2019 and 2020 really ***** him up, I don't know.  It happens that players don't play up to their potential due to injuries, or yes, due to misevaluation.

 

I thought Boettger played servicably last year.  Not great, but serviceable at LG.  And if we're giving Dawkins the "Covid pass", well, Boettger had Covid too.

[Brand J]

Just saw this picture on FB. Yes, those are three lineman blocking one guy, as another has an unimpeded path to Josh. Someone please tell me this picture is photoshopped. If not, that’s on coaching (or lack thereof).

[Einstein]

2 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

Why does Bobby Johnson keep trading all of these studs?

 

My thoughts exactly.
 

Bobby Johnson didn’t make Beane make these moves.