Buffalo Bills tackle Spencer Brown was forced to play through the end of last week’s loss to the Houston Texans with a noticeable arm injury, and now the team could be preparing to replace him for the upcoming game.
Brown has a rough outlook for next week’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but the team is preparing to add help in the form of a promising young player who has yet to take the field this season.
Bills Open Practice Window for 2024 Draft Pick
The Bills announced on Monday that they opened the 21-day practice window for offensive tackle Tylan Grable, who has been on injured reserve since the start of the season. The second-year player suffered a concussion during the summer and was unable to play in the team’s preseason games, but now could arrive at just the right time to offer some depth.
The Bills now have three weeks to evaluate Grable in practice and must either move him to the active roster or revert him back to injured reserve, which would be season ending.
Coming out of college, Grable was seen as an athletic prospect with an unusual background for an offensive lineman. The 6-foot-6, 306-pound tackle was a successful quarterback in high school who grew into a versatile lineman in college.
“Offensive tackle prospect who was throwing for 3,000 yards as a junior in high school,” noted NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein. “Grable has clearly continued to grow since his quarterback days but still possesses lighter feet that show up in pass protection and out in space.”
Zierlein added that Grable had some good natural instincts, but would need to grow a bit in the NFL.
“He plays with a narrow strike zone at the point of attack and needs to improve his feel as a positional blocker,” Zierlein wrote. “He has strong hands and is able to cinch up opponents once he gets inside. His pass protection is decent but can improve with cleaner hand strikes and placement. While he wasn’t asked to operate much in such a system at UCF, his best fit might be with a stretch-zone team where he’ll offer guard/tackle flexibility.”
Spencer Brown’s Uncertain Future
SI.com’s Ralph Ventre reported that there is a grim outlook for Brown, with fears that he may have torn his labrum in his right shoulder and would need season-ending surgery. The Bills have not yet made an announcement on Brown’s future, but he may be headed to injured reserve, Ventre reported.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott would not get into details on Brown, but offered some dire words.
“It’s still early. Doesn’t look good for, I’ll start, say this week, but we’ll see,” McDermott said.
As Ventre added, the Bills will turn to Ryan Van Demark as the starter, but have an issue with depth behind him. The SI.com writer noted that while Grable looked “impressive” in action as a rookie last season, the Bills will first turn to a pair of veterans to provide depth.
“With Van Demark needed to start, Buffalo’s tackle depth gets thin,” Ventre wrote. “While the versatile Alec Anderson can step in at the position in a pinch, the Bills have only one true offensive tackle on the bench â unproven sixth-round rookie Chase Lundt.”
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