Tommy Doyle

Minor NFL Transactions: 8/21/23

Today’s minor transactions:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

  • Signed: LB Marvin Pierre
  • Placed on IR: TE Tyler Davis

Kansas City Chiefs

  • Signed: WR Juwan Green
  • Waived/injured: WR Kekoa Crawford
  • Released from IR: DB Anthony Witherstone

Miami Dolphins

  • Signed: QB James Blackman
  • Waived/injured: CB Tino Ellis

Minnesota Vikings

New Orleans Saints

  • Released from IR: OL Scott Lashley

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

  • Signed: TE Sal Cannella

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Brian Hill comes to San Francisco with 48 career games under his belt. He had a career year for the Falcons back in 2020, compiling 664 yards from scrimmage in 16 games. The RB has bounced around the NFL a bit since, spending time with the Titans, Browns, and 49ers (two stints). Following stints in the CFL and XFL, the 27-year-old will now add some depth to a San Francisco running backs room that already includes Christian McCaffrey, Elijah Mitchell, Jordan Mason, Tyrion Davis-Price, and Jeremy McNichols.

Trevon Coley started 29 games for the Browns through his first two seasons in the NFL, but he’s struggled to stay on the field since. The defensive lineman got into seven games for the Colts in 2019 and (most recently) six games for the Cardinals in 2020. In total, the 29-year-old has 100 career tackles and 3.5 sacks on his resume.

Adrian Colbert won’t play for the Bears in 2023 after being placed on IR, although there’s a chance he’s cut loose and allowed to play for another squad. The veteran safety has played in 41 career games, starting 22. He’s been limited to only 14 games since the 2020 campaign, including a two-game stint with the Bears in 2022.

Bills T Tommy Doyle Out For Season

The young career of Bills offensive tackle Tommy Doyle continues to stagnate as he is set to miss the entire 2023 season, according to the Bills Twitter account. Doyle missed all but one game last year after being put on injured reserve with a torn ACL, and his absence will now extend until the 2024 season, at least. The nature of the injury has not yet been disclosed, but the team’s announcement is enough to confirm the seriousness of the situation.

Doyle was a 2021 fifth-round selection for the Bills out of Miami (OH). Though he earned some sparse playing time on offense and special teams as a rookie, his most memorable NFL moment came when he was on the receiving end of a Josh Allen touchdown pass in the team’s Wild Card victory over the Patriots.

Coming off a season-ending injury from 2022, Doyle wasn’t expected to have a huge impact on the field this season. But after the sudden retirement of newly signed offensive tackle Brandon Shell, the Bills find their depth on the exterior of the offensive line to be suspect. Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown are slotted in as starters for now, and David Quessenberry is penciled in as the team’s primary swing tackle behind them.

Behind those three, the depth quickly dissipates. With Doyle out, the depth behind the top three is comprised of two undrafted free agents from last year (Ryan Van Demark and Alec Anderson) and undrafted rookie Richard Gouraige.

According to Ryan O’Halloran of The Buffalo News, when asked about the lack of depth on the offensive line, head coach Sean McDermott told reporters“We remain confident in the guys we have. That said,” he continued, “there is certainly a numbers issue. We have more practices ahead, and it’s an area we have to continue to look at and analyze.”

The losses of Shell and Doyle so close together and so close to the opening of the regular season put Buffalo in a really tough position. There are certainly some veteran options available on the market. Looking into players like Eric Fisher, Ja’Wuan James, or even Jason Peters may be a necessity soon. Peters, though sitting at the ripe old age of 41 years old, has recently reaffirmed his interest in playing this season.

In the meantime, the Bills will have to rely on some young, green players to take the preseason loads off the backs of Dawkins, Brown, and Quessenberry. Some interior linemen may need to step out and assist, as well. Until help arrives, keeping Dawkins, Brown, and Quessenberry healthy has become a top priority leading up to the 2023 season.

AFC Rumors: Quessenberry, Jones, Meyers, Anudike-Uzomah

The Bills seemingly signed veteran offensive tackle Brandon Shell with the intention that he would plug in as a full-time starter, much like he had done in Miami, Seattle, and New York over his career. Shell’s sudden retirement decision days ago threw a bit of a wrench in those plans.

At left tackle, Dion Dawkins slots in as the obvious left tackle starter, as he has since his rookie year. The starter across from him, for right now, is currently Spencer Brown. Brown has started 24 games over his first two years in the league, but the ability of the former third-round pick to start long term has yet to be proven.

If Brown struggles or if he or Dawkins go down with injury, Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic reports that David Quessenberry is expected to slot into the primary backup, swing tackle role. Buffalo doesn’t have a ton of depth beyond Quessenberry, and this late in the season, that’s not too likely to change.

Tommy Doyle and Ryan Van Demark both sit on the depth chart behind Quessenberry and should make a push for the initial 53-man roster, if not solely due to the lack of depth. But Quessenberry should be the first name off the bench in the case that Brown or Dawkins aren’t there for any reason.

Here are a few other rumors coming out of the AFC, starting with another team in the AFC East:

  • The Patriots have been operating the past two weeks without veteran starting cornerback Jonathan Jones. The long-time staple in New England’s secondary has been absent with an undisclosed injury. Luckily, whatever the ailment is, Karen Guregian of MassLive reports that Jones is expected to be back for the team’s regular season opener. The Patriots are reportedly being careful with him, but the plan is for him to be starting a couple Sundays from now.
  • Last month, the Raiders concluded a deal that would eventually help them bring in veteran cornerback Marcus Peters. According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the team converted $3.92MM of wide receiver Jakobi Meyers‘s base salary for 2023 into a signing bonus and added two voidable years. The move takes his base salary down from $5MM in 2023 to $1.08MM but freed up $3.14MM of cap space, helping Las Vegas to continue building their roster this offseason.
  • Staying in the AFC West, the rich got richer when the Super Bowl Champion Chiefs added Kansas State pass rusher Felix Anudike-Uzomah at the end of the first round this past April. Most of the team’s pass rushing comes from interior lineman Chris Jones, but with Frank Clark gone, a starting role was open across from George Karlaftis III. Kansas City signed Charles Omenihu to potentially fill that role, but he is set to serve a six-game suspension to start the season. Still, according to The Athletic contributor Nate Taylor’s recent update, the plan for Anudike-Uzomah appears to be for him to appear out of a rotation. The team may explore adding an additional veteran pass rusher to help holdover the role in Omenihu’s absence, but in the long run, they don’t want to rush Anudike-Uzomah out on the field until he’s ready.

Bills Sign OL Justin Murray, Place OL Tommy Doyle On IR

One of several Bills to finish Sunday’s game unavailable, Tommy Doyle suffered a season-ending ACL tear. Sean McDermott confirmed the injury, which will remove one of Buffalo’s backup blockers from the equation.

To replace Doyle on the active roster, the Bills signed veteran Justin Murray to a one-year contract. This will be Murray’s seventh team, though the 2016 UDFA has only seen action with the Raiders and Cardinals.

The Cardinals claimed the well-traveled blocker off waivers from the Raiders in 2019 and, after then-right tackle Marcus Gilbert went down, plugged the newcomer into their lineup. Murray, 29, has experience at guard and right tackle. He started 19 games in those roles between the 2019 and ’20 seasons for the Cards, who signed him to a two-year, $5.5MM extension during the latter campaign.

A back injury last season led Murray to IR, and although he returned to practice, the 21-day activation window closed without the Cards moving him to their 53-man roster. That inaction led to Murray’s 2021 season ending after three games. Arizona cut Murray this year. Following a Raiders workout, the former Cincinnati Bearcat will have a chance to be a Bills backup.

Doyle was part of Buffalo’s backup O-line crew, one that became needed extensively in a grueling game in Miami. By game’s end, the Bills had five available offensive linemen. Doyle, whom the Bills drafted in last year’s fifth round, will not have a chance to rejoin his team on the field until next year.

A run of Bills health issues led Doyle to play a career-high 37 offensive snaps in Week 3. Center Mitch Morse was unavailable in Week 3, while right guard Ryan Bates suffered a concussion. Right tackle Spencer Brown left the Miami game due what the team called a heat-related illness, and interior backup Greg Van Roten departed the game as well. The team was already without backup Bobby Hart due to his one-game suspension. It will be interesting to see what the Bills’ O-line looks like against the Ravens, a contest that should involve more comfortable temperatures, in Week 4.

Bills Waive OL Bobby Hart

Bobby Hart‘s stint with the Bills has already come to an end. After joining Buffalo late last month, the team waived the veteran offensive lineman today, per Aaron Wilson (on Twitter).

Hart has managed to stick in the NFL for seven seasons despite being selected in the seventh round of the 2015 draft. The lineman started 21 games for the Giants between 2015 and 2017. He later started 45 games (out of 46 appearances) for the Bengals between 2018 and 2020.

The Bengals dropped Hart in March and he’s been making the rounds ever since, spending time with the practice squads of the Bills and Dolphins. The Titans also picked him up for a bit, using him in three games this year. He joined the Bills when Spencer Brown was placed on reserve/COVID-19 list, and it always sounded like his stint in Buffalo was going to be temporary. Ultimately, Hart’s time with the Bills ended without him appearing in a game.

To fill the open spot on the roster, the Bills activated offensive tackle Tommy Doyle off the reserve/COVID-19 list (via Wilson on Twitter). The rookie fifth-round pick out of Miami (OH) has seen time in six games this season, although he’s only played on 15 offensive snaps.

NFL Draft Pick Signings: 5/13/21

Today’s late round signings:

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

  • DT Alim McNeill (third round; North Carolina State)

Green Bay Packers

Kansas City Chiefs

Los Angeles Chargers

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

San Francisco 49ers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington Football Team