The Buffalo Bills have been remarkably stable along the offensive line over the last few seasons. Between right guard O’Cyrus Torrence, who has taken nearly every snap on offense throughout his career, center Connor McGovern, who has played through myriad injuries and still been remarkably effective, and right tackle Spencer Brown, who overcame an early-career bout with the injury bug to settle in as an elite protector, the Bills have multiple incredible linemen up front.
That’s obviously missing
one very important, very consistent, and very good player. The left tackle is not only the most tenured player on Buffalo’s offense, but he trails only Reid Ferguson as the player who has been on the team for the longest amount of time. Now entering his tenth season, the man tasked with protecting quarterback Josh Allen’s blind side is playing at a lower weight, something he hopes will maximize his enormous talent.
You already Schnow who the subject of today’s edition of “91 players in 91 days” is.
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Name: Dion Dawkins
Number: 73
Position: T
Height/Weight: 6’5” 320 lbs.
Age: 32 (33 on 4/26/2027)
Experience/Draft: 10; selected by Buffalo in the second round (No. 63 overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft
College: Temple
Acquired: Second-round draft choice
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Dawkins enters the second year of a three-year, $60.06 million extension that he signed in March of 2024. For the 2026 season, his cap hit is $24,837,833. That cap number trails only Josh Allen on Buffalo’s roster. If the Bills were to release Dawkins, they would carry a dead cap hit of $22,446,833 this year.
2025 Recap: Dawkins once again entered the year as Buffalo’s starting left tackle, and he made his fifth straight Pro Bowl after another strong season. Dawkins suffered a concussion during Buffalo’s 23-19 loss at the Houston Texans, and while he was cleared to return to the game, he dealt with symptoms the following day. Those symptoms caused him to miss Buffalo’s game at the Pittsburgh Steelers the following week. Dawkins was cleared to return the week after against the Cleveland Browns, though, and he only sat out one more game: Buffalo’s regular-season finale where they rested multiple starters. Continuing a troubling trend, Dawkins was flagged for double-digit penalties for the second straight season. False starts have been an issue, as he’s been called for 16 of them over the last two years alone. For context, he had been called for 14 false starts in his first seven seasons combined. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the No. 26 tackle overall out of 89 qualifiers, grading him at a 74.1 for the season. He was ranked much higher in pass blocking (81.8; No. 7 overall) than he did run blocking (66; No. 44 overall).
Positional outlook: Dawkins is one of five players listed at tackle. Spencer Brown and Chase Lundt are listed exclusively at tackle, like Dawkins is, while Jude Bowry and Tylan Grable are listed at tackle/guard.
2026 Offseason: Dawkins is healthy and he has participated in training camp practices. He said he is down around 45 pounds from last season, and while his listed weight was 320 lbs. as it’s always been, I don’t think he currently weighs 275 lbs. That tells me that he was playing above his listed weight last season, and frankly, that tracks given how he looked physically last season.
2026 Season outlook: Entering his tenth season, it’s a positive sign that Dawkins has taken steps to improve his overall health, quickness, and agility this offseason. Training camp is loaded with players who say they are in the best shape of their lives, but Dawkins does look better than he did last year. He said that he wanted to be lighter and more agile than he was last year, and that commitment to his pjhysical conditioning should go a long way towards helping him be the best version of himself this year.
Dawkins is a vital part of what the Bills do. He’s a vocal leader on and off the field, and he’s one of their most consistent players on Sundays. He is going to start every game when he’s healthy, and he has done a good job remaining available throughout his career. The 2026 season holds very few questions as to Dawkins’ role.
However, given his age and the realities of the business of football, it’s fair to wonder whether the 2026 season will be his last in Buffalo. The Bills could choose to hand the left tackle spot to someone like Bowry, who has impressed in camp, and save nearly $12 million on the salary cap by moving on from Dawkins next season. Now, if Dion is still playing at a high level, this isn’t something I think I would do. His importance to the team reaches far beyond the playing field. However, Buffalo is going to be tight to the cap again next year, and they have committed big resources to three younger offensive linemen in Spencer Brown, O’Cyrus Torrence, and Connor McGovern.
The Bills could have redone Dawkins’ contract this offseason, but rather than lower his 2026 cap hit and kick salary down the road, they chose to keep his number high this year. That could indicate that they don’t know what they want to do with Dawkins moving forward. This whole line of thinking could also be much ado about nothing.
Whatever the future holds, the present iteration of the Buffalo Bills needs No. 73 to be the best version of himself. Dawkins seems to be up to the challenge.
