If the Bills want to upgrade the guard and, especially, tackle depth on their roster, I have just the blocker for them.
Jamaree Salyer, formerly of Chargers and most recently of the Dolphins.
Right now, the presumed swing tackle on the Bills roster is third-year pro Tylan Grable, who only has 146 regular-season snaps on his professional resume to date, and the overwhelming majority of those reps have come in Week 18 the past two seasons.
He dealt with an injury in camp that forced him to miss the preseason
opener, and while he did get back onto the field a week ago in Cleveland, Grable hardly looked up to the task of successfully blocking Browns outside rushers in the preseason. Swing tackles across the league aren’t starters for a reason, yet the Bills can’t feel incredibly confident in Grable’s ability if he’d be needed to play this season. There’s plenty of uncertainty with the former sixth-round pick at this stage of his development.
Like Grable, Salyer was a sixth-round pick, and a few days into free agency this past March, he signed a one-year deal in Miami but was placed on injured reserve with a knee injury on August 16.
Counting the playoffs, Salyer has 67 games of NFL experience under his belt.
He’s a uniquely built blocker listed at 6’4” and 325 pounds — although he was 6’3” at the 2022 NFL Combine — therefore his frame is more of a prototypical guard than tackle. I vividly remember scouting Salyer ahead of the 2022 NFL Draft, he was a collegiate tackle who everyone — including myself — believed was best-suited at guard at the next level.
However, the Chargers essentially had no choice but to place Salyer at left tackle early in his rookie season after Rashawn Slater was lost for the season in Week 3. And Salyer thrived in his debut NFL campaign at left tackle protecting the blindside of Justin Herbert from Week 4 onward, including Los Angeles’ wild-card game against the Jaguars.
Altogether, Salyer logged 1,029 snaps that rookie season and was a pleasant surprise, particularly in pass protection. While the only game in which he did not allow a pressure was his first, in Week 4, Salyer surrendered more than five pressures in just one contest.
In 2023, Salyer played the entire season in Los Angeles at right guard, which totaled 1,144 snaps but lost his starting status ahead of the 2024 campaign but got on the field at left tackle, right tackle, and right guard.
A season ago, Salyer saw 509 snaps of game action for the Chargers at those three positions and allowed a career-low 22 pressures.
Lastly, there’s familiarity with Salyer from a few current Bills players. He blocked alongside Sedrick Van Pran-Granger and paved lanes for James Cook at Georgia.
We aren’t sure how healthy Salyer is now or when his knee will be back to 100%. But if the Bills are searching for more stable depth at tackle and guard ahead of the beginning of the regular season, Salyer should strongly considered.
