The Bills are replacing one starter along the offensive line this offseason, and the competition is officially over.
Alec Anderson will open the season as Buffalo's starting left guard, taking over for David Edwards after Edwards signed a four-year, $61 million deal with the New Orleans Saints in free agency.
Anderson beat out Austin Corbett, a nine-year veteran with 78 career starts, for the job. The two had been competing through the first two weeks of the preseason, and neither gave up a sack or a pressure.
"Going all the way from practice squad to active, inactive, to the jumbo stuff," Anderson said, "now getting to step into this role as being the starting left guard, it's really changed my perspective of how I hold myself accountable and
hold myself to a standard that these guys hold themselves to."
Anderson has been with the organization since 2022, working his way from a cut rookie to the practice squad to a backup role. The climb is a reminder of why young linemen are usually worth the wait.
The only detail he has not locked down yet is his pregame routine.
"I guess the only thing that changes is my pregame routine," the Bills left guard added. "I guess I got to find a pregame routine in the NFL that's for a starter, so that's my next goal."
He has plenty of veterans to lean on for advice while he sorts that out. And if the adjustment takes longer than expected, the Bills still have Corbett as an insurance policy on the depth chart.
Anderson's rise from the practice squad to a starting job is one of the better stories on the roster. Now he has a short window to nail down how he wants to prepare before the real games start.
His head coach saw what he needed to give him the starting role.
“I don’t take what I do lightly and the work that these guys do for me,” Brady said this past week. “This is these guys' lives".
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Bills' Alec Anderson on winning starting left guard job
