While he may be listed as a tackle, Anderson serves the Ryan Bates role as a versatile reserve
The Buffalo Bills value versatility in their reserve offensive linemen. If you can play multiple spots up front, then it makes you eminently more valuable to the Bills. Especially considering that carrying fewer offensive linemen on the 53-man roster opens things up elsewhere, this makes sense.
The Bills cross-train multiple players throughout the course of their offseason work. Sometimes, these experiments go well and the players find that they can handle multiple positions. Sometimes, the experiment doesn’t go well and the Bills find that they need to look elsewhere. Of course, there are also times where a player is so good at one position that it becomes silly to think about moving him. That’s a less common problem to have, although when it is an issue, it’s never a bad thing.
In today’s installment of our “91 players in 91 days” series, we profile a young, versatile offensive lineman who can fill in at all five spots up front if necessary.
Alec Anderson
- Number: 70
- Position: T
- Height/Weight: 6’5”, 305 pounds
- Age: 24 (25 on 10/3/2024)
- Experience/Draft: 2; signed with Buffalo following the 2022 NFL Draft
- College: UCLA
- Acquired: UDFA signing
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Anderson enters the final year of his two-year contract, which is worth $1,673,500 overall. He signed that at the end of the 2022-2023 season, and while it was originally a reserve/futures contract, it becomes his actual deal once he made the roster last season. For the 2024 season, Anderson carries a cap hit of $919,250 if he makes the roster. Buffalo will carry a dead-cap charge of $4,250 if he’s released, which is the second half of his $8,500 signing bonus.
2023 Recap: Anderson made the roster last year as the Jack-of-all-Trades offensive line reserve, a necessary designation after the former person to hold that title, Ryan Bates, was elevated to starting left guard. Anderson didn’t appear in any games, serving as a game day inactive each week.
Positional outlook: Anderson is one of a host of offensive linemen trying to make the final roster. He can play all spots, so he’s really competing with everyone for space. Including Anderson, Buffalo has 17 offensive linemen in camp currently. Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, Will Clapp, Kevin Jarvis, Richard Gouraige, Mike Edwards, Spencer Brown, Dion Dawkins, La’el Collins, Connor McGovern, O’Cyrus Torrence, Ryan Van Demark, Tylan Grable, Travis Clayton, Keaton Bills, David Edwards, and Gunner Britton are the others.
2024 Offseason: Anderson is healthy and participated in all offseason work. He’s ready for training camp.
2024 Season outlook: Barring injury, Anderson will likely make the roster again as the super-sub up front. While he’ll likely be inactive on game days again, he earned solid reviews from his teammates about his performance last season in camp and in practice.
At such a low contract number, too, Anderson’s versatility is extremely valuable. Given that he’ll be an exclusive-rights free agent at season’s end, he can be retained at a low price, too. I assume he’ll be the last lineman on the roster come September.