LeSean McCoy is begging Richie Incognito the change his mind about retirement, and who can blame him? Buffalo’s once-formidable offensive line is really falling apart.
Disgraced in the bullying scandal in Miami, Incognito resurfaced in Buffalo to become one of the league’s best guards. But Incognito says he’s retiring. This might be just a power play to squeeze the Bills to re-work his contract (Incognito is 34, so he should have another few seasons left), but at least for now, it looks like he’s probably done playing.
Previously in this offseason, center Eric Wood retired because of a neck injury. If you were ranking the league’s centers 1 thru 32, he would probably show up somewhere between 10th and 15th – a former first-round pick with one Pro Bowl on his resume (in 2015). The Bills signed him to a two-year extension worth $16 million prior to last season.
Buffalo also traded left tackle Cordy Glenn. Two years ago they liked Glenn enough to sign him to a contract extension worth $65 million for five years. He became expendable when second-rounder Dion Dawkins played well in that spot filling in last year. That’s a logical move. Dawkins might be as good or better, and with what they were paying Glenn, it made sense to free up some cap space. But if Dawkins gets hurt or regresses, they might end up wishing they had kept Glenn around.
The Bills are interested in drafting a quarterback. As the offensive line continues to lose starters, it has to make you nervous about how that rookie might perform early in his career. They’ve also got AJ McCarron, and he’ll probably be out there to absorb some of those sacks this year.
You also have to be wonder if we've seen the last really good production out of LeSean McCoy. He’s been a very good back in recent years, and part of that success can be attributed to the nice blocking he was getting up front.
McCoy took to Instatgram a few hours back, trying to convince Incognito to play another season. “Listen 1500 yards I’ll give you 300k CASH,” McCoy wrote. “My favorite WHITE BOY EVER CAN’T retire.”
In part because of the blocking they got from Incognito, Wood and Glenn, the Bills have ranked 1st, 1st and 6th in rushing the last three years, averaging 147 rushing yards per game. With lesser blocker (and probably a less mobile quarterback) they’ll more likely be a bottom-10 rushing team this year.
| RUSHING YARDS PER GAME (2015-17) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | '15 | '16 | '17 | Avg |
| Buffalo | 1 | 1 | 6 | 147 |
| Dallas | 9 | 2 | 2 | 135 |
| Carolina | 2 | 10 | 4 | 129 |
| Kansas City | 6 | 15 | 9 | 119 |
| Philadelphia | 14 | 11 | 3 | 118 |
| Tennessee | 25 | 3 | 15 | 115 |
| Seattle | 3 | 25 | 23 | 114 |
| Houston | 15 | 8 | 14 | 113 |
| Atlanta | 19 | 5 | 13 | 112 |
| Chicago | 11 | 17 | 16 | 112 |
| Minnesota | 4 | 32 | 7 | 112 |
| NY Jets | 10 | 12 | 19 | 112 |
| Jacksonville | 27 | 22 | 1 | 112 |
| New Orleans | 24 | 16 | 5 | 110 |
| Green Bay | 12 | 20 | 17 | 110 |
| Tampa Bay | 5 | 24 | 27 | 109 |
| San Francisco | 21 | 4 | 21 | 109 |
| New England | 30 | 7 | 10 | 108 |
| LA Rams | 7 | 31 | 8 | 108 |
| Pittsburgh | 16 | 14 | 20 | 107 |
| Denver | 17 | 27 | 12 | 105 |
| Arizona | 8 | 18 | 30 | 105 |
| Cleveland | 22 | 19 | 18 | 103 |
| Cincinnati | 13 | 13 | 31 | 103 |
| Oakland | 28 | 6 | 25 | 103 |
| Baltimore | 26 | 28 | 11 | 100 |
| Indianapolis | 29 | 23 | 22 | 98 |
| Washington | 20 | 21 | 28 | 98 |
| Miami | 23 | 9 | 29 | 98 |
| NY Giants | 18 | 29 | 26 | 95 |
| LA Chargers | 31 | 26 | 24 | 93 |
| Detroit | 32 | 30 | 32 | 81 |
—Ian Allan