The roster battle at offensive guard for the Buffalo Bills is not going as anticipated before the season.
It’s likely nobody has been more surprised than Quinton Spain, who was benched three weeks ago. On Wednesday the Bills released Spain, despite the fact starting left guard Cody Ford went down Monday night with a knee injury.
The release of Spain could be a sign the Bills are hoping to get injured starter Jon Feliciano back in the lineup. Feliciano, who had surgery 12 weeks ago on a torn pectoral muscle, returned to practice last week on a limited basis and participated again in the Bills’ no-pads practice Wednesday.
His return for Sunday’s game against the New York Jets would be welcome, given the fact Ford might be out multiple weeks.
Spain’s release was a surprise, since the Bills re-signed him in March to a three-year, $15 million contract. That contract, $4.5 million of which was guaranteed, was a reward for a good performance in 2019, when Spain started all 17 games for the Bills.
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But Spain was demoted in favor of veteran Brian Winters after the Week 2 win over Miami. Spain had started 64 of his previous 66 NFL games.
“It's hard when you're not a starter, in fairness to him,” Bills general manager Brandon Beane said. “There's no blame to go around. Quinton Spain's a good guy, a good person. He didn't see this. You never know how things are going to work out when you put a roster together. Every team's a new team. Nothing happened. There's no one thing like, this happened and the dam broke and all the water went out. It's just, we decided at the end of the day, being today, that he would be happier having a chance to start. And so we just gave him that freedom and wish him nothing but the best.”
Spain got $4.5 million guaranteed in his contract. He will count $4.4 million against the Bills’ cap this year. He will count $1 million in dead salary cap space in 2021.
“Quinton played that left guard for us all season and did a solid job for us,” Beane said of 2019. “And so he signed back, we extended him, and I think a lot of factors happened. I think Jon Feliciano gets hurt, we move Cody inside, we signed Winters. And no preseason made it really hard for the coaches to evaluate every player. So we tried to evaluate while you're playing regular-season games, which is really hard. We thought, 'You know what? We still have to make it a fair competition.' And so we mixed in Winters, and it just worked out where the coaches felt like it was better to have Q coming off the bench than starting with this year's group.”
Spain is a powerful blocker and a smart, experienced linemen. He worked well with center Mitch Morse and tackle Dion Dawkins last season. Lateral agility is not his strength. When he was benched before the game against the Los Angeles Rams, some wondered if the coaches decided if it was a good week to let Spain avoid Rams super-quick, All-Pro Aaron Donald.
But after watching a couple weeks of play, it’s clear the coaches preferred the experience of Winters, who now has started 83 games in his career.
"They're letting me go," Spain told The News in a message. "Wish them the best and happy to go somewhere else and play."
Spain announced the decision on Twitter, followed by the team's announcement. However, in a cryptic tweet that was later deleted, Spain wrote, "If only they knew the real reason but I'm going to leave it at that."
“He's a competitor and our coaches are trying to put the best, in his instance, the best five in each spot,” Beane said. “And his number wasn't called as a starter, and when you get a new deal and you started all last year, I don't think that set well with him. Those are my words, not his words.”
“We've had conversations since his new role was established,” Beane said. “Those are private conversations. I'll say this, he never came in and demanded a trade or release or anything like that. We had positive communication.”
Beane said the release of Spain was planned regardless of Monday’s injury to Ford.
“I think this was already in the works,” he said. “We've got some roster moves we're working on. So, it was something that he and his representatives and Quinton and myself, we all had some conversations. As I said, this didn't just pop up today out of nowhere.”
If Feliciano can't return to the lineup this week, the next in line to start at guard is Ike Boettger, who played nine snaps vs. the Chiefs.
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The Bills signed defensive tackle Justin Zimmer to the active roster. Zimmer played 32 of 73 defensive snaps and made six tackles against Kansas City. The Bills had already used his two call-ups from the practice squad under this season's revised rules.
Meanwhile, receiver John Brown (knee), tight end Dawson Knox (calf) and linebacker Tyrel Dodson (hamstring) did not practice. Linebacker Matt Milano (pectoral), cornerback Cam Lewis (wrist) and quarterback Jake Fromm (not injury related) were limited.
