Buffalo Rumblings
Alec Anderson has signed a one-year contract to return to One Bills Drive
The Buffalo Bills are keeping an offensive weapon in Orchard Park for the 2025 season. On Wednesday morning, they announced that Alec Anderson had signed a one-year contract and would be returning to Buffalo.
Anderson was the Bills 6th offensive lineman, a formation that Buffalo used more than any other team in the NFL during the 2024 season according to NextGen Stats. According to ESPN, the Bills led the NFL in rushes (54), yards per run (5.2), and yards per play (6.8) when they used six offensive linemen. Additionally, quarterback Josh Allen was sacked the least times of any quarterback during the past season, another benefit to having one extra lineman on the field.
Anderson entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2022 and ended up a member of the Bills practice squad. He was first elevated to Buffalo’s active roster in January 2023, but it wasn’t until the 2024 season that Anderson became a regular on the Bills’ game day roster, appearing in all 17 regular season games and all three playoff games. Anderson’s 290 offensive snaps means that, even when taking away the fact that he played every offensive snap in Buffalo’s regular season finale against the New England Patriots – a game in which they sat the majority of their starters, the Bills used six offensive linemen over 25 percent of the time.
“One of the things that they do better than anybody is, Joe Brady, their play-caller, goes with six offensive linemen on the field,” ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky said via SI.com. “Number one, it simplifies defense. They have to put seven bigs on the field. You get one-on-one coverage more often than not on the outside and it does a great job of making sure that Josh’s reads are very clear with good pockets in protection. These are simple reads for a quarterback. Go routes, crossing routes, check down, easy, six offensive linemen on the field.”
Details of Anderson’s contract weren’t available yet, but it’s likely to be for one year at the league minimum as he was an Exclusive Right Free Agent. As an ERFA, if Buffalo offered him a minimum contract, he’d be unable to negotiate with any other team.
In 2023, the then-23-year old signed a two-year deal worth $1,674,500 with just $8500 of that guaranteed.
