Buffalo Bills right tackle Spencer Brown has come a long way since his rookie season, and now he’s staying in Orchard Park for the long haul. A third-round pick in 2021, Brown signed a four-year extension Friday with the team that drafted him to remain under contract through the 2028 season.
The right tackle initially took over the starting job in Week 4 of his junior year, and when healthy enough to play, he remained the weekly starter for the last three seasons. Brown started 41 games during his career, including all 17 in the regular season and both playoff games in 2023.
Brown, 26, was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in March 2025 without a new contract. Financial terms of the deal have yet to be made available.
Since coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane arrived in 2017, their marquee moniker has been drafting, developing and keeping their own. They’ve done it many times over the years, and Brown will be paired with left tackle Dion Dawkins for the foreseeable future to protect franchise quarterback Josh Allen.
Stay in Buffalo‼️
We signed Spencer Brown to a four-year contract extension until 2028. #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/0Xm6HhrY77
– Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) 6 September 2024
Bills’ patience in Brown is paying off
The 2023 season was the first time in Brown’s NFL career that he entered the year without any offseason operations.
Full health helped him get through a full offseason program, leading to a third-season breakout. His performance near the end of the year and into the playoffs was likely a huge reason for the Bills investing in a new deal with their right tackle.
Over their final six games, playoffs included, Brown allowed just one sack. In the playoffs, he allowed just one pressure on 79 pass-blocking snaps, according to TruMedia. His speed also helped him become a force as a pull blocker on rushing attempts.
But that was only possible because of the Bills showing patience in the athletic 6-foot-8, 311-pound offensive lineman. There were calls from many outside the building during the 2023 offseason for the Bills to draft or sign a replacement.
Brown’s play was the reason for the offseason rhetoric, but the team remained steadfast in its belief in him. When asked about it, the Bills were sometimes defiant in their defense of Brown as the starting right tackle. Part of that may have been fueled by the Bills giving up on an offensive lineman too early in the past when they dealt guard Wyatt Teller to Cleveland in 2019, and it came back to bite them.
Offensive tackle is set until 2025 at least
Brown is the second in-house extension they issued to an offensive tackle, with Dawkins, who the team signed to a deal in March. Dawkins’ extension technically expires in 2027, his age-33 season, but now, with some strong cap hits for Brown on the way, it increases the chances that the tackle pairing might just come together for the next two seasons.
Dawkins has a $31.3 million cap hit in 2025, but more importantly, releasing him would add an extra $11.3 million to his original cap hit. That means Dawkins is very likely not going anywhere next season. The Bills have a natural out in 2026, his age-32 season where they could save $13.6 million to release Dawkins.
It may coincide with a big bump in Brown’s cap hits, with how the Bills have generally structured their past contract extensions. But at least for the next two years, the Bills have their offensive tackle situation addressed before Allen.
Little risk in the re-sign?
The Bills saw everything they wanted to see out of Brown in the 2023 season, although it was a bit of a bumpy road to get to that point. The right tackle struggled as a rookie in 2021 and then needed offseason back surgery, affecting his 2022 season.
In those two years, Brown had a pressure allowed rate of 6.5 percent, according to TruMedia. The only two Bills offensive linemen with a worse rate during those two seasons were Cody Ford and David Quessenberry.
Brown’s rate improved to 4.9 percent in 2023, and his playoff pressure allowed rate was an outstanding 1.3 percent over those two games. With this long-term extension, the Bills are relying on a smaller sample size of big production, which is a slightly risky proposition.
Despite playing every game in 2023, Brown needed offseason shoulder surgery before his fourth year. It remains to be seen if this will affect him in games in 2024.
Required reading
(Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
