Buffalo Bills: LeSean McCoy release opens path for Devin Singletary
With LeSean McCoy gone, Buffalo Bills running back Devin Singletary has a chance to make a major impact as a rookie.
On Saturday, the Buffalo Bills released veteran running back LeSean McCoy. While McCoy is getting up there in age and is not as explosive as he once was, this had less to do with him and more to do with rookie running back Devin Singletary.
The Bills drafted Singletary in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft. He has been impressive this offseason and the Bills want to use this season to see what they have in the young back. Can he be the franchise running back of the future for the Buffalo Bills? Having McCoy around only prevented them from finding out.
“This allows Devin more opportunities to show what he can do for the team,” general manager Brandon Beane said, via the team’s website. “We believe in LeSean and still believe he can play, but you can’t look at every decision in a vacuum.”
“After the draft, Devin was a guy we were excited about, but some guys transition faster and some guys transition slower. That’s one of the decisions,” Beane continued. “Who is ready in that running back group to contribute right away? And we just felt right now that Devin would be able to help us along with the other guys that we’re keeping.”
This obviously opens up a major role for Singletary right out of the gate. He will get an opportunity to prove whether he can handle a full load of carries in an NFL backfield or not.
Singletary was an extremely productive back in college, but he lacked the ideal athleticism and explosion to become a top-tier running back prospect. However, Singletary has great vision and patience that allows him to consistently finds creases, he is relatively quick in short spaces and finishes strong with power. He also has arguably the best contact balance in the 2019 NFL draft class.
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Simply put, the FAU product is a solid and dependable runner who should always be able to find positive yardage. He is unlikely to ever become a superstar, but Singletary has the skill-set to be a successful NFL running back for a long time. I am extremely interested to see what the Buffalo Bills rookie can do with this opportunity.