It's the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. fans of your team, and you can even jump into the national chats and talk about whatever's happening across the league. Tap the Everydayer Club link in the show notes to learn more. With Osiris Torrance entering the last year of his rookie contract, should he get an extension now? We're going to discuss that for you right now on Locked on Bills. you are locked on bills your daily buffalo bills podcast part of the locked on podcast network your team every day what's up bills mafia it's joe marino host of lockdown bills that's jerry ostroski 102 game starter for the buffalo bills and we'd like to welcome you in and thank you for tuning in to this episode of Locked On Bills. Locked On Bills is a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. Well, folks, welcome in. We want to talk about Osiris Torrance on this episode of Locked On Bills. And for a number of reasons, first of all, Brandon Bean at the NFL Scouting Combine talked about extending players as a means to create cap space. And that's an opportunity that exists right now with Osiris Torrance. and he has a bit of a history of extending guys after their third seasons. And so I want to discuss with Jerry the merits of extending Osiris Torrance right now, especially as the probable outcome is that the Bills lose at least one of David Edwards and Connor McGovern. Is this kind of your, oh yeah, we lost those players, but at least we have Osiris Torrance, the guy we drafted, right? Edwards and McGovern free agent signings. At least we have him locked up long-term. So, Jerry, that's what we're talking about today. Welcome in. Hey, thanks. I appreciate it, Joe. And I agree with that. When I look at the situation, and one thing about Osiris Torrance is he was drafted by the franchise, but he's also a young player. This is going to be his fourth season in the league. While I'd love to have McGovern back and I'd love to have David Edwards back, they're older players. They're guys that have been in the league, been on a couple other teams before they came to Buffalo, and that doesn't really change wanting them back or not. But if you look at where am I going to economically spend my money, I would go with the guy that we picked and the guy that's younger. And that might be what we're looking at. I mean, maybe this is a situation where they let McGovern and they let Edwards go because we want to make sure we keep Osiris. We want to keep Saibo, as they call him, on the team and on the roster. And I'm all for this. I think that's something that hopefully gets done. And we know that if they get him extended this year, as opposed to waiting, they'll get them probably for less money. That is unless, you know, Osiris decides that he wants to wait and see what he can get in the open market. So it'll be interesting because it's going to be both sides, but I think I agree. If you're going to go ahead and do this, it needs to be done this year, not next year. All right. Well, I think there's a lot of layers to the conversation. I think I'm mostly, I mostly disagree with you, but I'm curious to see where we land after we kind of sort through this. Of course, Osiris Torrance, a 2023 second round pick. He turned 26 in January, so he is young. He's entering the fourth year of his rookie contract. And there's this thing now in the NFL called the proven performance escalator, where for non-first-round picks based on Pro Bowls and percentage of snaps played, you can get a bump in your fourth season, which is exactly the case for Osiris Torrance. He gets a bump, so his cap hit in 2026 is $4.34 million, and that's due in large to him pretty much taking every snap at right guard since the Bills drafted him. Of course, he has not missed any time. This past season, he only had one penalty, which is pretty cool, right? We love that. Guys that don't get penalized, that's usually a good sign that they understand their technique and their assignments and their hands and feet are where they're supposed to be. And so he's been a good starter for the Bills at right guard. And so we've kind of outlined his path to this point. What's your favorite part about Osiris Torrance? And you watch him play. I know you study the tape. What's your favorite part about what Osiris Torrance brings to this football team? Going back to what you said a little bit ago, before I get into that. You were correct. There's a lot of layers to this. There's a lot of layers to this. That's why if this gets done, I need to get it done this year, not next year. And we'll talk about that in a little bit. My favorite part about Osiris Torrance is two things. One is what you've already talked about is availability. The guy is durable. He shows up, he plays. You don't got to worry about missing time. This is a guy that shows up every week. He's on the field. He's out there, you know, making plays. The other thing about Osiris Torrance I really love about him is his power aspect. He is a power player. He's a true power player. Maybe lacks a little bit in some of the fighter movement things, especially one-on-one. I think Osiris Torrance actually is a guy, you know, we talked about David Edwards last time where I felt that buyer beware. I thought that Edwards was really good in this Bill scheme. So he better go to a scheme that's like the Bills. I wonder sometimes if Osiris Torrance would be better in another scheme, not what the Bills do with so much single blocking. I mean, we know Cromer's talked about it. Now we see if Pat Meyer changes it They don force a lot of double teams in Buffalo And I think that Osiris is that power player that would really do well in a true blue downhill duo type of running scheme I think right away about Baltimore, right? Somebody like that. So I wouldn't wonder if he wouldn't play better elsewhere, but I like his durability. I love his power aspect to it. And honestly, I don't know if he can trap or not because we don't ask our guys to pull on the right side, really. So I'm not really sure as far as that goes but those are my two biggest things he's a power player he's physical and then it's availability it creates a lot of displacement in the run game he can move bodies out of the way which is I think the clear strength of his game Aaron Cromer on Eric Woods podcast last week said that this is the strongest player he's ever coached and I think going back to that first year of Cromer the Bills ran that dark play where they pull those tackles you know they pulled Dion, you know, pretty much off tackle from the left side to the right side. And a big part of that working is a right card who can sustain that block and not allow that penetration. Right. And so his, his role there is pretty obvious. And obviously in pass protection, nobody's going through them, right? You maybe get to his edges a little bit, which we'll talk about, but that ability to set the depth of the pocket by making sure you're not getting walked back ever is where I think he really provides a lot to this team, not to mention the youth, not to mention, of course, that this is a player you drafted. And that is meaningful. You want to take care of your own Edwards and McGovern, good players. And I'm sort of hopeful that McGovern at least comes back, but the whole component of a player that you drafted and then re-signed, I think, is a really good story to tell to your locker room as you have, of course, draft classes that would like to fall in line and get those extensions as well. And so I think we've acknowledge the strengths, durability, power, technique is on point. He doesn't commit penalties. He's young. All of that's very, very good. The other side of this are the growth areas. Jerry, when you watch Osiris Torrance, what are some of the areas that you look at and say you'd like to see some improvement? My biggest thing with Osiris Torrance is what I call, and you've heard me say it before, a situational awareness, understanding the play, understanding the defense in front of them, and then making adjustments accordingly. And when I talk about that, a simple aspect would be this. A simple explanation would be, we're going to run outside zone to the left. And I'm an uncovered guard and I have a linebacker directly over top of me at right guard. Well, where am I going to go to? I'm going to go to a point to the left on an angle that intersects where that linebacker is going, not directly at the linebacker. Cause if I go directly at him, he's going to read the play and be a beat me across my face. And I'm not saying that's what automatically happens, but I'm just giving you an example. That's situational awareness. I think he gets beat too often because he doesn't understand maybe sometimes where the soft spot is or where he doesn't have help and those types of things. Now I will say this. He also is our, our linemen are put on islands quite a bit by, they were by Cromer. And that's where some of the other stuff is exposed a little bit, maybe some, some foot speed, maybe a little bit of a foot technique and those types of things. And that kind of ties in with awareness as well. So that's where I think when I made the comment earlier about what Osiris actually do better in another team's offense. Well, if that offense, you know, they, they slide protect a lot. They don't rely on five on five. Do they run a lot of double teams? I believe so. And then that power even comes out more and it's, it's shown even more. So that's what you got to look at with him. the type of power players he is a lot of times his strength maybe wasn't being utilized because we put our offensive lineman on islands quite a bit in buffalo at least we did with aaron cromer yeah that's that's the thing that stands out to me when i watch osiris torrance if there is a repetitive issue it is he's one-on-one in pass pro and he has a three technique aligned on his outside shoulder and they know if i can cross face he doesn't have the foot speed to kind of cut me off if I attack that a gap and you see these very good interior twitchy explosive pass rushers they give them that jab step they get Osiris to open and they cross face and he has a hard time being able to redirect his feet to to be square and not allow that penetration through the a gap and so um maybe that's a little bit of a consequence of the scheme it's also Osiris he's a big physical powerful dude he's you know he's there's a piece of the athleticism is just not there right he's not a super fleet of foot guy and so I think he's a little bit susceptible there but to your point it could be more scheme related and just a deficiency that he he's gonna have well give me example I'll give you an example of scheme I mean we know that Cromer likes to invite the bull rush that's what he likes his offensive lineman to do you watch it and how Dion sets you watch it and how spencer brown sets force the bull to where they have to go through you then it turns into a hand fight right if you watched if you watched the the podcast he was on with with wood with eric wood he even talked about that about hands right how he he was taught early like he changed his mindset on hand fighting and hand usage so if you have a guy like torrance that maybe is a little bit slow afoot and you're teaching him to jump outside to force the double or I mean to force the bull rush, now all of a sudden you've opened the inside, right? So that's where, you know, coaching and maybe teaching, as far as taking the inside halfway, those types of things, change stuff up. And that's where I was talking about situational awareness as well. So, yeah, I think most of his issues, Joe, like you just stated so well, are usually one-on-one type stuff. All right, so we've talked about his path. We've talked about the strengths, the weaknesses. Coming up next, well, what does an extension look like? And does it make sense for the bills? We'll flesh that out here next. Folks, be sure to stick with us. Workplace chaos deadlines stacking up The inbox is overflowing And the one position you have to fill is still sitting open When the pressure on and you need to make the right hire that a job for sponsored jobs Indeed sponsored jobs helps you reach the people who actually fit what you looking for skills experience location, so you're not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across your post. And here's a stat that says it all. 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All right, Joe Marino and Jerry Ostrowski back here to continue this conversation about Osiris Torrance and what a contract extension could look like. And Jerry, the guard market is booming in the NFL. We had some huge deals lately. Tyler Smith with the Cowboys, $24 million a season. Trey Smith with the Chiefs, 23 and a half million a season. You have Robert Hunt, Quentin Nelson, Chris Lindstrom, Landon Dickerson are all over 20 million. And then there was this surge last year in free agency where Aaron Banks, who guess what? Osiris Torrance is a better player than Aaron Banks, got 19 and a quarter million from Green Bay of all places. You saw Will Fries. I'd rather have Osiris Torrance all day long over Will Fries. He got 17 and a half from the Vikings. Jonah Jackson, I'll take Osiris Torrance all day long. He got 17 and a half from the Bears. And so this market is booming. Osiris Torrance is a good young starter. That's durable. All the things we talked about. Oh, by the way, one talking point we didn't really get to is how perfect he is for this full embracing of a Sean Payton offense, right? With Pete Carmichael now in the mix, Joe Brady, self-declared Sean Payton disciple. Their guards are big physical maulers. Ben Grubbs, Carl Nix, Jari Evans, Cesar Ruiz. It's a clear prototype. It's Osiris Torrance. It makes a lot of sense. The money is going to be huge. And so that's the piece of this conversation that makes it complicated. Of course you'd want to continue with Osiris Torrance. But do you think he's a $20 million a year guard? Because I think that's where he's trending. If you want him, he probably is. I mean, like you said, you're looking at $20 to $23.5 million AAV AAV for a top-notch guard in this league. I think he's every bit the player or close to the player that Tyler Smith is. I've watched Tyler Smith in college. They're very similar. They make very similar mistakes. They play very similarly. I mean, these guys can get it done, and they're both very durable players, although I will say this. Osiris Torrance, Saibo is more durable than Tyler Smith is. He's missed quite a bit of time this past season. So I think if you're going to do it, Joe, this is when you have to do it. This is the year. You're not going to get them next year. If you let him get through this offseason, the money's even going to go higher. And I think, like you said, and I said this early in this pod, and I'm glad you brought this up about the whole Sean Payton thing, I feel Osiris would even be better in somebody else's offense, right? I think we're getting ready to see that. There's going to be a little bit of a tweak. There's going to be some different things that are done, especially with Pat Meyer and the like. So does he just excel and blow up even more in a more Osiris Torrance-friendly offense. So I think if you're going to get it done, it's got to be now, and that's what good players get paid. And you've got to look at that Eagles build and what Howie Roseman does as far as paying them now, maybe a little bit more than they deserve, but it's a lot cheaper in the long run. And see if you can make it work. I mentioned earlier in our conversation that this would create some cap space. It would create $2.2 million, And that doesn't really matter what the extension is. It you would reduce it a little and then kick out some money So million would be your 2026 cap benefit to extending Osiris Torrance To me it feels really good if you do this especially if Edwards and McGovern are not going to be back. I think you'd have a hard time paying two of those three. That would be a lot tied up into your offensive line, which then puts the onus back on Brandon Bean to probably invest some draft capital into the position and find some economic answers along the way. And maybe that is what you have Bruin and Cedric Van Praengranger and Alec Anderson. But Osiris Torrance would be a tough loss based on the development and how quickly he became an answer for you. But we can't deny this is a lot of money. This is a lot of money for a guard. And, I mean – Is that your big hesitation? Oh, it's 100%. Like we talked about before this, you know, you had some differing ideas on this. Is your hesitation just the money? Yeah, it is because I feel like the bills, and then this will change, of course, in the next month. The bills have so many needs. It's like, where can I sink my biggest investments? And I have a lot of respect for guards. But is this where you want to dump your resources? like when you have pressing needs elsewhere on this roster. And so that's where I struggle. I don't want Osiris Torrance to get away. Trust me on that. I wish that this was a little bit more of an economical answer. Is he an A-list starting guard? I don't know if that's who he is. I think he's an above-average starter. He's a quality starting guard. Is he a great guard? Is he a completely difference-making guard for this type of money? I don't know that I emphatically say yes, but I also tell you, I don't really want him to go. I don't want to have to find another starter for the offensive line. I love that he's been drafted and developed. You'd hate to do all that for him to go play his best football for someone else. So I think it is a little bit complicated, but I think I mostly am okay with this. And if he's, if he's, I wish that I would have seen at some point over the last three years for him to like really take a step. I think he's, and maybe that's just a product. He came in, he started a million games in college. you know of course he leveled up his last year at Florida and played really well you know he kind of came in did he come in at his ceiling I guess that's what I've been looking for is for a big step and I feel like I'm continuing to get the same player I think you look at this and you gotta and I'm gonna tell you this let me give you fair warning if you neglect this position you'll regret it in the long term I know we have other needs but this group has been really really good and you're going to lose probably you're losing one for sure maybe two just because you can't afford them and then to let the other one walk and now all of a sudden you're sitting there with three guys off of an offensive line that many had rated in the top five of the league that produced a league leading rusher you're sitting there with a a right tackle who's had chronic back issues and a left tackle who is going into what, year 34, 34, 35. Okay. How, you know. Entering age 32. He's not that old. He's not that old. But you know what I'm saying. I mean, it happens real quick in this league. And so that's where I really get nerved up. I mean, it's, I know you got other needs, but you better be able to block somebody and you better be able to control the line of scrimmage on defense. And if you can't do those two things, you're going to have a hard time winning football games in national football league. I think this might be the most compelling point in favor of doing it right now is that it will simply never be less expensive. So if he's your guy, if he's your guy, yes. And you know that, and the bills have benefited from this. Like they identified Spencer Brown as our guy at right tackle. Right. And Spencer Brown might be one of the best value contracts in the entire NFL at $18 million a season. Spencer Brown made a mistake. He should have played out that year and gone into the final year of his contract. And Jerry, he might have got $7-8 million more per season. He's not even a top 20 highest paid tackle in the league in terms of APY. Spencer Brown. It'll come back to him. Oh, it'll come back to him. but I don't think you can look at the maximization of his contract, his second contract, and feel like he did it at $18 million per when you're seeing what – I mean, Titus Howard just got an extension for $21 million a season. I understand. You've got to understand about Spencer Brown and where he's from and what he's about. Sometimes these guys, enough is enough. You don't need to have all of it. And I look at Osiris Torrance, and you're 100% correct is what I said earlier. It's never going to be cheaper than it is right now. And if you let this thing roll, and like I said, I'm telling you, we could see a different philosophy in run blocking and stuff up front that could turn him into something completely even better than we've seen. All right. Brandon Bean's got a lot to sort out. Hopefully he listened to this and he's got great insight now on what he should do with Mr. Osiris Dorrance. Guess what? We're going to do the same conversation tomorrow for you on Dorian Williams. So come on back for that. As always, we kindly ask that you share, subscribe, rate, and review. Have a great rest of your day, and go Bills. Much love, folks. Go Bills. Meet the energy shot that tastes just like birthday cake. Confetti craze, extra strength, five-hour energy, tastes like a rich, buttery, vanilla birthday cake. Frosting and all. Light the candles, make a wish, and get ready to celebrate with every sip. Feel unstoppably energized with as much caffeine as your favorite 12-ounce fancy coffee, but with zero sugar for zero sugar crashes. For more information and to get the party started, visit 5hourenergy.com or visit Amazon today.
