Richie Incognito Signs With Bills

www.cbssports.com

The first big move of the Rex Ryan regime has just taken place. The Buffalo Bills recently signed controversial offensive lineman Richie Incognito. Now, I’m not going to spend too much time talking about the conflict between Incognito and former teammate Jonathan Martin. If you want to know the whole story, you can go look it up. Instead, I’m going to focus on the football aspect. Incognito was drafted by the Rams in 2005. He never got to play that year, after he was placed on the non-football injury list, however his time came in the next year. In 2006, Incognito was part of one of the best offenses in NFL history. He started all 16 games that year and was part of an offensive line that blocked for a 4,000 yard passer, 1,500 yard rusher and two 1,000 yard receivers. In the 2007 season, he started four games at right guard but missed the other 12 with an injury. In his last two seasons with the Rams he started 24 games and played well. However, the problem was, he couldn’t stop getting in trouble. He was fined multiple times, and racked up lots of penalties. He was benched and fined, but he wouldn’t stop losing his composure mid game, causing the Rams to finally let him go. The following season, Incognito was claimed off waivers by the Bills for the final three games of the year.

In 2010, Richie Incognito signed a one year deal with the Miami Dolphins, the team for which he is most famous. In his first year, he went mostly without conflict. He started all 16 games and was ranked within the top 20 in terms of pass blocking efficiency. After signing a three year deal to return to Miami, Incognito started 15 games and allowed just 1.5 sacks that season. The next season, despite having some off the field troubles, Incognito started all 16 games and was voted to his first and only pro bowl. In 2013, he was suspended after the conflict with Jonathan Martin. He sat out all of this season before finally being signed by the Bills.

Rex Ryan is taking a big risk with this signing, considering incognito’s large history of personal issues and injuries. However, Ryan has played against him twice a year for the past three or so seasons, so he surely knows Incognito’s strengths better than most. We will need to wait for the upcoming season to see how well Ryan can keep Richie Incognito in check.