{"id":331029,"date":"2025-08-31T12:45:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T12:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/331029\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T12:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T12:45:15","slug":"30-most-important-buffalo-bills-players-of-2025-no-2-dion-dawkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/331029\/","title":{"rendered":"30 most important Buffalo Bills players of 2025: No. 2 Dion Dawkins"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Buffalo Bills<\/a> prepare for the 2025 NFL season, we’ll take a look at the most important contributors on their roster. They have a ton of cornerstone players who will be returning for another shot at bringing a Lombardi Trophy to Buffalo, and they’ll have help from some new additions as well.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the season, we will be counting down the top 30 most important players on the roster. We’ll recap their 2024 season, look ahead to what they’ll offer in 2025, and tackle the most pressing questions surrounding them this coming year.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Next up on the countdown is Dion Dawkins.<\/p>\n

Background\"Democrat<\/p>\n

Democrat and Chronicle<\/p>\n

Position: Offensive tackle<\/p>\n

Age at start of season: 31<\/p>\n

Experience: Ninth year<\/p>\n

2025 cap hit: $19,979,833<\/p>\n

2024 recap\"Democrat<\/p>\n

Democrat and Chronicle<\/p>\n

Dion Dawkins started 16 games in his age-30 season in 2024. It was his seventh consecutive year protecting quarterback Josh Allen’s blindside. Dawkins and the entire starting offensive line had a major impact in Allen receiving his first-career MVP trophy last year. Allen was sacked an NFL-low 14 times in 2024, as Dawkins was graded by PFF<\/a> as the 16th-best pass blocker among tackles (81.2). He was named to his fourth-straight Pro Bowl.<\/p>\n

2025 outlook\"USAT\"<\/p>\n

USAT<\/p>\n

Dawkins has recorded at least 900 snaps for the last seven years and that will continue in 2025. He is still the leader of an impressive unit who has steadily improved under the coaching of Aaron Kromer. Dawkins was recently voted number 42 on the NFL’s Top 100 list because of the physicality he brings on the edge. Whether he’s chopping edge rushers to the ground or run-blocking out in space, he’s a consistent tone-setter for the offense.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Biggest question: Who will win NFL Protector of the Year in 2025?\"David<\/p>\n

David Eulitt<\/p>\n

This offseason Dawkins was front and center in a movement to add an award for offensive linemen. After a few years of spreading awareness about the importance of his position, the NFL listened, and introduced the Protector of the Year award, which will be given to the league’s best offensive lineman. This offseason, Dawkins said<\/a>, “I’m honored that no matter what, [the Protector of the Year award] is a part of my legacy.” In recent odds via FanDuel<\/a>, Dawkins is tied for the sixth-best odds in the NFL to take home the award (+2000). Whether he is able to win the award in his career or not, the award will have a positive impact on the game forever. It will be fun to see who wins it for the first time ever.<\/p>\n

30 Most Important Bills<\/a> of 2025<\/p>\n

Check back as we continue to countdown on our list of the 30 most important Bills ahead of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

No. 30 DT T.J. Sanders<\/a>, No. 29 LB Dorian Williams<\/a>, No. 28 DT Larry Ogunjobi<\/a>, No. 27 Alec Anderson<\/a>, No. 26 DE A.J. Epenesa<\/a>, No. 25 DT DaQuan Jones<\/a>, No. 24 TE Dawson Knox<\/a>, No. 23 WR Elijah Moore<\/a>, No. 22 WR Joshua Palmer<\/a>, No. 21 S Cole Bishop<\/a>, No. 20 K Tyler Bass<\/a>, No. 19 WR Keon Coleman<\/a>, No. 18 G David Edwards<\/a>, No. 17 DE Joey Bosa<\/a>, No. 16 G O’Cyrus Torrence<\/a>, No. 15 CB Max Hairston<\/a>, No. 14 TE Dalton Kincaid<\/a>, No. 13 LB Matt Milano<\/a>, No. 12 DT Ed Oliver<\/a>, No. 11 S Taylor Tapp<\/a>, No. 10 RB James Cook<\/a>, No. 9 C Connor McGovern<\/a>, No. 8 WR Khalil Shakir<\/a>, No. 7 DE Greg Rousseau<\/a>, No. 6 CB Taron Johnson<\/a>, No. 5 LB Terrel Bernard<\/a>, No. 4 OT Spencer Brown, No. 3 CB Christian Benford.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: 30 most important Buffalo Bills players of 2025: No. 2 Dion Dawkins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Buffalo Bills prepare for the 2025 NFL season, we’ll take a look at the most important…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[10902,18988,215,214,53,2086,9227,1737,1522,1714,10176,28380,3029,13664,18950,12776,6084,7,13685,3027,5736,872,599,8100,7468,8662,12187,6,20572,1727,9229,15482],"class_list":{"0":"post-331029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-a-j-epenesa","9":"tag-alec-anderson","10":"tag-bills","11":"tag-buffalo","12":"tag-buffalo-bills","13":"tag-buffalobills","14":"tag-christian-benford","15":"tag-cole-bishop","16":"tag-connor-mcgovern","17":"tag-dalton-kincaid","18":"tag-daquan-jones","19":"tag-david-edwards","20":"tag-dawson-knox","21":"tag-dion-dawkins","22":"tag-dorian-williams","23":"tag-ed-oliver","24":"tag-elijah-moore","25":"tag-football","26":"tag-greg-rousseau","27":"tag-james-cook","28":"tag-joey-bosa","29":"tag-josh-allen","30":"tag-joshua-palmer","31":"tag-keon-coleman","32":"tag-khalil-shakir","33":"tag-larry-ogunjobi","34":"tag-matt-milano","35":"tag-nfl","36":"tag-spencer-brown","37":"tag-taron-johnson","38":"tag-terrel-bernard","39":"tag-tyler-bass"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}