The Bills offensive line goes to school every day. The offensive line meeting room is their classroom and offensive line coach Aaron Kromer is their teacher.
"He's like the Ms. Rachel of the offensive line," center Connor McGovern said of his coach's approach. "He keeps us all in check and keeps us in line. It's kind of like he's running a daycare sometimes."
Ms. Rachel is famous for her childhood development videos. Kromer is famous for his offensive line development.
From the classroom to the football field | How Kromer's background helps him coach
Kromer's players rave about his impeccable teaching skills, and he has almost 25 years in the NFL to speak for it. It all goes back to what path Kromer wanted to take after college.
"I went to school to be a teacher," Kromer explained. "I was going to be a principal, and my master's degree was so I could be a principal."
An opportunity in football at Miami of Ohio, the school he played college football at, changed Kromer's route from teaching to coaching. His players believe his background in teaching is what makes him one of the best coaches they ever played for.
"It does help you in the production of how you're trying to get things across," Kromer said of how he applies his teaching degree to the NFL. "The best way to teach is to break it down as simply as you can."
"One superpower of his is he makes really complex things simple," left guard David Edwards said of his coach.
When players speak of Kromer, they use words like 'superpower' and 'wizard' frequently. They're dumbfounded by his ability to communicate complicated concepts in a manner that just makes sense.
"Every Wednesday, we come in and we have a list of runs and there's all these drawings of all these different plays. And he sits there and he explains them," Edwards said. "At the beginning of the meeting you're like, 'Wow, this is going to be a lot.' And by the end you're like, 'Oh, we got this.'"
"He's a wizard," McGovern exclaimed. "The way he sees the game and how he's able to simplify it down, just make the best game plan for the five guys he has out there is amazing."
Kromer's unique technique | Elevating the play of those around him
Kromer showed year after year he doesn't need five first rounders to create a top-tier unit. None of Buffalo's starting five offensive linemen were drafted on night one. Yet, they're a part of the best rushing offense in the NFL averaging 158 rushing yards per game.
"I don't think you have to have a certain style of play to play for Kromer," right tackle Spencer Brown said. "He accepts anything and he just builds what he knows about the game into your game and it takes off from there."
One thing that makes Kromer unique is his technique. How he teaches things, like hand and feet placement, aren't what most players are accustomed to. Some don't buy in right away but once it works, they're sold.
"It's definitely a struggle at first, and there's always a conversation with a couple guys," Kromer said about those learning his method for the first time. "Until you start using my technique, I will not speak to you. And once you try one thing, I don't care if you win or lose, just try it. But when you try it, I will speak to you again."
"That statement is very true," left tackle Dion Dawkins said with a laugh. "Guys go out to practice, especially early in the season … when they are trying to show who they are. They'll go out there and do a set that they did from college or a previous team, and they'll lose. We'll go into the meetings, and he'll show why you lost.
"And then he'll say, 'Did you do the technique?' And the guy will say, 'No.' Then he will say, 'All right. Next clip.' And you know you better try that sh** tomorrow or it's going to be the same thing."
Dawkins appreciates the way Kromer goes about it because once you try his technique, Kromer shows his players how to morph it into how they already play.
"It's feet and where the defender is," Dawkins said about what Kromer harps on. "If the guy is over here, this is how you get to him … it makes you think he's crazy because you're thinking, 'What does he mean this is how you do it?' Then you try it and you're like, 'Oh this does work.'"
Edwards had the honor of playing for Kromer at multiple stops and knows all about the Kromer approach. The guard was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Edwards wasn't sure he would even get drafted due to a shoulder injury, but Kromer saw through it and was banging the drum for him.
"I had a lot of question marks surrounding me," Edwards said. "I didn't play well in my last year in Wisconsin. He saw my red shirt sophomore year in 2017, and said, 'This guy can play.' Well, he's got a shoulder injury, and Kromer stood up for me."
Once Edwards got to L.A., Kromer moved him from tackle to guard. He believed Edwards was better suited to last in the NFL as such. Within that switch came Edwards diving headfirst into the Kromer way.
"We were playing a jet technique team in my rookie year," Edwards recalled. "And Kromer said we have to use our hands this week, you got to stop them with your hands and then start again. I was like, 'Wow.' Like in college, you just hit everything the same … That was the first time I thought about football on a different level."
Ever since then, Edwards was a believer.
"After that game, me feeling it and seeing me do it on tape, I was like, 'Yeah this is awesome.'"
Once they surrender to the Kromer way, they see their game transform in ways like never before. Just ask offensive linemen Ryan Van Demark and Alec Anderson who had one week of preparation to start against a top five Steelers defensive line led by four-time All-Pro T.J. Watt. Heading into that game, the two combined for just seven starts.
"Coach Kromer does a great job of keeping everything very simple for us," Anderson said of preparing for Watt. "So, if it's the same technique at left guard as it is at right tackle, then I can kind of transform and translate my play into each position like I did on Sunday."
Anderson and Van Demark were fantastic. They didn't allow a sack and helped lead the way for a record-setting 249 rushing yards at Acrisure Stadium.
Buffalo's offensive line also appreciates the way Kromer teaches them in an individual fashion.
"He's been the perfect players coach, somebody that can see the talent his players have, see their weaknesses and learn how to teach them how to work with their talents better and also help them fix their weaknesses," right guard O'Cyrus Torrence said.
"Kromer has made me a better football player by allowing me to fully play free," Dawkins said. "I am such an unorthodox tackle, I play the game so differently."
It starts in the trenches | How Kromer's behind Buffalo's run-game success
Buffalo's play up front elevates the entire offense. The starting five have done a remarkable job of opening rushing lanes so the running backs can cook.
One of the main characters behind this triumphant rushing attack has been Kromer. Players believe another reason he's a wizard is due to his run concepts.
"I don't think he gets enough credit for the run schemes, the formations, the shifts, the motions, the way that maybe last week we ran it in this formation, and it's a completely different scheme," Edwards said of how Kromer dreams it up.
"It's pretty cool to watch him break it down," Brown said. "He speaks so fluently and well about it."
Players look forward to seeing the week's masterful rush plan because it's a collaborative effort.
This joint effort allowed Buffalo to rush for an average of 5.1 yards per carry – the best in the NFL. Running back James Cook is having a career year too. Cook owns the NFL's second-most rushing yards at 1,308.
"He understands what we're trying to do with these plays, and if he understands what we're doing up front, then he can make the adjustments that he needs to make to gain yards," Kromer said of what makes Cook so talented. "And that's what he's done best. He has studied with us. He watches tape with us, and he understands where we're trying to go, so he knows where he should go."
"They do a good job of blocking and being where they're supposed to be," Cook said of his offensive line. "We have that communication and that bond, so that's how we work it."
That clear understanding of how it all unfolds from an offensive line and running back perspective has resulted in Buffalo leading the NFL at under center run rate (83.4 percent), per ESPN. The Bills offensive line sets it up for success and Cook has the elite vision to see the gap before it opens.
A great coach but an even better person | Why Kromer is like a second dad
Kromer's helped take Buffalo's rushing offense to places it hasn't been since the 90s, the last time the Bills had a running back log three straight seasons of at least 1,000 rushing yards. He also turned fifth-round offensive linemen into first-round talents, but what resonates the most is the kind of person Kromer is for his players.
"He wants the best for you and your family," McGovern said. "I just think there's so many admirable things that he does that makes him such a great coach."
"He cares about each guy so intently and deeply," Edwards added. "He's like your dad. I view him as another dad to me."
Kromer took a chance on Edwards as a rookie when many would have passed. And he took another chance on Edwards after a concussion knocked him out for 14 games in 2022.
"He was the only coach that called me and said come to Buffalo," Edwards said of coming off a concussion and being a free agent in 2023. "He didn't promise me anything. He just gave me a chance. So, there's two times in my career that I've had the lowest points of my career as a football player, and he's been the guy to give me an opportunity.
"I don't even know if he knew how much that meant to me, personally, professionally, to my family to do that for me. And it's worked out in a way that I couldn't even dream of."
When Edwards came to Buffalo in 2023, he was mainly used as the Bills' sixth offensive lineman in jumbo packages. That role grew in 2024, becoming a full-time starter at left guard.
Kromer sees potential in players when many don't. It's something he takes pride in.
"We take pride in our unit as a whole of not having first round players and having guys that built their way up into being first round play-talent," Kromer said. "If you look at this group, it's a group of developing players, and they developed themselves into being a good offensive line with hard work, dedication, education, and then working together."
He takes the time to get the best out of every player. It's the teaching nature within him —making sure each student grows enough to graduate to the next grade. Or in the case of an NFL player, making sure each player punches above the round they were drafted.
In being so detailed in his approach, it earns him relationships that players are forever thankful for.
"I owe my career to him," Edwards said. "I owe my success to him, just because of what he's done for me."
