sharper802 Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 Brad Butler was playing well and always has played well. The knock on him is that he has gotten hurt quite often. If the new strength and conditioning coaches can keep him healthy, the right side will be fine. New strength coach isn't going to prevent an ACL tear when the player is submarined from behind. He was playing well before the injury and it happened early enough into the season where he should be full strength by training camp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virgil Posted February 14, 2010 Author Share Posted February 14, 2010 You don't even have Levitre starting? Wow. That would be a shock to me. Personally, I would like to see Levitre get a shot at LT in the mini-camp and Wood a shot at Center. If it doesn't work, then fine, but I remember both of them being rumored for those positions when they were brought in. Overall, if it could work, I would like to see: LT - Levitre LG - Hangartner C - Wood RG - Incognito RT - Draft/Butler/Meredith If that ended up working out, we'd have a solid, YOUNG line for years to come, and solid depth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharper802 Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 If Levitre is moved to LT and Incognito resigned, it could look like this: Levitre-Wood-Hangartner-Incognito-Butler If Levitre is the starting LT we are screwed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharper802 Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 Let's get this straight right now. We have to come to the realization that Wood's career may be over and if he returns he may be a shell of the player he had the potential to become. If he plays at all next year it will be after coming off the PUP list in Oct-Nov like Hardy did. It is conceivable with the severity of the injury and the time which it occurred that he is just on the IR list for 2010. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billsfan89 Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 Butler is likely going to be the RT. And honestly I feel like its not the worst thing in the world to have Butler be the starting RT he played solid in the 2 games before the injury. I feel like there is this rep about Butler that he is injury prone but if you look he only missed a few games in his first three seasons. So he only has had one major injury in his career. I feel like I would be OK with Butler starting at RT and have Meridith be the backup/compete for the spot in camp. So the line in my opinion should be LT- Buluga (Or another pick at the 9 slot) LG- Levitre C- Hangartner RG- Wood RT- Butler The backups should be InCognito and Simmons at the guards and Bell and Meridith at the tackles and get a free agent to be the backup center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamOnDan Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 I think everyone is forgetting how well Bell was progressing. He is going to be our starting left tackle in my opinion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 Let's get this straight right now. We have to come to the realization that Wood's career may be over and if he returns he may be a shell of the player he had the potential to become. If he plays at all next year it will be after coming off the PUP list in Oct-Nov like Hardy did. It is conceivable with the severity of the injury and the time which it occurred that he is just on the IR list for 2010. And this is based on...what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billsfaningeneseo Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 So the line in my opinion should be LT- Buluga (Or another pick at the 9 slot) LG- Levitre C- Hangartner RG- Wood RT- Butler The backups should be InCognito and Simmons at the guards and Bell and Meridith at the tackles and get a free agent to be the backup center. This. Incognito at RG if wood is not back. Depending on Incognito's play, we could also look at leaving him there and transition Wood to center (again depending on his health). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharper802 Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 And this is based on...what? Find another player who came back from a Tib-Fib fracture.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFLstyle Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 I thought Butler was our best lineman until he got hurt. Still, I wish we had enough depth at tackle to put Wood at centre and move Butler back to guard so we'd have Levitre, Wood, and Butler in the middle, with Hangartner in the middle and Incognito as depth at guard. This would be ideal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 Find another player who came back from a Tib-Fib fracture.... How many players have had tib-fib fractures? The only other player I can recall is Theismann. That was 25 years ago and he was 36 years old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billnutinphoenix Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 Our #1 need is more like a 1a. LT, 1b. QB, and a 1c. NT in this offseason...we need all 3 positions so desperately but we'll be lucky if we get 2 of these positions filled....Linebackers usually can be had in rounds 3 -5... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartacus Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 I think everyone is forgetting how well Bell was progressing. He is going to be our starting left tackle in my opinion you are correct Bell was amazing how he was able to get his penalties under 5 per game before they terminated his embarassment at LT can't wait for his encore performance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thoner7 Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 It seems that most people have agreed that OT is a major focus with either of our top 2 picks and I agree. However, as I think about it, even if we get the best OT in the draft, who is our other OT? Who really solidified that position last year. I have Levitre, Wood, and Hangartner as the inside 3, but then who? Is it Butler or Meredith? I didn't think any of them won that job. Am I just forgetting something here? If not, unless there is a free agent out there, I don't know why we wouldn't go OT with our first two picks. Especially if we can get that NT Hampton from Pitt in FA, maybe sign Pierce from the Giants. That would address our other 2 big position needs, and then use the last 5 picks to find our QB and get some depth, possibly a SS. Dont count on Hangartner. He is not starting caliber. I will count on him for one more year - till Wood is back - but that is worst case scenario. Butler was ok but only there for a few games, and we know how he can play at G. Even still dont expect much this season having just torn his ACL. Thats a 2 year process to get back to where he was previous. I agree with you though, this team needs 2 OL, not one. Thats why if the Bills somehow used their top 3 picks to land Bulaga and Iupati I would be on cloud 9. Pouncy if Iupati is gone would be good too. We need OL more than anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JStranger76 Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 Sooo tough to solve everything in one offseason therefore I'd be fine if the main focus was to build the O-line into a dominating unit. I mean come on, wouldn't that suck for a change!!!! sarcasm button, where are you...? Bulaga and then someone like Iupati (only if he can play RT, I'm not sold at all) or Pouncy would be options........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob in STL Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 I think everyone is forgetting how well Bell was progressing. He is going to be our starting left tackle in my opinion I sure missed it? He looked completely unprepared to play LT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ 'Em Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 Sooo tough to solve everything in one offseason therefore I'd be fine if the main focus was to build the O-line into a dominating unit. I mean come on, wouldn't that suck for a change!!!! sarcasm button, where are you...? Bulaga and then someone like Iupati (only if he can play RT, I'm not sold at all) or Pouncy would be options........ Didn't we just draft 2 starting o lineman early in last years draft? What are we going to do use our top 2 picks every year on the O-line. Maybe we keep the rookies for a year and start over? Eric Wood will be back this year. Andy Levitre is a good young INTERIOR lineman. Brad Butler was our best lineman before he got hurt. Richie Incognito was a blue chipper with a chip on his shoulder. Yes we need a starting caliber LT to lock down that side for years to come. We will draft 1. Not 2 or 3. What people seem to forgot is that we need a whole shitload of other positions filled. We can't afford to take 2 LTs, pay them a bunch of money, so 1 can sit on the bench. We will be moving to a 3-4 Defense. Yes thats right there are 2 sides to the game. We don't have anything that resembles a NT or starting LBs in that scheme. The thought is that we are going to take our starting DTs and move them to DEs. Sounds good in theory, but we will probably need another DE. There is no way we will spend more then 1 of our top 3 picks on a LT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanInSouthBuffalo Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 Levitre is a starter at G period. I believe he made the NFL All-Rookie team as well. His arms are ideally not long enough to be a LT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanInSouthBuffalo Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 Dont count on Hangartner. He is not starting caliber. I will count on him for one more year - till Wood is back - but that is worst case scenario. Hmmm. He may not be a future Hall-of-famer but I believe he's the best center we've had since Kent Hull. And unless this regime thinks differently, Wood was drafted to be a guard, not a future center. Wood's road back might be a long one. The other reason an OL has to be a top pick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 Hmmm. He may not be a future Hall-of-famer but I believe he's the best center we've had since Kent Hull. And unless this regime thinks differently, Wood was drafted to be a guard, not a future center. Wood's road back might be a long one. The other reason an OL has to be a top pick. You'd have to give Hangman the BOTD for any spotty play this past season, considering he was playing between 2 rookies. Hopefully not having rookies around him and a real OC will help him, as well as the rest of the O-line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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