O-line report from Sunday

[Jerry Jabber]

http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2010/12/15/1877088/bills-13-browns-6-notes-from-the-o-line-week-14

 

With Eric Wood lined up at Center for the entire day, Andy Levitre had his best stats of the year in run blocking. I'm looking forward to seeing how Wood & Levitre are going to do the rest of the season. Like others have said, if Wood continues to play the way he did on Sunday at Center, he should remain there permanently.

[Virgil]

+1

[VIVA BUFFALO CABRONES!]

Yes. We need a bigger OL.

[PDaDdy]

I was never big on Hangartner but he has proven to be a very serviceable center. That being said Eric Wood was a first round pick center. He should be the center of the future and seemed to handle himself quite well Sunday.

 

Almost as big an interest for me are the RT and LT spots. Before the thumb injury which cost him a lot of time I was hoping that Wang would get plugged in at RT. He was a TE in 2006 in college and stepped up at LT. I can't imagine that he can be any worse than what we have.

 

Bell has become a serviceable LT but I'm still skeptical that he can be REALLY good. He needs to get better at run blocking. I guess you can't always have elite players at every position but I want for better. I know a lot of people aren't in favor of the potential move but I think we need to have a rookie LT come in and REALLY push him for the job if not take it out right. That being said the Bills seem committed to Bell.

 

We may already have enough pieces for the line to continue to get better but something has to be done at the RT spot and Bell needs to continue to improve in particular run blocking as mentioned. This team needs to be more successful at the run game to get over .500 and our OT's are not helping in this respect. It is a small sample size but Wood seemed cable of handling those big super sized NT's we constantly face.

[The Big Cat]

I was never big on Hangartner but he has proven to be a very serviceable center. That being said Eric Wood was a first round pick center. He should be the center of the future and seemed to handle himself quite well Sunday.

 

Almost as big an interest for me are the RT and LT spots. Before the thumb injury which cost him a lot of time I was hoping that Wang would get plugged in at RT. He was a TE in 2006 in college and stepped up at LT. I can't imagine that he can be any worse than what we have.

 

Bell has become a serviceable LT but I'm still skeptical that he can be REALLY good. He needs to get better at run blocking. I guess you can't always have elite players at every position but I want for better. I know a lot of people aren't in favor of the potential move but I think we need to have a rookie LT come in and REALLY push him for the job if not take it out right. That being said the Bills seem committed to Bell.

 

We may already have enough pieces for the line to continue to get better but something has to be done at the RT spot and Bell needs to continue to improve in particular run blocking as mentioned. This team needs to be more successful at the run game to get over .500 and our OT's are not helping in this respect. It is a small sample size but Wood seemed cable of handling those big super sized NT's we constantly face.

 

From the analysis of others (I admit that I myself am incapable of OLine analysis, in large part because I don't have access to recorded Bills games) I gather that Bell has the qualities that make a LT elite, qualities that can't be taught, e.g. balance, agility, and foot speed. But he lacks in strength. Seeing as how he spent last offseason training to rehab, I'm hopeful (and confident, duh) that he'll be able to make up for this before next season by hitting the weights a lot harder and getting his strength to where it needs to be.

[Doc]

Like I said, we can't fully evaluate Bell until next season, when he's (hopefully) had a healthy off-/pre-season to get stronger, healthier, and more familiar with the offense. Ideally they find a combo (it's looking like Bell-Levitre-Wood at LT-LG-C is a lock, with either Hangman or Urbik, maybe Rinehart at RG) and get that unit working together from the first minicamp. Too bad we couldn't see more of Wang (ahem) to determine if he's a prospect at RT. Wrotto doesn't appear to be it.

[Saint Doug]

I was never big on Hangartner but he has proven to be a very serviceable center. That being said Eric Wood was a first round pick center. He should be the center of the future and seemed to handle himself quite well Sunday.

 

Almost as big an interest for me are the RT and LT spots. Before the thumb injury which cost him a lot of time I was hoping that Wang would get plugged in at RT. He was a TE in 2006 in college and stepped up at LT. I can't imagine that he can be any worse than what we have.

 

 

Sorry, I had to.

[TPS]

Like I said, we can't fully evaluate Bell until next season, when he's (hopefully) had a healthy off-/pre-season to get stronger, healthier, and more familiar with the offense. Ideally they find a combo (it's looking like Bell-Levitre-Wood at LT-LG-C is a lock, with either Hangman or Urbik, maybe Rinehart at RG) and get that unit working together from the first minicamp. Too bad we couldn't see more of Wang (ahem) to determine if he's a prospect at RT. Wrotto doesn't appear to be it.

While there are still unanswered questions regarding the O-line, it seems the combination of Fitz at QB and Gailey's schemes have made the Oline less a draft priority than most of us originally thought.

 

The only games where they seemed physically out-matched were the Jets and Vikes, but the latter is somewhat excusable given the injuries. Also, it seems they've performed significantly better since Green got injured/released. And now they've added a couple more monsters for depth.

 

As they've shown, Nix-Gailey are constantly looking for upgrades. The draft/FA should provide a window into their views on the OL and its priority level.

[Gabe Northern]

From the analysis of others (I admit that I myself am incapable of OLine analysis, in large part because I don't have access to recorded Bills games) I gather that Bell has the qualities that make a LT elite, qualities that can't be taught, e.g. balance, agility, and foot speed. But he lacks in strength. Seeing as how he spent last offseason training to rehab, I'm hopeful (and confident, duh) that he'll be able to make up for this before next season by hitting the weights a lot harder and getting his strength to where it needs to be.

 

This is correct.

 

And it's a moot point anyway since the Bills announced via Mark Gaughan article that Bell is coming back as LT next year.

 

This team is going to try to win with Fitzy and Bell at the 2 most critical positions on offense. Not sure I see these guys capable of a Lombardi Trophy, but playoffs a definite possibility with these 2 if holes are filled elsewhere (LB and DE).

[Fan in Chicago]

This is correct.

 

And it's a moot point anyway since the Bills announced via Mark Gaughan article that Bell is coming back as LT next year.

 

Meh, I don't give that announcement (which I missed) much credence. If there is a blue chip LT in the board when we pick, he will be ours and will compete with Bell for the starting spot.