Analysis on Bills new O-line

[Kerr]

Chargers at Bills last weekend in Orchard Park. Monster LB Shawne Merriman was back raising hell for San Diego, the sackingest defense in the league. Buffalo’s line has had protection problems all year, 32 sacks allowed. How would they handle the pressure?

It’s a far cry from the great wall that the Bills used to mount years ago, the early 1990s, back when Jim Kelly was operating the run-and-gun of that spectacular Buffalo offense. Agile but hammering athletes like Will Wolford and Glenn Parker and Jim Ritcher, the great Kent Hull, even big Howard "House" Ballard, who never fully blossomed because of his battle with the scale, were trapping and drive-blocking and pushing the angry, gnashing hordes away from their quarterback. One of the proudest outfits in the league. Injury-proof, too, and it guarded the way to Buffalo’s four straight Super Bowl runs.

Today, it’s a collection of the obscure.

Left tackle — Jason Peters, an undrafted free-agent from Arkansas, now in his third pro season; Left guard — Mike Gandy, a veteran, disappointing cut by the Bears in ’04; Center — Melvin Fowler, the refugee, his third team in five seasons; Right guard — Duke Preston, first-year starter; Right tackle — Terrance Pennington, a seventh-round rookie out of New Mexico.

How would they fare against one of the most athletic defenses in the league? A recipe for disaster, or would they rise up and give their skill people a few chances to win the game. I’m flipping back through my Buf-SD game notes …

http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/Commentary/Columns/2006/danyluk120806.htm

[gr8slayer]

I think our revamped OL is great.

[Billsrock4life]

Pennington and Preston have impressed me.....gandy is ok @ guard but sum 1 better would be nice...fowler is decent and Peters is a beast. He is the only one on the Bills OL that has played consistently good this season

[Mr. Cynical]

I think our revamped OL is great.

Wow. Give me some of that. :smoke:

[OpIv37]

I think we need a bigger guard and/or center to replace Preston or Fowler (or both). Pennington has been decent and will be ok. Gandy has been decent at guard- as long as he doesn't have to play tackle, I'm fine with it

[gr8slayer]

Wow. Give me some of that. :smoke:
Our Offense has been much better since the bye week and Losman actually has time.

[Mr. Cynical]

Our Offense has been much better since the bye week and Losman actually has time.

Agreed but calling our Oline great is a stretch. The first three games after the bye were against the 28th, 26th and 23rd ranked defenses. And the Jets are 30th. However against the good defenses of Jax and SD they did well, I will give them that.

[gr8slayer]

Agreed but calling our Oline great is a stretch. The first three games after the bye were against the 28th, 26th and 23rd ranked defenses. And the Jets are 30th. However against the good defenses of Jax and SD they did well, I will give them that.
Stats and rankings are overrated, all that matters is the W and we have gotten more of them since we shifted our OL around. I LOVE IT>

[Statman]

"What got the Bills into real trouble was their second line of protection, the tight ends and running backs (McGahee, Anthony Thomas) who were called into blocking duty when the Bills went into their three- and four-wide packages. Plenty of whiffs, and the result was three Losman sacks and a good handful of pressures."

How can this be? I thought that McGahee was so much better at picking up a blitz than Henry was and that was the real benefit to having McGahee.

Robert Royal? Weren't we all told what a great blocker he was? He sure got paid well.

[jamze132]

"What got the Bills into real trouble was their second line of protection, the tight ends and running backs (McGahee, Anthony Thomas) who were called into blocking duty when the Bills went into their three- and four-wide packages. Plenty of whiffs, and the result was three Losman sacks and a good handful of pressures."

How can this be? I thought that McGahee was so much better at picking up a blitz than Henry was and that was the real benefit to having McGahee.

Robert Royal? Weren't we all told what a great blocker he was? He sure got paid well.
Yeah, Royal had the honor of giving Dwight Freeney his first sack.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

The difference in the Bills offensive line play since the personnel changes that were made over the bye week has been quite noticeable. Still, it is fair to ask whether those changes have produced/will produce a line that is capable of playing winning football against the elite teams in the NFL or if the personnel needs to be further improved before they can perform effectively on that level.

Because the best offensive lines in the NFL are groups that have continuity in personnel and experience playing together as a unit, it is hard to say just what the potential of this group truly is after they have been together for such a short period of time. The odds are pretty good that, if the Bills do keep this current starting group together, they will continue to get better. But, will that make them good enough to be able to compete against the elite defenses in the league? I'm really not sure.

One part of me would really like to see the Bills keep a group of offensive linemen together for more than one season and start to develop some consistency and continuity as a unit. Another part of me, however, questions whether some of the individuals in the group that they currently have are good enough get the job done against the league's best defenses, even if, as a group, they continue to improve. Unlike earlier in the season, when I was absolutely convinced that they needed to radically upgrade their offensive line personnel, I am now of two minds, unsure whether they need to make immediate major personnel changes or can afford to take a less radical approach to achieve the improvement needed to compete with the best.

As I see it, some of the personnel that they need to put together a winning offensive line is already in place: Jason Peters is still getting used to playing on the left side and is only going to get better. He's already shown that he is a player who has what it takes to improve his game and that makes me feel confident that he will be able to do what is necessary to keep improving as a left tackle. So, I think the Bills are set at that position. I also think that Terrance Pennington has shown enough ability, starting as a rookie, to convince me that he has the ability to become a pretty good right tackle. He's still pretty raw and needs to get better, but, like Peters, he's already come a long way and, in doing so, demonstrated that he has what it takes to keep improving his game. While I'm not as confident in Pennington as I am in Peters, I think he will continue to get better and am willing to see the Bills give him time to show whether he can improve enough to be the player that they need him to be in order to compete with the best defenses in the NFL. With Pennington and Peters manning the OT positions, I don't think that the Bills need to do anything radical to upgrade these positions in the up-coming off-season. However, with Brad Butler possibly moving inside to OG, I think that it would make sense for the Bills to perhaps pick up another true OT late in the draft, if they can get someone like Pennington that they feel they could develop into a good back-up OT.

While I'm not sold on Melvin Fowler's ability to handle the kinds of huge NTs that the Bills will have to go up against when they face some of the NFL's elite teams, apparently the coaching staff loves Fowler's ability to lead the offensive line and make the proper line calls and they are willing to sacrifice size in the middle for his quickness and leadership. While I'm not sure that the Bills can afford to make that sacrifice, for that reason, however, I do not expect that the Bills are going to do anything to replace Fowler at this point in time. Especially since they have Merz, who they apparently like a lot and who played reasonably well in limited action, to back-up Fowler. Merz certainly has size and will compete with Fowler and may ultimately end up supplanting him. Can Fowler or Merz get the job done against the league's elite? I really don't know: I think that, if Fowler remains the Bills' starting center, he needs to be flanked by OGs that can help him handle the big NTs like Wilfork and Jamal Williams featured by some of the league's top defenses.

And, right now I'm really not sure that the Bills have the OGs that they need to have to get the job done. Gandy is a better LG than LT and perhaps the best pass-blocking LG that the Bills have had in years. But, is he really good enough? I am not sure. Even though Duke Preston has been a big improvement over Chris Villarial, I really don't think that he is the answer at RG. While Gandy and Peters have been able to give the Bills some push in the running game on the left side, the Bills aren't getting very much when they run to their right. While some of the responsibility for that falls on Pennington, Pennington has shown potential on the outside--Preston, on the other hand, hasn't shown me that much. Not against the elite defenses. The Bills have made it clear that they are evaluating Preston this season and they have Butler working inside at RG behind him. I know they like Butler and Butler seems more suited to playing on the interior that outside at RT, where his lack of agility is a detriment, but Butler hasn't been able to beat out Preston or press for any playing time yet. If Gandy and Peters work well together the remainder of the season, I can see the Bills re-signing Gandy and keeping him on the left side, but I can also see them looking to make a major upgrade over Preston on the right side this off-season unless either he or Butler takes a big step up in these last few weeks of the season. If they do, I can see the Bills perhaps drafting an interior lineman (or an OT who projects to the inside) at some point in the middle rounds of the draft (Round 4-5) who can be a back-up as a rookie and developed into a starter after a year--which I'm sure would provoke howls of protest from more than a few Bills fans. If they don't, however, I can see the Bills either looking to sign a RG in free agency or drafting an interior lineman who might be capable of stepping into the starting lineup by the middle of his rookie season in Rounds 2-3.

I'm not sure how the Bills' management and coaches see things, but I think that, if they can re-sign Gandy, at most, they may make a move in the off-season to replace Preston and upgrade the RG position. However, I think that there is an equal or perhaps even greater chance that they will not do anything that will have an immediate or radical impact on the offensive line: choosing, instead, to see how Preston and Butler develop and letting them battle it out for the starting RG position and just drafting an interior lineman or OT swingman in the mid-to-later rounds that they feel they can develop either into a starter or into a competent back-up down the road. I think that how the offensive line plays in these last three games will go a long way towards determining what they will choose to do with the offensive line in the off-season. Regardless of what happens, I strongly suspect that we will be seeing a lot of familiar faces manning the positions along the Bills' offensive line next season: Peters, Pennington, Fowler/Merz for sure, probably Gandy and Butler, and maybe even Preston (as a starter or back-up). I know that's not likely to make a lot of Bills fans (myself included) entirely happy, but....

[mysticsoto]

Good analysis LTBF. I agree with alot of what you say. The RG position is probably our weakest. And unfortunately, since Fowler seems to do well with play calling on the line, we'll probably continue to sacrifice size for what he brings to the table.

I am concerned about Butler being able to play OG. He just doesn't seem to have alot of strength which might be something Preston is lacking in also. I have to wonder why Reyes wasn't given a try at RG. He played decent at LG and I would have thought they might atleast give him a chance to compete for RG - unless in training/practice he was just so awful at the position (which I can't imagine) that he wasn't even considered. Ultimately, RG is what needs to be worked on the most. McGahee already runs mostly to the left b'cse of the strength of that side with Peters and Gandy. If we can upgrade the RG position, and Pennington continues to improve as we both seem to hope and expect, next year, the right side might also be available to run, providing defenses with problems on where to cover best.

[PECKERWOOD]

I'm having mixed feelings about our OL right now.. I see alot of hope in Preston and Pennington. What the hell is going on with our team? Our OL was so freaking horrible at the beginning of the year and now they are really coming through for us. I'm not sure what to say or think. Maybe we could draft even more depth incase something goes wrong or somebody gets injured.

[TigerJ]

I agree that Buffalo's pass blocking has been pretty goo. Their run blocking has been up and down. When they face and real good and strong defensive front 7 they struggle, unable to open holes and get push. I don't know that size is always the key. Denver, with its zone blocking scheme has for years gotten solid play from the smallest offensive line in the league.


I agree that Peters is pretty close to a sure thing at LT, and I think Pennington is probably going to be OK at RT. Preston is an interesting case. He still feels like he is a more natural center, his college position. Merz on the other hand was a college guard and he's now backing up Fowler. I'm thinking that if Fowler went down with a long term injury, the Bills might be inclined to shift Preston back to center and play Merz at guard.

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[TigerJ]

I agree that Buffalo's pass blocking has been pretty good. Their run blocking has been up and down. When they face and real good and strong defensive front 7 they struggle, unable to open holes and get push. I don't know that size is always the key. Denver, with its zone blocking scheme has for years gotten solid play from the smallest offensive line in the league.


I agree that Peters is pretty close to a sure thing at LT, and I think Pennington is probably going to be OK at RT. Preston is an interesting case. He still feels like he is a more natural center, his college position. Merz on the other hand was a college guard and he's now backing up Fowler. I'm thinking that if Fowler went down with a long term injury, the Bills might be inclined to shift Preston back to center and play Merz at guard.

I also don't particularly see Butler as an interior lineman. He's pretty tall and thin. I don't know that he can really put on enough muscle and play low enough to battle inside effectively. I think in the end if he can't cut it as a decent backup at tackle he's going to wash out of the league in a couple years.

I think I would rather see if some continuity along the line can help the Bills solve their very obvious run blocking problems versus good teams rather than havingn the merry go round continue.

[alohabillsfan]

Here are what the stats say,

Before the bye week-- avg 3 sacks for an avg of 24.7 YPG
After the bye week avg 2.83 sacks per game an avg of 17 YPG
Last 4 weeks Avg 2 sacks per game an AVG of 9.25 YPG (SD and JAX were 2 teams)

Somebody else do rushing if desired but I see continued improvement!