Buffalo Bills are confident as offensive line hobbles into opener vs. New York Jets

[justasportsfan]

“I have a lot of confidence in the line,” said coach Chan Gailey. “Are there going to be some issues here and there that we are going to have to solve problems during the course of a game and the course of a season? Always there are issues, but I have a lot of confidence in the guys that are going to walk on the field.”

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120906/SPORTS03/309060051/Bills-confident-offensive-line-hobbles-into-opener-vs-Jets?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Bills

[GingerP]

Seems like every team in the NFL has OL problems these days. The Cowboys and the Giants both played the other night, and the OL of both teams were less than good.

[OpIv37]

It's more coach speak. Even if he thinks this OL is the worst one in the history of the NFL, he's not going to say that to a reporter.

[justasportsfan]

It's more coach speak. Even if he thinks this OL is the worst one in the history of the NFL, he's not going to say that to a reporter.

obviously

[The last buffalo fan]

obviously

Seriously?

[TigerJ]

"Coach speak" aside, the article is right in that this was not a terrible offensive line last year even with all the substitutions. I don't know for certain, but I would guess that any physical impediments that Pears, Wood, and Urbik are dealing with are fairly minor. I can't imagine that groin issues are tougher for an offensive lineman (Pears) than they are for a WR (Johnson). Since the Bills are in control of the tempo when they are on offense, I think they can deal with any endurance issues Wood might have. I can't say for certain how serious Urbik's back issues might be, but one day off in a week of practice does not seem to indicate it's terribly serious.

I think Buffalo's depth is much more certain than it was a year ago too. We know Hairston can line up at either tackle spot and get through a game OK. With a year under his belt he should be better too. And we know that Rinehart can handle the guard responsibilities with not too much drop off from the starters. I'm least comfortable with the situation at center. I'd rather that the second guy in at center not be a starter at guard (Urbik), but I guess the Bills can live with it. And Colin Brown got enough playing time a year ago that the Bills know what he can do, and he should be better too, for having played some games last season and having an offseason to work on his game.

I think with the game of football no team and no particular unit on a team is going to be exactly where the coach, the media and the fans want them to be. The real challenge is to try and get better from one year to the next and one game to the next. While every team talks about getting better, we know that it's not true that everybody does get better. Some teams and some units on a team will get worse. I think the think I like most about the Nix/Gailey regime is that by and large they seem to be keeping things moving in the right direction. To me, while it's not any kind of a quantum leap, it looks like the offensive line is getting a bit better each year.