The Status of the Offensive Line!

[Tatonka]

i think some of you guys are being a little overly pessimistic about our oline.. so i wanted to address it..

really guys.. come on.. and you know i am not a "rose colored glasses" guy.. but seriously.. lets take a look at this.

2 BAD oline coaches in 2 years.. neither were ever successful or proven.. that is finally gone now..

we have about as good an Oline coach as we could have possibly gotten.. so we are set there..

LT - nobody can complain about the job that jennings has done... he is probably our best offensive lineman at this point. marcus price is about as good as it gets as far as a back up tackle. he has played great in relief for jennings/williams when needed.

LG - this is the only spot of concern at this point.. but ruben was not a shell of his former self, so we saved the money and decided to go a different direction.. there is still PLENTY of time and a DEEP draft to fill this spot if need be. And i dont know why you guys think that sullivan can not come back and play very well. he was a big part of the line in 2002.. he played well (not perfect, but good) under crap coaching, and then was benched by another crap oline coach for no real reason.. but we did not just resign him to a 3 year deal for nothing (and the fact that we got him for less than 2 million for 3 years is unreal.. did you notice he was signed BEFORE FA started.. there is a reason for this, imho). Sullivan is my odds on favorite to be the starter come opening day UNLESS we sign a guy like jake grove/Stepanovich via the draft.. then i see teague moving over.. or competing at least with sullivan and tucker.

C - Teague is not the best center.. but he has also had to learn a new position in the nfl under two **** box coaches.. he now has a real teacher.. a guy that taught bober how to be a GOOD center after being a RT... it is a very similar situation to what mcnally has dealt with before.. i am confident that either a) teague will play better w/ better coaching and better offensive play calling.. or b) the bills will grab a guy like jake grove or alex stepanovich, meaning that teague will compete for the LG spot, which he could also be very good at.

RG - villarrial... we have a solid 8 year starting vet... in the days of the salary cap, you can not expect to have a probowler at every spot.. but villarrial is good enough to hold his own against anyone and brings in a warrior mentality that the new coaching staff like. no problems at RG now after watching pucillo and tucker struggle for the past 16 games at this spot.. ps.. we got him at a great price.

RT - mike williams is still an unknown resource... look, he hasnt played like a 4th overall pick yet.. but he has not been horrible either.. he has been on a line that has blocked for over 2700 yards for henry in the last 2 seasons.. and ALOT of those runs were behind and around williams.. we obviously know that has the talent to be as good as anyone in the nfl at the position.. new coaching will do nothing but help him live up to his draft position.

see.. imho, if you look at it sensibly, you can see that we are not in bad shape.. and we could potentially be in great shape with just a little bit of coaching help.. do you guys remember how excited we were about our young and improving OL coming into last season.. well guess what.. it is still basically the same right now, except we have replaced an aging and inconsistent ruben brown with villarrial, which is a GOOD thing. less money, same or better talent at this point in both their respective careers.

be patient guys.. teams like the redskins look pretty now.. but lets see if they win this season.. it never happens.. and then lets really see what they do when they have to field a team in a couple years and all those 10 million dollar SB come back to haunt them.

and that is all i have to say about that!





:horse:

[mchurchfie]

Good post T. I agree, my only concern is with Teague being a little too undersized at the Center position.

[Novacane]

I've said it a hundred times. Get a QB behind them that can move a little and also will throw the freaking ball away and they look like a differant line. They are not as bad as people make them out to be. Nowhere near as bad

[BAM]

they seem to do fine for Henry ...

[don137]

I agree. I think running to the right side of the line will be a strong suit of this team... Other than Teague the OL and the backups are fairly young so a quality OL coach can not stressed enough. McNally has made a lot of lemonade with the lemons he has been handed for OL players in the past. I think he will get the most out of tthis unit and I feel this unit underperformed big time the past couple of years...

[Ebenezer]

Originally posted by Fairway To Green
I've said it a hundred times. Get a QB behind them that can move a little and also will throw the freaking ball away and they look like a differant line. They are not as bad as people make them out to be. Nowhere near as bad

I've said it 101 times...you have to protect any QB for at least 4 seconds...Bills QBs have had this problem dating back to the day that Kelly retired. Since 1996 we have had at least 4 OL coaches, 5 QBs and how many lineman...except for Flutie, who was able to move, we have had this problem...it is not just Bledsoe.

Originally posted by BAM
they seem to do fine for Henry ...

Run blocking and pass blocking are two completely different beasts.

[helmetguy]

Well said, Tonk. My main ***** about this team for the past three years has been with the coaching. Just ask Mikey, Billsology and Philster about that. Several teams did a whole lot better than we did last year with a whole lot less. Pittsburgh's line play wasn't all that great in Tommy Maddox' first season, but Mularkey got more out of Maddox than what Maddox actually had. Having Mularkey, Clements AND McNally here should do wonders for theoffense. I think you'll agree that, in Gregg Williams and the brain mistrust he assembled, we've probably seen the worst .

[Nighthawk]

Say it anyway you want, but Teague blows and he is always...and I repeat...always getting bowled over. This causes the pocket to collapse and gives Bledsoe no time to throw the ball. They basically traded Brown for Villarial and that's it...no improvement in the line. We're still going to try to win with guys who were on the roster last year. Yes, McNally should help, but what if these guys aren't good enough...yep, you guessed it, we get to see the same crap as the past 3 years. Sorry, but that doesn't excite me...no matter what kind of spin you put on it!

[helmetguy]

Originally posted by Nighthawk
...yep, you guessed it, we get to see the same crap as the past 3 years. Sorry, but that doesn't excite me...no matter what kind of spin you put on it!

OH GOD! Say it ain't so! PLEASE tell me it was just a nightmare that.......

GW aand KG aren't really gone!





(I gotta stop eaing spicy food so close to bedtime)

[ScottLawrence]

There is no spin on it!

You obviously know NOTHING about Jim McNally.... he turns **** into gold. If you look at the Giants starting offensive line its filled with late round and undrafted free agents. And they have the same mold of QB in Kerry Collins as we do in Bledsoe.

What does that tell you about McNally?

[justasportsfan]

Correct me if I'm wrong, was Mcnally the OL coach of the Giants when Dusty Ziegler became a good C the year the giants went to the sb?

[Novacane]

Originally posted by Ebenezer


I've said it 101 times...you have to protect any QB for at least 4 seconds...Bills QBs have had this problem dating back to the day that Kelly retired. Since 1996 we have had at least 4 OL coaches, 5 QBs and how many lineman...except for Flutie, who was able to move, we have had this problem...it is not just Bledsoe.

Never said it was just Bledsoe. He is responsible for a lot of our sacks though. If you don't think who the QB is affects the line just look at RJ/Flute. They sucked when RJ was in there and suddenly the same guys rarely gave up sacks when Flutie went in.

[ScottLawrence]

Originally posted by justasportsfan
Correct me if I'm wrong, was Mcnally the OL coach of the Giants when Dusty Ziegler became a good C the year the giants went to the sb?

Yes, He was.

[Tatonka]

Originally posted by mchurchfie
Good post T. I agree, my only concern is with Teague being a little too undersized at the Center position.

that is a misconception.. teague is every bit as big as bober, who everyone was drooling over.. and is the same size as jake grove.. the best option in the draft.

Height: 6-5
Weight: 300

http://www.nfl.com/players/playerpage/12756

Originally posted by Nighthawk
Say it anyway you want, but Teague blows and he is always...and I repeat...always getting bowled over. This causes the pocket to collapse and gives Bledsoe no time to throw the ball. They basically traded Brown for Villarial and that's it...no improvement in the line. We're still going to try to win with guys who were on the roster last year. Yes, McNally should help, but what if these guys aren't good enough...yep, you guessed it, we get to see the same crap as the past 3 years. Sorry, but that doesn't excite me...no matter what kind of spin you put on it!

actually.. we did not trade brown for villarrial.. i am sick of people saying that.. it is so incorrect..

we traded pucillo for villarrial.. which is a HUGE upgrade.. no spin about it..

we traded a ****ty old guard that made too much money, in brown, for

a) sullivan, who can play and did play well in 2002.. but was benched because the "coaches" felt pucillo was a better option.. nice.. we saw what a good option he was.

b) a potential stud draft pick like vernon carrey, smiley, snee, peterson, stepanovich, or grove

and i havent missed a bills game in over 11 years... i watched every game last season, and teague was not constantly getting bowled over.. that is just a flat out lie... did he play great? no.. did he make mistakes? absolutely.. but was he lying on his back every time we dropped back to pass or ran the ball.. not even close...

mcnally made zieglar, glenn parker, and lomas brown a super bowl worthy OLine.. i am sure that teague is workable.

Originally posted by justasportsfan
Correct me if I'm wrong, was Mcnally the OL coach of the Giants when Dusty Ziegler became a good C the year the giants went to the sb?

you are correct sir.

[The Spaz]

I think the obvious thing people find with Teague is he long snapping ability and the other is his lack of strength at the poin tof attack to knock someone on their ass something Jake Grove has consistently done.