5 reasons why the Bills will not take an OT with their first pick

I like to think I’m a pretty astute football guy. I would say my football acumen is a 7 out 10. However, there are some things I just don’t get. One of them happens to be what makes the OL work. What makes pass protection work? Is it the actual linemen? Is it the scheme? Is it the QB? I can give you tons of examples of when a no-name OL did wonders in the annals of NFL history. When the Broncos won two straight Super Bowls, they did it without any pro bowl lineman, yet, they had Terrell Davis go over 2,000 yards. When Drew Brees won a SB, his OL didn’t have anyone selected in the 1st or 2nd round and had a converted TE to LT starting.

Tom Brady had years to throw the football it seemed, but outside of Matt Light, who else was there? Brady was in essence the main pass protector because of how he read defenses quickly and just the scheme in general. Hell, when Rob Johnson played, the OL looked like a tire fire, but when Flutie was in, they looked like “The Hogs”.

In Buffalo, I think some fans tend to overreact to the guys up front. I think some of it has to do with a fan base that gets all gushy and feel goody when thinking about tough, blue-collar football. The idea to run the football down your throat with the howling winds and 6 feet snow that resembles playing a game Beyond the Wall gives older fans a giant boner. It is nothing more than trying to have our sports resemble our blue-collar city ethics, which I hope ends when my hipper generation gets to their 50s and we pave the way for no more silly platitudes about blue-collar ethics from our younger folks.

Then there are the Super Bowl Bills, which is where I tend to worry about the OL. You see, while we can look at all the HOFs who were assembled from that team, if you were to ask me why the Bills only won one playoff game in Jim Kelly’s final three years in Buffalo, you might say that the OL going downhill was the cause of it.

The Bills offensive line was a dominate, cohesive unit that had four pro bowlers on it (Kent Hull-Jim Richter-Howard Ballard-Will Wolford). They tore it up and gave Kelly all day and half of the night to complete passes and gave Thurman truck lanes to run through.

By the start of the 1994 season, the Bills had just Kent Hull as they lost the other three to free agency and the line looked terrible. Kelly got crushed and the Bills didn’t run the football as effectively. Maybe it was more about 34/12 getting older, but I think a lot of fans blamed the OL breaking up as the reason for the offense slowing down.

Having Jerry Crafts play RT was like today’s version of Collin Brown playing RG. I could throw in Corey Louchey and Corbin Lacina as well. Guys that came afterwards like Jerry Ostroski and John Fina were decent, but never close to the likes of the Super Bowl guys.

Anyways, that was then and this is now.

A ton of mock drafts have the Bills selecting a OT in the 1st round. It always seems like the mockers have the Bills going OL yearly prior to the draft. I gotta tell you, I’m not exactly down with this plan. Now, would I go kicking and screaming if they went in this direction? No. It is the NFL draft and your primary job is to find the best player available and if Jake Matthews is like his bloodline, I’m down with the selection. The only time I’ll ever go ape shit about a draft selection is if it is a top 15 pick is dedicated to a RB.

Mockers have them taking a OT and it could be for 3 reasons:

A) The Bills are leaking stuff (possible smoke screen) to folks like Kiper or Joe. B.

B) Erik Pears was on everyone’s list of possible cuts and is kind of average.

C) Doug Marrone is a former OL and OL coach.

Of course, that’s one side of the story…here’s five reasons why I just don’t see it happening

5) Need time to gel- I just can’t shake how the OL performed in 2012. The one thing Chan Gailey was able to accomplish here was he had the perfect system/combination of OL to protect the QB and open up huge holes for the running backs.

From 2010-2012, the Bills gave up the 2nd fewest sacks and the 4th most YPC in the league. Then last year happened. The Bills gave up the most sacks since Bledsoe was here and their YPC fell to the middle of the pack.

So, why the downfall? Was it about Levitre leaving? EJ Manuel being a rookie? New system? Ah, yes..It is the chicken/egg argument I alluded to earlier. I think it was all of the above, but I happen to think that another year in the system will help. Keep in mind that while the overall numbers look meh, the OL had games where they looked impressive.

They didn’t allow a sack against the Chiefs, who were in the top 3 in sacks. EJ had three games in which he wasn’t sacked. CJ Spiller had 7 games where he averaged over 5 yards a carry, but also had 5 games where he was below 3 yards a carry. It was just extremes on both ends, which tells me you have the potential, but you lack consistency. You just need more time for the system and the QB to gel. They (QB/System) happen to be the biggest changes in comparison to 2012, not the OL.

4) Are two blue-chippers enough?- Eric Wood and Cordy Glenn are your best players on the OL. Wood just signed a new deal and if Glenn keeps on his path of being a top notch tackle, he’s going to get paid by 2016. That’s only two years away and if you add another tackle in the 1st round, you may be putting the nail in the coffin for the Bills to sign Glenn when he hits FA. I just don’t know if you really need three guys on your OL who are top echelon talent. I mean, you’d take as much talent as you can get, but I tend to think two OL is good enough. If the Bills are as high on Glenn as most think they are, he should be your anchor by next year.

3) Where the tackle position comes from- Below is a table in which lists the 10 teams that gave up the least amount of sacks and where their OTs came from.

Keep in mind that zero of these tackles made the probowl.Obviously, there are some 1st round picks here, but there are also some guys who were found later in the draft. I think what sticks out from the list is that there are much better QBs than LTs here. For the most part, the 1-2 offensive tackle punch seemed to be a high pick and a guy in the later rounds or even undrafted. This goes back to the blue-chipper commentary which happens to lie with Glenn. If the Bills decided to add another lineman with the top pick, they’d have three 1st/2nd round picks dedicated to the line. On top of that, if you believe the experts, this is supposed to be a deep draft at tackle, so, why not get them later?

2) History says no- I’m a history buff when it comes to exploring what teams do with drafting, especially when it comes to hiring a new guy from a different organization. Since Doug Whaley was in the Steelers organization for 10 years, it would behoove me to see what exactly that franchise did when he was there. Anyone knows that when you start working at your first job in your profession and you are there for a decade, you tend to adapt to their philosophy of building teams. From 1999-2009 (Whaley’s years with the franchise), the Steelers selected zero offensive tackles in the 1st round and only one in the 2nd round. As for the Bills, they have taken just one offensive tackle in the 1st round (Mike Williams) in the last 22 years.

Now could things change or could Whaley have developed his own philosophies away from the Steelers or didn’t have any sort of say in draft selections there? Of course. However, I wouldn’t dismiss it, especially if some think the Bills are trying to develop players from within and not be a players in FA as an example of the Pittsburgh model because Whaley is here. Keep in mind the Steelers have always had issues with their OL and for God sakes, they had  Bills legend, Jonathan Scott, as their starting LT on one of their SB teams. Does that sound like a franchise that cares about tackles?

Also, during Whaley’s time in Pittsburgh, they selected five WRs and one TE within the first two rounds. Pittsburgh may have the reputation of being a bunch of meatheads with building GIANT defenses or having a solid running game, but they actually love drafting skilled players.

Keep in mind that from 2003-2012, the Bills selected just 2 WRs within the first two rounds (Lee Evans/James Hardy) and in his first year as GM (Everyone pretty much thinks it was Whaley in charge of last year’s draft), they went with a WR in the 2nd and 3rd round.

1) Other needs- While I think having a decent OL in front of EJ would be helpful to him, I still believe having more weapons in the passing game would help him out more. I don’t think the Bills have a legit #1 target on offense. I like Stevie Johnson as a solid #2 guy, but I still don’t know what they have with Woods/Goodwin. Scott Chandler should be a #3 or #4 target on most NFL teams. Chandler’s 53 catches, which lead the team, ranked 31st for a team leading receiver in the league. Not good enough.

Why not give EJ more weapons?

The Bills prime objective is to make EJ into a franchise QB and it would behoove them to get him as many receiving targets who can help him obtain that. I think the Bills have a better OL than they have guys who can catch the ball. They also have 4 out of the 5 starters still on their roster from their kick ass play from 2012.

Final word: I’ve always loved using the 2009/2010 NY Jets as an example of a team that could go pretty far without having a decent QB. They were only a few plays away from going to the Super Bowl both years. Mark Sanchez was their QB, but they had a stout defense with a killer running game that had four lineman with pro bowl experience on their resume (Damien Woody-Alex Faneca-D’Brickashaw Ferguson-Nick Mangold). They kicked it old school with an elite defense and solid running game.

I’d like to think that the Bills have a solid running game and that with all that talent on their defense, they can get to being that damn good on defense. Maybe the Bills want to overindulge on the offensive line with selecting an OT and go down the road of just being a team who wants to run the football and play solid defense like it worked for the Jets.

Frankly, I could get behind that idea, but I still would rather have the offense built around the skilled position guys rather than the guys up front. It goes back to me thinking that the OL/QB needs more time to gel rather than adding more guys to the front.

If the Bills goal is ultimately to get EJ to another level, a WR/TE would help better than a OT…Also, it would help if EJ got better, too.