Jul 28, 2013; Pittsford, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone working with the offensive line during training camp at St. John Fisher College. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports
The Buffalo Bills offensive line has been one of the questions marks coming into the season and it still remains a major question mark of this offense.
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The Buffalo Bills, last week started two rookies on their line. The three previous weeks, 1 rookie has been starting at right tackle, Seantrel Henderson. Cyril Richardson got the start at right guard last week.
As a group, their run blocking is not all that bad; it is their pass blocking that is killing them all. Even Pro Bowler Cordy Glenn is not faring well at this point. Eric Wood, right now, is the Bills best offensive lineman.
How can we figure that out? Pro Football Focus looks at every play and gives a grade of, at most a plus 2 and at lowest a minus 2. These are the extremes and are only rewarded as an outstanding play or a catastrophic play. The average is 0 and .5 increments are awarded in up and down based on the play. Most of the grades given are within the -1 and the +1 range.
As for these grades, Erik Pears is the worst Buffalo Offensive lineman at -15.4. He has a -3.8 on pass blocking and a -12.4 on run blocking. Opposite Pears, the other guard, Chris Williams, who is the only other guard graded is sitting with a -6.9. These are over the first 4 weeks as a cumulative grade. Richardson was graded last week and came away with a -1.6 overall with a 2.3 as a run blocker. Yes a positive number for those keeping track.
As far as out tackles go, Cordy Glenn is ranked 24th overall with a +2.1 and Henderson is ranked 65th with a -10.4. Eric Wood is the highest ranked and has the highest grade ranking 9th overall for 34 centers and having a +2.9 grade.
"“We’ve got our assignments, we just need to worry about what we’re doing and tighten up,” said Pears. “Last week there were too many hits on the quarterback, so we have to tighten up and keep him clean.”– Democrat and Chronicle"
I know that Cyrus Kounadjio had his issues at right tackle, which is why Seantrel Henderson beat him out, but if Chris Williams is unable to go, what about looking at bringing him inside to where Pears is. Before you say, then we have 3 rookies on the line, and two on one side, this spells disaster, Erik Pears is playing like a rookie and it can’t get much worse at this point. That just being an option. I think the better move would be to bring Williams over to the right side and have Richardson stay at left and bench Pears for his lack of playing at this point.
Offensive line should be Glenn, Richardson, Wood, Williams, Henderson.
I tell my Pop Warner kids that if we can’t block on offense there is no point in coming out, we should just give the ball to the other team and play defense all game. This doesn’t fall far from the NFL tree either.