Buffalo Bills Offseason Look At The Offensive Line
By Dennis Amo
Dec 21, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; General view of the line of scrimmage as Buffalo Bills center Eric Wood (70) snaps the ball against the Oakland Raiders at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The Buffalo Bills really had a tough tie running the ball this past season. Coming off a year where they were one of the top teams in the league a year before, there was high hopes for the Bills, Fred Jackson and CJ Spiller to continue their dominance on the ground and take some pressure off of the passing game with EJ Manuel at the helm.
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Unfortunately, that did not happen and it wasn’t the Running Backs fault, for the most part, it was the offensive line. It starts and ends there. If you can’t block and open up holes for the backs, then there is little hope that you will have a productive ground attack, which will then leave you with only a 1 dimensional team where defenses will sit an wait for you.
The offensive line for the Buffalo Bills, mainly the inside was the major problem for them. Bringing in guard Chris Williams, was suppose to be this big move for the Bills during their offseason and it was a high priority for them. Chris Williams was one of the worse players at his position the previous year, and he was suppose to be the missing link for the Bills. Williams hurt his back early on and was a non factor for the Bills for the rest of the season being on injury reserve.
Cordy Glenn was out in the beginning and missed most of training camp, and just seemed to be slow moving to get into the groove of things, but even with that he was one of the more productive participants on the line. Eric Wood was another that was a solid performer but just could only do so much.
The Buffalo Bills were lucky in their drafting of 7th round pick Seantrel Henderson, who I really like, and think he will be the anchor of this offensive line in a couple of years. He held his own at right tackle and shows a lot of potential coming into the year as a second year tackle. He also was basically on his own at right tackle with no help from Erik Pears who had his own issues.
Erik Pears has been a sub-par journeyman right tackle. The Bills moved him to right guard to possibly give him some help on either side and he still was as ineffective as he was at right tackle.
Ritchie Incognito is the newest member of the offensive line and brings a tougher mentality to the Bills and their interior line than what they have had in the past. The Bills do also have Kraig Urbik, Cyril Richardson and Cyrus Kouandjio as well sitting in the wings, but they were not able to produce the type of offensive line combinations that one would need within the NFL.
The Buffalo Bills will mostly likely look to add more depth at the offensive line and it could be for any position at this point. With Greg Roman heading the offensive ground and pound philosophy a strong run blocking group is going to be a definite.
Some possibilities for the Bills to add some more competent blockers would be to look at the Dallas Cowboys, who lead the league in rushing this year, and look to possibly pick up 1 of their 2 right tackles that are heading towards free agency. Doug Free and Jeremy Parnell. The Cowboys are only looking at keeping 1 of these two tackles and the other could be a good addition to the Buffalo Bills offensive line and help with the ground and pound that Roman is looking to bring into the organization.