This is the second time I’ve seen you say “our goofy buffalo logo”. Who chose it, and what do we have to do to get it changed (LOL)!!!!!

Teams do seem to put a premium on the LT position, but that could just be that it is “safer” to pick an offensive linemen in round 1 than just about any other position. As you can see, just about every team has a 1st rounder there, and as we know, most teams aren’t great on offense. I think it’s mostly a “Well, if we plug this guy in there, we don’t have to worry about it”. For the most part, NFL teams don’t seem to have the patience to develop players anymore. That could be because of the strange Active / Inactive / Practice squad roster system. Really, with how physical and specialized today’s game is, there needs to be about 65 allowed on a roster and they should all be available on game day.

Just because all the other teams are doing it, doesn’t mean you have to. FOr the most part it just seems the NFL is sinuglarly lacking in imagination and the NFL rules don’t allow for a big enough roster. Because of the lack of a minor league, the NFL should expand the rosters, and let every roster spot be active on game day. That would foster more development of players. Right now it is rare for teams to have the patience and fortitude to stick with a Jason Peters or Jabari Greer.

Also, although 18 were firsts and 7 were seconds – it really doesn’t correlate with success. There’s only 10 offenses in the top 10 :)

For example, look at the teams that don’t have 1st or 2nd rounders at LT. NY Giants, Pittsburgh, Tennessee. They might not light the world on fire, but they have decent offenses. Tennessee might not be great passing, but they have an A+ running game. I think it is really a matter of finding the right guys.

thank you to syrbillsfan. Not sure who did the research

It would be a good pick to get Oher, but not necessary.

I think what really can be learned from this chart is that having a premium LT does NOT indicate success one way or the other. If everyone has one, it’s not really all that premium is it?

Cincinatti is now looking at another tackle this year in Andre Smith. It strikes me that they may not be completely happy with their options.

I think all my work shows is that if you draft a tackle in round one, he’s going to start. It doesn’t really say if you are any good or not or if it makes your team better or not. It appears no NFL coach is willing to start their project guy even if its for the better of their team. It just seems to me that how good (or how well paid, how high drafted) your left tackle is, it has a minimal effect on your offense as a whole. Both good offensive teams and bad offensive teams have high draft picks at left tackle. So, I’m starting to come around to the idea that we shouldn’t spend a high pick on a tackle, as long as the coaching staff is satisfied with say, Chambers or Bell. Their play would probably be average, which would be good enough for the Bills at this point. I think from a team standpoint, the greatest benefit from their two first round picks would be gained with picks of two of these three positions: DE / TE / OLB. Maybe going with an existing option at LT increases the value of TE, but I’m really sold on the Bills going 1-11 : DE (Ayers?) and 1-28: TE (Pettigrew) or LB (Matthews III).

As far as why all teams pretty much have a 1st rounder at LT, I think it has to do with making a “safe” pick more than anything else. So many players never pan out from any of the other positions, so teams do the safe thing and address LT. That is a sound strategy, but the Bills need playmakers more than they need a franchise left tackle. As long as the replacement does equal or better than 2008 Peters, we’ll be fine.

It also shows you how unlikely and unique a scenario Jason Peters was

Peters really had no business going undrafted. If you google around and find old ranking lists and mock drafts, almost everybody had him as a third or 4th round prospect. It shouldn’t surprised Bills fans that he dropped partially due to character.

I knew someone could glean something from this. Once I put it together the one thing that became obvious was that for the most part EVERY NFL team uses the same exact strategy to stock their o-line. That doesn’t mean there isn’t other ways, it just means that what they do. The Bills had success with Peters, so really, they probably could have success again with Bell. At least they are trying something different.

I still can’t fathom why people think the left tackle and right tackle aren’t equally important. Most of the pass rushing DEs work from BOTH sides based on matchup. The reason why Walker looks susceptible to the “speed” type rushers is because teams will play their speed specialist on his side of the line to take advantage of that matchup. I know people say the left side is the “blind” side, which it is, but that doesn’t make it more important than the front side. A guy in your grill is a guy in your grill. Really, I think a teams guard / center / guard combo and their capabilities determine how well your line plays. If you start Duke Preston, you could have Walter Jones and Orlando Pace in their primes and your QB is going to go down. If your center or guards routinely need to double in order to get their blocks, it really limits what you can do. Overall, having five guys that are capable of one on one blocking and remembering their assignments is the key, not how many pro bowls someone went to.

The average left tackle was chosen in round 2.

Should the Bills goal to be to draft an average LT?

And I missed Donald Penn too. So three undrafted players on the list.

And thinking about it a little more. If Buffalo were to draft an OT in the first round and say Arizona could grab Eben Britton at 31 and start him at LT, then it could actually be as high as 28 of the 32 teams starting a first or second round LT. That has to be the biggest trend of any position in the league. I’m more confident every day that I would grab Michael Oher if I were running the show.