Poll: Should Buffalo Bills Open Competition At Right Guard?

I don’t know why they wouldn’t have one for an equally weak and unsettle position at RG. It doesn’t really make sense that they wouldn’t let Rinehart duke it out with Urbik; let the least craptastic win.

the coach feels best at this point; you’d have to have good inside info to determine exactly what they are doing up front, so at this point prob best to leave it in the hands on experts.

I, unlike many do like trying Levitre at LT as I think he is about the best they have. I wouldnt pull the RG yet as LT is the immediate issue.

Do need more out of Buddy & where the heck is Whaley anyways? Good job adapting to the ILB situation but, uh, cant find the coach some help?

The team is coming off of a 4-12 season… Every position should be up for grabs.

Rine, Urbik and Hang.

I am really frustrated with the incestuous way that Nix and Gailey manage their personnel.

Clearly the reason Rhinehart was allowed to compete for a spot at LG (Levitre) was that it wasn’t Nix’s guy and furthermore the same rationale plays out with LT (Bell) possibly being replaced by Levitre.

For these same reasons, Nix seems to be protecting the guys that he touted as “answers” last year in Pears and Urbik. Also, same rationale why Hang is probably not getting a legitimate shot. Let’s not forget how well he played at center, I know we are all infatuated with Woods.

I was surprised he wasn’t starting in the first place over Urbik, I like them mix and matching but maybe they should bring in Lindy Ruff to help them decide stuff.

Just because we didn’t draft OL high, just because we didn’t sign FA and potentially over spend for not much better than what we already have and because as we have commented infrequently, not article, but comment that our quality depth reserve OL will come from the original starting five if injury happens, I would say that yes Rhinehardt should be given a chance to compete.

While everyone is lambasting the organization or individual player for lack of whatever the coaches are doing exactly what they should be doing moving peices around to see what their options are in preparation for the future. We still have the season plus two more weeks of offseason to evaluate players, competition for the future and upgrade going forward without overspending, drafting high when there are better players available etc……

I think having Rinehart try out at left guard, could be his tryout for right guard. I don’t think gailey wants to yank his young guy (urbik) out so fast. It takes time to let a guy get comfortable starting. Urbik should get more than 2 preseason games to see what he can do. He gave rinehart some time at left because levitre needed a fire lit and he also could handle less reps more than anyone on the line.
This preseason has done a lot to shake my confidence in Gailey, but I am going to try to keep it at least till October and give him the benefit of doubt…I could say the exact same thing about Fitz (OB-Wan) and I will.
I remember Gailey really looked like a great coordinator last year and i hope we all try to keep that in mind.

go bills!

Last year, I must have read a thousand times, how we must get hangartner outta there and move Wood to center.
I find it hilarious how many posters want the hangman back in. It is funny – how bad can go to worse, but I say, give urbik more time.
The whole line stunk against Denver, Wood included, I think it best to burn the game tape on that one.

gobills!

It doesn’t matter to me how much tinkering he does before the season starts. I understand that we’re not going to be a terribly good football team for the first half of the season, so I say that we find the best five guys however that is done. We were 4-12 last year. As dnvrBillsfan posted above, no position along the OL should be safe. I don’t know how talent is evaluated in the Nix/Gailey regime, but if it’s done by moving people all along the line and seeing who sticks, then so be it. Just have the outcome be the best possible OL by the start of the season and then let them gel as the season progresses.

The fact that our tackle situation is so bad, they have had to try Levitre out there. Bell has stunk, but there is literally nobody behind him to fill in. Who or what is the swing tackle? Is Wang so far back, he isnt even a realistic option as the swing tackle?

There should have been real competition brought in, draft or free agency, these past two years, but there should have been lots of things done that weren’t. We just have to hope Bell works out his issues and starts playing like a starting offensive lineman. Its time for some of these guys to actually start swimming instead of drowning (Bell, Spiller, Urbik, McKelvin, Troup, Wang, Nelson, etc etc etc).

I hoping Levitre works out at LT (I have no idea how likely that is- maybe a 20% shot in the dark). If it was up to me, I’d leave Rinehart at LG in case Levitre moves over and I’d start getting Hangartner reps with the 1’s at RG.

“Bell maintains that his confidence is unaffected by what has unfolded during the practice week. As much as the lineman has accepted the fact that it is a business, there’s no denying he has a strong working relationship with the player he’s competing with for the starting job.

Bell and Levitre have worked together on the left side of Buffalo’s offensive line for the past two seasons at left tackle and left guard respectively. Now they’re pitted against one another, making for an awkward situation.

"I really haven’t talked to Andy," said Bell. "It’s football, people come and people go. I think we’ve just got to be pros and whatever decision is made we just take and live with it.""

What a ridiculous Chris Brown excerpt! Just more bad vibes from one bills drive….

gobills!

You put your right guard in,
You put your right guard out;
You put your right guard in,
And you move him all about.
He does the Hokey-Pokey,
And you move him around.
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your left guard in,
You put your left guard out;
You put your left guard in,
And you move him all about.
He does the Hokey-Pokey,
And you move him around.
That’s what it’s all about!

.

To answer Brian’s question, yes. This is because I believe EVERY job should be open to competition. I don’t think Urbik is bad, but he is not very impressive yet either. He does anchor much better than Hang in pass pro though. I’ve watched him, Bell and Reinhart multiples times each play. He seems like just another guy at this point to me with a fairly low ceiling.

I think Rinehart has been competing with Urbik so far this pre-season. Levitre is a known quantity, and as Gailey said, he hasn’t played poorly to lose a job. I believe they were letting Rinehart get the LG reps since that’s where he had been playing with the 2’s and was comfortable with, it also gives them more film on Urbik.

Rinehart has a suddenness and physical element to his game that Levitre/Hang/Urbik don’t match in my book. He finishes more blocks then the others so far this year and also gets to the second level quicker and more decisively.

As far as Bell’s horrendous game in Denver, which has to be the worst I’ve seen him play, I’m not terribly surprised as they left him 1 on 1 vs an elite rusher in Dumerville. Gailey touched on that being their intention for the entire OL, to see who could play and who couldn’t. My issue with that is it left Fitz in the cross-hairs. I’m confident that Bell, if he’s not replaced, would not be left to hang like that during the season.

Speaking of Fitz, I see him and Spiller as responsible for 2 of the nastier shots that Fitz took on some of the dogs the Broncos were running. Spiller still has a lot of work to do reading protections, he’s willing, but his awareness is still sub-par.

The worst shot Fitz took, just before the pick, is on him. He had the line shifted to the right, brought Spiller into the backfield on the right side of the formation. Fitz either didn’t see the unaccounted LB or expected Spiller to make a very difficult pick-up.

Please bear with me on this:

Rinehart and Urbik are similar types of players in regard to how they were coached in college. The type of offensive style they were good at that caused them both to be drafted reasonably high (3rd round) might shed a little light on why Gailey is competing Rinehart with Levitre and leaving Urbik alone. For now at least.

Both learned from coaches from the Hayden Fry tree. Urbik from Bret Bielema at Wisconsin, Rineheart from Mark Farley at the U of Northern Iowa.

Bielema was a d-linemen at Iowa under Fry. He also coached D under Bill Snyder at Kansas State. God forbid, he took a job in Wisconsin quite successfully and coached Kraig Urbik there. I hope he had his Hawk tattoo removed from his leg. Traitor. :)
Farley played LB at UNI and learned from Terry Allen, who learned from Bill Snyder, who learned from Fry and coached Chad Rinehart at UNI.

Wisconsin and Northern Iowa play very similar types of offensive football. While Northern Iowa does throw the ball a lot, they still rely on play action and big, strong, aggressive, move straight ahead, no nonsense, nasty tempered offensive linemen.

I’d hazard a guess that the Bills coaching staff sees these similarities in play style in Urbik and Rinehart – as opposed to what Levitre offers in skill set. He pulls well and seems pretty mobile, but he’s not going to knock many people on their arse and enjoy it, where Urbik and Rinehart will.

Just an Iowa football junkie’s two cents.