The hits just keep on coming for the reeling Buffalo Bills, as NFL.com's Jason La Canfora is reporting that starting center Eric Wood has a torn ACL.
Obviously, if the report is accurate - and there's no reason to believe it isn't - it would likely end the third-year pro's season. If that's the case, it'll be the third consecutive year that Wood has missed games due to injury. He missed six games with a gruesome leg break in his rookie year of 2009, then missed two games last year before taking over as the team's starting center. He'd made 13 straight starts at the position.
As we discussed this morning, the likely replacement plan for Wood in the pivot will be to slide left guard Andy Levitre over to that spot. That's assuming, of course, that Levitre doesn't have to play left tackle, where Demetrius Bell is still shelved, and where rookie Chris Hairston has been stuck on the cusp of returning for two weeks. If Levitre has to stay at tackle, Kraig Urbik will play center until Hairston is ready, and Colin Brown will play right guard.
In either case, the player that will become a full-time starter with Wood out is Chad Rinehart.