Williams move to LT?

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

good points, the question is: Are his abilities such that he could be moved now?  At the least, I would think that it is something that is being considered or will be if Gandy can't hack it.

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Mickey, i think you are right on target with this question and though I still think MW is now 1 year off schedule (TD would have been financially nuts when drafting MW not to think that when JJ hit FA this would create a nice opening for MW to move his fat contract to the LT slot and allow the Bills to shop at the Stoker McDougle rate for an FA RT rather than pay the Jonas Jennings rate to resign him).

 

However, it looks like the JMac answer to this puzzle is to try to have a reasonable OL budget with a cheap LT (Gandy) to offset overpaying the market rate for an RT.

 

However, MW clearly improved as last season went on and even better was diligent this off-season. Could he actually make the flip to LT this year?

 

I think this is doubtful because though I think the flip is well within MWs capabilities as he already has done well in college with blindside duty and he has shown a level of agility with his shuttle run times at the combine that he should be able to play the game at LT. However, making this switch will take some work and effort an MW would be building off of an uncertain base due to last year's meltdown. If he had continued his progress from his rookie year without the hiccup of muddled play in 2003 under Killdrive and with Pacillo beside him blocking for a less than mobile QB and the meltdown of the off-season after 2003 then a move this year would make sense. Yhough he did walk last season after crawling through OTA, he needs to jog a little bit before running to the left ide instead of bursting straight into a run.

 

I think challenging Gandy is a good move and if he falters I am sure there is a plan B. Playing Teague at LT is a reasonable plan B in terms of player quality at LT. but it does create tremors in the rest of the OL as Preston must step up or Tucker must recover.

 

If MW plays well initially and Gandy falters it will not shock me at all to find that JMac had this as his real contingency plan all along. He fooled everyone (particularly ICE) last year with the threat to move MW to guard. The idea of Peters being ready to guard the young QBs blindside and taking the ball out of this athlete's hands (particularly with a TE need due to Everett injury makes less sense than even a sudden flip of MW to LT.

[Alaska Darin]

Odd that with Bledsoe, you attribute any good thing he did to weak competition. With MW, you chalk up his improvement to everything else but.   

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Let me know when he looks off his first receiver this season or actually executes a proper presnap read. You want to compare an 11 year pro who considers himself one of the best with a three year guy who had marginal coaching? Mike Williams played his position a hell of alot better last season than Drew Bledsoe did.

[Kelly the Dog]

From everything I have read anywhere, the Bills never had any intention of moving Mike Williams to LT. There never was a need. They like the fact that he is a mauler in the run game and they will run right most of the time. Furthermore, he never played LT in college not necessarily because Chris Simms was a lefty, but because when MW was a soph and junior, they had Leonard Davis at LT who was older and more experienced and became a first round pick before MW did. The only year, as I recall, that MW was there and LD was not was Big Mike's last year and Chris Simms was the starter, so they kept him there. I doubt the Bills have any intention now of moving him either, and personally I don't feel an LT is all that more important anymore.