I propose to you a question

[ans4e64]

Why would we want to bring in competition?? To me that means bringing another player about equally as good. So why spend FA money on that as compared to using the money elsewhere. If you use our 1st round draft pick on a RT, then he likely will become the next starter, but likely will be a step back initially till he adjusts. I canstill live with that, though feel our first rounder should be spend elsewhere. If we go out and sign a top notch free agent RT, then again that's an ugrade, so OK with that in principle, but again would rather spend it on a RG. However, I don't see much value in bringing in some other player that isn't a clear step up. I'd rather use the money we spend on thie "compitition" to instead sign a better guard to play next to him. I'm all in favor of signing the best right guard out there. As far as left guard goes, again if we can sign somepone clearly better than Gandy great. Otherwise would rather keep the continuity going.

 

There isn't a bottomless pit of money, so you can't keep every year trying to find a better play for each position out there. When you sign someone whether it be a FA or a draft pick, you need to make a committment to that person anf give him enough time or totally give up if you quickly feel it was mistake. Like Reyes, appears to be a mistake, so cut him and move on. Pennington played pretty good for a rookie. If you feel you need an improvement there, then I'd also feel you need to replace both guards, and I doubt we can afford three top notch starters.

 

First, there is absolutely nobody of any value behind Pennington, unless you want Brad Butler playing if Pennington or Peters goes down, so bringing in anyone with any sort of talent level is important. Second, competition does not mean bringing in a player of the same abilities. Competition means bringing in someone better, or for depth purposes, but seeing how Pennington responds to the challenge. Competition means if you bring someone in better, will Pennington step up his game? Or if you bring someone in for depth does Pennington sulk and not work hard? I dont think Brad Butler will be an effective back-up in this league. We dont have a back-up tackle at either spot on the line, and bringing someone in is necessary. Whether that means signing a guard and moving Gandy back to tackle whatever, but there needs to be someone who if is not better than Pennington, can step in and play at a high level if an injury occurs.

[generaLee83]

Is Pennington the RT of the future for the Buffalo Bills? I didn't spend as much time watching him towards the end of the season, but all I remember when he got into the lineup was that we are running left all the time because of the weak right side. Should he be penciled in on the line next year? Or was he a stop-gap until we could more ably replace him?

 

Could one or two of you Oline watchers give insight

 

I'm not the biggest O-line guru around but I also noticed that most of the run production was kept to the left side after the O-line shuffling. This does concern me as we have to ask ourselves did Pennington really get acclamated or tested at his position?

 

I'd say it's a 50/50 chance right now that he remains the starter.

[BADOLBILZ]

I believe he should have a shot going into camp at retaining the spot, but I'd be very disappointed if the Bills didn't bring in some competition. He's not someone you can call a cornerstone and build around at this stage.

 

Robert Hicks had some really good moments early in his career too, in fact I can remember reading that some scouts thought he was going to become the best RT in the AFC in 2000. Playing time exposed him, then injuries finished him off completely. The Bills definately need to keep that position WIDE open for competition in camp. Pennington was a 7th round pick because he was lazy and had a doughy body in college, he has to be viewed with some doubt until he proves he can sustain and get better, because opposing DL coaches have a good deal of film on him now and even a repeat of this years play would be a disappointment going forward.

[JStranger76]

I think just about all of us are pleased with the great stories of how we found our two starting OT's, but no matter what the position, this staff seems to look for depth for competition at any position, so Pennington better stay focused..........................

[MadBuffaloDisease]

Robert Hicks had some really good moments early in his career too, in fact I can remember reading that some scouts thought he was going to become the best RT in the AFC in 2000. Playing time exposed him, then injuries finished him off completely.

Actually it was an injury that finished him off. He never recovered from a high ankle sprain.

[BADOLBILZ]

Actually it was an injury that finished him off. He never recovered from a high ankle sprain.

 

The dreaded career ending high ankle sprain, which spoke volumes about his lack of footwork to begin with. His selection on the first day of the draft was a surprise because he was considered a lumbering, unathletic guy. The Bills looked like they actually got a player, but as it turned out they just got him at his healthiest in 1999, prior to a late season injury. Played well off the bench in the playoff game in Tennessee. His career didn't end after 2000 though, he just couldn't even get a roster spot after that. He was the first player ever signed by the Texans, and was cut in camp and they went on to give up an NFL record for sacks that season. Note to Terrence Pennington fans, a half season isn't a lot to go on for an OL.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

Well I could certainly tell you that Butler does have the capabilities to become a good backup, but realistically I have as much knowledge about that as you do, none. So I'll rely on the Bills front office knowing more than we as arm chair fans know. What I 'm conficdent though is, if you look at the roster of every team in the league, you’ll find they all have at least one Brad Butler who is one injury away from proving his worth. In some cases they fail, in others they succeed. Teams can’t afford not to carry a couple of Brad Butlers on the roster in a couple of positions and offensive line is usually one of the first ones you see as that is one position where your starters, barring injury will play the entire game, unless they get pulled for poor play. But you rarely see situational substitution on the O-line or for getting a fresher player in there. So having a Brad Butler there isn’t uncommon.

 

You want to bring in a proven better player than Butler to back up both positions, that’s fine. But bring him in clearly as the backup. Or if you want to bring in a player who clearly is a <b>big</b> step up, that’s OK too, but are there bigger needs that you should be spending any FA money on? Personally my opinion is there are. But the one thing I wouldn’t do is bring in a similar player with similar abilities and let them fight it out to determine the starter. That to me is a waste of resources!

 

 

 

First, there is absolutely nobody of any value behind Pennington, unless you want Brad Butler playing if Pennington or Peters goes down, so bringing in anyone with any sort of talent level is important. Second, competition does not mean bringing in a player of the same abilities. Competition means bringing in someone better, or for depth purposes, but seeing how Pennington responds to the challenge. Competition means if you bring someone in better, will Pennington step up his game? Or if you bring someone in for depth does Pennington sulk and not work hard? I dont think Brad Butler will be an effective back-up in this league. We dont have a back-up tackle at either spot on the line, and bringing someone in is necessary. Whether that means signing a guard and moving Gandy back to tackle whatever, but there needs to be someone who if is not better than Pennington, can step in and play at a high level if an injury occurs.

[ans4e64]

Well I could certainly tell you that Butler does have the capabilities to become a good backup, but realistically I have as much knowledge about that as you do, none. So I'll rely on the Bills front office knowing more than we as arm chair fans know. What I 'm conficdent though is, if you look at the roster of every team in the league, you’ll find they all have at least one Brad Butler who is one injury away from proving his worth. In some cases they fail, in others they succeed. Teams can’t afford not to carry a couple of Brad Butlers on the roster in a couple of positions and offensive line is usually one of the first ones you see as that is one position where your starters, barring injury will play the entire game, unless they get pulled for poor play. But you rarely see situational substitution on the O-line or for getting a fresher player in there. So having a Brad Butler there isn’t uncommon.

 

You want to bring in a proven better player than Butler to back up both positions, that’s fine. But bring him in clearly as the backup. Or if you want to bring in a player who clearly is a <b>big</b> step up, that’s OK too, but are there bigger needs that you should be spending any FA money on? Personally my opinion is there are. But the one thing I wouldn’t do is bring in a similar player with similar abilities and let them fight it out to determine the starter. That to me is a waste of resources!

 

Well, I would ask you to find how many teams have a back-up LT that is worse than Brad Butler, and that has no game experience, and I bet it is very few.... but that would just be another argument. So you are saying that since our back-up lineman suck, we should be ok with them because other teams also have back-up lineman that suck. Teams do have Brad Butlers on their team, but not as their number one guy if someone gets hurt, especially on teams with a poor offensive line to begin with. I cant believe you dont think we need line depth. You act like we can only sign one player, so it better be at another position. We are talking a veteran, certainly less than a million, maybe even the veteran minimum. We need depth on the offensive line, period.