Mike Pucillo v. Todd Wade

This could be an interesting development here. If Pucillo plays well tonight, we might very well see an open competition between Pucillo and Wade for the remainder of camp. I don't think by any means Wade has locked the position down yet. So this may be something to keep our eye on tonight.

Wouldn't it be something if Pucillo, a former Buffalo Bill draft pick, steps in and becomes the starter to replace the departed Derrick Dockery.

I was thinking about losing Dockery. It could be that he was far more of a significant player than any of us thought. If Buffalo hadn't offered such an outrageous amount of money, we'd be in much better shape, only waiting for Samuels to get healthy.

Why the hell did the Bills put that much money up for Dockery? I mean, it was almost Steve Hutchinson-type cash. I don't fault Dockery at all for taking it, but man, I sure hope this doesn't turn out to be what kills us this year.

One of the things that separates good teams from the bad is the ability for units who performed well from the year before not to miss a beat the following year. We really need for the O-line to carry over what they did in '06. If we're going to be in a situation that one group or another can't match up from one season to the next, then this thing will never get on track.

As for Pucillo, he MUST perform well. That's all there is to it. Things like this happen to teams like New England all the time, and there's always someone way down their roster who steps up and has a pro-bowl type season.

You bring up a couple of valid points. On one hand, we can't pay Dockery that kind of dough. On the other hand, he was important to the line and we lose some continuity along the line.

But to your other point, this guy 'aint Hutch, so while there will be some drop off, we didn't exactly lose a perennial Pro Bowler. Look, Buffalo let three or four good starters walk this year, and made some very, very questionable signings. They don't know what they're doing, in my opinion.

I'm betting, like you and Matty, that Pucillo has a solid game tonight and we'll put all this talk about Wade behind us. If anything, Wade should be pushing Jansen for the starting roll.

Yeah, what is it with Jansen anyway? He's completely healed from the two broken thumbs, right? Has he said anything publicly about lingering effects from the Achilles injury a few years ago?

I guess we can only hope that the whispers around the league, from fans, and the media about his fading abilities will push him mentally for the best year of his career.

fading abilities.

Jansen in a nutshell.

I am willing to allow that Jansen is starting slow, but will pick it up. Also, he gets more TE and RB help anyway--we usually have Samuels on an island.

As for Dock, we obviously couldn't match, but I was disappointed that we didn't target ANYONE out there as a replacement. We just went with what we already had. And that was a mistake, because instead of using Wade as a backup/replacement for Samuels and Jansen, we've got him out of position at guard. We didn't have to break the bank to find an actual guard out there, and we would have maintained our depth at OT, which is an obvious need now.

But maybe there wasn't a decent candidate out there, who knows? The FO gets criticized for spending too much. Maybe this will all work out by the 1st game. Man, I really hope so!

I am willing to allow that Jansen is starting slow, but will pick it up. Also, he gets more TE and RB help anyway--we usually have Samuels on an island.

As for Dock, we obviously couldn't match, but I was disappointed that we didn't target ANYONE out there as a replacement. We just went with what we already had. And that was a mistake, because instead of using Wade as a backup/replacement for Samuels and Jansen, we've got him out of position at guard. We didn't have to break the bank to find an actual guard out there, and we would have maintained our depth at OT, which is an obvious need now.

But maybe there wasn't a decent candidate out there, who knows? The FO gets criticized for spending too much. Maybe this will all work out by the 1st game. Man, I really hope so!

I think in the end, we'll be okay. I agree with you on Jansen. I think he's just starting slow, but I'd still like to see Wade over there pushing him a bit.

If you look around the NFL practically no one returned all five starters along the offensive line. I think the norm for keeping an entire unit together is probably 3-4 years tops.

I'm not really all that impressed with Todd Wade. He's just sort of a ho-hum player and doesn't seem to play with much of a chip or intensity. I hope Pucillo plays great tonight. If anything it'll light a bigger fire under both players.

As far as Jansen is concerned, we need him to be great. That being said, Fabini played tackle for a long time, and could step in and play his natural position pretty well I would think. This business of moving guys from position to position (i.e. wade, fabini) makes me nervous.

I am willing to allow that Jansen is starting slow, but will pick it up. Also, he gets more TE and RB help anyway--we usually have Samuels on an island.

As for Dock, we obviously couldn't match, but I was disappointed that we didn't target ANYONE out there as a replacement. We just went with what we already had. And that was a mistake, because instead of using Wade as a backup/replacement for Samuels and Jansen, we've got him out of position at guard. We didn't have to break the bank to find an actual guard out there, and we would have maintained our depth at OT, which is an obvious need now.

But maybe there wasn't a decent candidate out there, who knows? The FO gets criticized for spending too much. Maybe this will all work out by the 1st game. Man, I really hope so!


I think what also really hurt the team was the lack of draft picks that we could have used to replace Dockery - we could have found a guard if we had a 2nd, 3rd and 4th round pick. Heck if I remember correctly Dockery was a 3rd round pick. I don't want to go into the whole Redskins need a GM thing, but what I hope the team is doing is valuing the draft picks a little more than they have been for the past couple of years - maybe keeping all their 2008 picks is a sign of things to come and we can build a team that has some sustainability in the salary cap era.

Pucillo would make more sense since guard is his natural position. Wade looks to be really struggling in his move from RT to LG, I think in the end it was a horrible decision by our coaching staff to think that Wade could just change positions like that, and not miss a beat. I think we're really going to regret not bringing in a guy like Edwin Mulitalo to replace Dockery. Hopefully Pucillo can do a good job for us, or maybe Wade can pull out the switch, but right now it looks unlikely.