Three New Starters On Offensive Line

Scott Wells is out. Jason Spitz is in at center.
Allen Barbre gets the nod over Breno Giocomini at right tackle replacing Mark Tauscher
Josh Sitton will play right guard where Spitz played last year

Scott Wells, for the moment is a highly paid cheezed off back up, but the Packers did something that indicates that they may not be looking to trade him for anything but perhaps a lower paid younger back up center. They released their only other experienced back up center, free agent Duke Preston. It would be surprising not to see Wells back on the field if a guard or center is dinged up and not playing near their full capacity.

Centers don't just snap and block. In today's NFL they call out blocking assignments before and during the snap count. Not only must linemen listen to the QB for the snap count, listen for audibles changing the play, they must also listen to the center. The center is traditionally a tough leader of the offensive line unit. One thinks of the friendship Frank Winters had with Brett Favre.

So it's ok for Scott Wells to tersely respond to Greg Bedard's questions about be dethroned from his starting job. Scott Wells is a good center, but his is ranked behind the Bears Olin Kreutz and at least up to this year, behind the Vikings Matt Birk. Now that Birk has left as a UFA to play for the Ravens and some guy named John Sullivan will start for the Vikings, Wells had the opportunity to move up a notch. And he still does.

The statistical chances that an interior lineman will miss time with injury this year are probably at 40%. Sitton had the job sewn up last year was injured. Wells can already play right guard and will hopefully get some work at left guard. If Chad Clifton were to go down with an injury, the Packers would likely slide Colledge over to LT rather than playing Tony Moll there - if Moll makes the team over project Jamon Meredith.

Offensive linemen play with pulled, bruised, and even torn muscles. As linemen wear down, there play suffers. You can see it late in the season when an OL is gased. They can hang in there for spells but the big runs decrease and the protections don't react as quickly to blitzes and these things add up. Potentially, having four servicable interior linemen and the ablity to survive without Chad Clifton for at least a game or two gives the Packers something they have been lacking for since the days of Flannagan, Rivera, Wahl... and yup Scott Wells who did back up at guard center in 2004.

Scott Wells' biggest deficit is his size. He gives up an 1.5 inches in height and 6 pounds to Spitz, but he real size gain comes when you compare Wells to Sitton who is the same height as Spitz but Sitton is 15 pounds heavier than Wells. This can make a difference when trying to block a fast and strong 320 Pat Williams or a 360 Grady Jackson-type. On the other hand, it's a game of leverage and "pad level" on the interior line, so height is always an advantage, but speed and strenght are.

What makes this a challenge for Wells to accept is that his predecessors, Mike Flanagan and Frank Winters never lost their jobs. But this did happen to Mike Wahl a failure at LT, who became a key blocker in the Mike Sherman / Ahman Green power-gap offense at LG. As we learned from that experience, good help on the OL can be hard to find. Hopefully, Scott Wells will be on the roster and active for game one. When his check for that game clears, it should help him focus his anger and be ready to play.

Also, it is important to remember that Mike McCarthy has tried to start Barbre and J. Colston before and they flopped and were quickly yanked. So we could see this new line up a few games and then another switch in games 2-5 based on performance.

I think Wells will play this year, but if he doesn't, it's one less year of beating on his body. The odds are more than double he will be needed next year. Hopefully, Packer fans will give Scott Wells some encouragement. It's not like the sixth man in basketball. Not starting is not good, but sometimes it's better than playing with a bunch of stumble bums that are going to roll up your knee and put and early end to your career.