Mario Williams (pictured above) at Left End vs Austin Howard at Right Tackle is sure to be one of the most intriguing individual match-ups in the Buffalo Bills at New York Jets game on Sunday.
Intriguing meaning potentially frustrating for Jets fans considering that Mario Williams was the #1 overall Draft pick in the 2006 NFL Draft out of North Carolina State and Austin Howard has never started a game in the league and went undrafted two years ago out of Northern Iowa.
Let’s do a tale of the tape between Mario Williams and Austin Howard
Mario Williams Austin Howard
Height: 6′ 6″ Height” 6” 7″
Weight 292 lbs. Weight: 333 lbs.
Age: 27 Age: 25
Years Pro: 7 Years Pro: 3 (no starts)
For Austin Howard, this has to be a daunting task to say the least, since Mario Williams is one of the, if not the most feared 4-3 Defensive End pass rushers in the NFL in his stature alone, let alone his performance. Two years ago, when Mario Williams was on the Houston Texans at the time against veteran Right Tackle Damien Woody and he gave up two sacks and Damien who could hiold his own against most defensive lineman in the NFL.
To be successful on Sunday, Mario will have to beat consistant double teams from Austin, and ideally for them Tight End Dustin Keller would have to stay in and help block. As a result of that, it will eliminate one of the bigger targets for Mark Sanchez to hit open. That being said, I think Mario can break the double teams due to the inexperience of Austin Howard even with assitance.
Additonally, Mario has a stacked defensive line next to him and the theory is that the other three linemen will warrant a great deal of support as well, and as a result one of the four will should have an easy path to Mark Sanchez and the rest of the NFL Quarterbacks, or stop a running play in the backfield dead.
This is my first of many position battles I will do this year, if I ever forget any, don’t heasitate to tell me about it. Either leave a comment or hit me up on twitter @TheProfessorSD and thanks for reading and Go Bills!
