Levitre called ‘star on the rise’

Bills guard Andy Levitre got a very glowing write up from the stat crunchers and film reviewers at Pro Football Focus.

Levitre, who graded out extremely well in the eyes of PFF, had a full write up done on him. Here’s some of the better excerpts from the post.

On rushes off left guard in 2011, only one team (Miami) earned a higher Yards Per Carry average than the Bills’ 6.0 on 42 carries off Levitre’s outside shoulder.

On top of those stats to Levitre’s outside, he is also proved essential to the Bills as a blocker in space, showing real quality while pulling. At 305 pounds, Levitre isn’t necessarily the ideal size to be a dominant, road-grading run blocker, but he augments his solid in-line play with some quality efforts on the move; a job that leaves many other offensive linemen looking lost.

In the Bills’ Week 15 loss to the Dolphins, he exhibited this quality by getting the upper hand on Karlos Dansby–one of the league’s better inside linebackers–in space. He got off to a fast start pulling right and neutralizing Dansby as the linebacker attempted to fill the gap off right guard. The block served to spring C.J. Spiller through the line on a 24-yard touchdown. Levitre also pulled off  a pair of cut blocks on Dansby while getting downfield on screen plays, helping to finish first down runs by Spiller and Tashard Choice.

Levitre’s ability in pass protection at both guard and tackle cannot be questioned. Over the last two seasons whether you look at our grades (+15.1) or the stats (35 total pressures allowed), he is amongst the elite pass protectors at guard. Combined with clear improvements in his in-line run blocking, and his consistent quality blocking in space, Levitre is ready to use the 2012 season to break into the NFL’s upper echelon of guards.

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Levitre called ‘star on the rise’