FanHouse LukePetitgout

While the offensive line might not represent a direct draft day decision for your roster, few areas of knowledge can offer a competitive advantage in fantasy football like having a good grasp of the various units of trench soldiers around the league. Over the course of the next couple weeks, I'll break down every NFL team's offensive lines into five tiers: the Crème de la Crème, the Highly Competent, the Serviceable, the Pretty Grim, and the Bunk.

Just six NFL offensive lines made their way into the 2008 group of the Crème de la Crème. If you see a team on this list, rest assured your running game is safe, your quarterback with have decent pocket time, and you might just dig up some big time sleepers amongst these rosters. Consider this your early birthday present. You ride with these guys and you're ridin' in drop top, six-four, tinted windows, top down, AC on style.

Read on for the best six offensive lines in the NFL.

To get you ready for Week 14, FanHouse is previewing all 16 NFL games. Here is your Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Houston Texans preview.

2007 Records:

Tampa Bay: 8-4 (1st in the NFC South-Last Week a Freakish Win Over the Saints)
Houston: 5-7 (4th in the AFC South-Last Week Yet Another Loss to the Titans)

This week, I asked George Billingsley Jr. (aka Crunkbuc4d1) writer and moderator from The Captain's Deck website to give some thoughts on the upcoming Bucs-Texans game, and I did the same for him. Here's our conversation:

What might casual NFL fans not know about the Bucs as of Week 14?

They are resilient. You always hear these so called NFL analysts praise the Colts for their ability to have success despite missing a few injured players. What do they think the Bucs have done? The Buccaneers have been playing shorthanded since before the season began. Do they remember who Mike Alstott is? How about Carnell Williams, Luke Petitgout, or even Chris Simms? This past Sunday in New Orleans, they started their third string quarterback and he was handing the ball off to the original third string running back.

Losing Cadillac Williams for the season was bad enough for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but they already had serviceable running backs behind Williams. (Expect rookie Kenneth Darby to get a call-up from the practice squad this week.) Who do the Bucs have behind Luke Petitgout?

The Bucs lost the nine-year veteran tackle to a torn ACL, leaving the rebuilt offensive line without one of its key bricks for the remainder of the season. His replacement will be Donald Penn, a second-year tackle out of Utah State, and now the question remains whether he can help Jeff Garcia stay upright and help guys like Michael Pittman, Earnest Graham and Darby run effectively.

Losing Petitgout to injury may prove to be even more costly than losing Williams. The Bucs have given up only six sacks in four games, and the revamped O-line was a big reason for that. How that line fares without its biggest free agent signing remains to be seen. Penn will have to deal with Falcons defensive end John Abraham twice, and that's a tall order for just about anybody.

When the Giants decided to release Luke Petitgout back in early February, it came as a surprise to everyone. Why would newly appointed General Manager Jerry Reese want to weaken the Giants by getting rid of the rock on the left side of their offensive line? Unfortunately, Giants fans never really got their answer. Until now, that is.

After months of fans questioning the move, Reese decided to give some insight into his decision to release the nine-year NFL veteran.

"People are so worried about left tackle . . . I think that's so overrated," Reese said. "People act like Petitgout was the second coming. He never made the Pro Bowl, and I don't think he ever was a first alternate. Now all of a sudden he's the savior? That's ridiculous. I don't think we're that bad off without Luke Petitgout. He was not a star left tackle. He was a solid left tackle on some occasions and other times he wasn't. Luke has been a marginal player for a long time."

Ouch. Those are some extremely harsh words coming from a man that constantly preaches "Giants pride and respect." How about some respect for a guy who left everything on the field for eight straight seasons?

Sure, Petitgout was never a Pro Bowler, but he wasn't a marginal player either. He was named to Sports Illustrates All-Pro first team in 2001 and played for a Super Bowl team. He did everything the Giants asked him to do and earned a great deal of respect throughout the NFL.

While I agree that the concern over the left tackle position is a little overrated, I also think it was foolish to let Luke go to the Buccaneers. And I think it was even more foolish to rip a guy who did his very best in New York.