Bills promote OL Rinehart; add OL Allen to practice squad

With the Bills offensive line beset with injuries the organization went through the process of filling the void Tuesday promoting OL Chad Rinehart to the active roster from their practice squad.

Rinehart (6’5”, 307), who has four NFL starts in his career, was added to the Bills practice squad on Oct. 18 and has been lining up mainly at guard in the practice setting for Buffalo. Recently he’s also been getting some snaps at center, so it’s likely that he’ll be a reserve at both guard and center.

The Bills lost starting center Geoff Hangartner for at least two weeks after he suffered a knee injury last Sunday at Minnesota.

Starting right guard Eric Wood is expected to move inside and start at center on Sunday.

To make room for Rinehart on the 53-man roster the Bills placed G/C Kraig Urbik on injured reserve. Urbik started last week’s game at right guard in place of the injured Wood, and then moved inside to play center after Hangartner left the game with a knee injury in the first half.

Urbik then sustained a knee injury himself and had to be carted off the field. Picked up on waivers from Pittsburgh earlier this season, Urbik appeared in nine games making his first start of the season last Sunday.

Allen added to practice squad
To fill the vacancy left by Rinehart’s promotion to the active roster, Buffalo signed C Sean Allen.

Allen (6’3”, 305) was originally signed as a rookie free agent by Buffalo last May. While with the Bills Allen played center exclusively, but was released during final cuts Sept. 4.

The East Carolina product was a two-year starter for the Pirates playing mostly center with a handful of starts at guard. With 30 career starts under his belt, Allen earned 2^nd Team All-Conference USA honors as a junior and 1^st Team honors in 2009.