The Buffalo Bills had a particularly good handle on Louisville center Eric Wood, and vice versa, entering the NFL draft.

Louisville's coach, Steve Kragthorpe, was the Bills' quarterbacks coach in 2001 and '02.

The Bills drafted Wood 28th overall and have penciled him into the starting left guard spot

in their offense.

Wood had a great impression of Buffalo well before the draft, thanks to Kragthorpe.

"He loves the city, he loves the team," Wood said of his college coach. "He talked to me

just about every day about his experience in Buffalo — the way guys handle their

business, trying to give me insight to get to this level. I'm sure Coach K was ringing the

phones off the hook to try to get me up here. ... It's really neat to play somewhere that I've

heard so many good things about, and I hear all the time about his relationship with the

players that he coached and how he continues the relationships."

Kragthorpe says he has no doubts Wood will be a success in the NFL.

"I think he's one of the hardest workers I've ever been around and a great independent

worker," Kragthorpe said. "I think he has a chance to be a great, great player in the NFL. ...

He's going to study film. He's going to know his opponent every week. He's going to analyze:

here's the things that are going well right now but here's what I really need to improve upon,

and he's going to get it done."

Wood, 6-foot-4 and 304 pounds, has a stout, thick body. The Bills expect he will help make

them tougher up the middle against the stellar defensive tackles in the AFC East.

"He's a guy who plays with great leverage and balance," Kragthorpe said. "He's a big-time

technician."

"The game is changing, and that's why there were two centers taken in the first round,"

Wood said. "The game is changing; those big nose guards require a big interior offensive line

and big centers, and I respect that they trust to bring me in to try to handle those guys."

Wood graduated in four years from Louisville with a degree in political science. He carried

a 3.5 grade-point average, Kragthorpe said. Wood said he expects a smooth transition to guard.

"I don't think it will be too tough," Wood said. "On the interior offensive line, a lot of

the techniques carry over, and the body types are pretty much the same. You are going to

battle against the same types of people.

"It will take work to get where I want to be at guard; I have a lot of experience at

center, and the more I get experience at guard the better I will be at guard. I had a chance

to show in the Senior Bowl that I can play guard and I did pretty well against the pretty good

defensive tackles there."

Kragthorpe expects Wood to eventually develop into a big influence in the locker room, as

well.

"Eric was the leader of our team the last two years," he said. "You don't often see that

with an offensive lineman. It's usually a skill position player, maybe a linebacker. But

Eric's been the leader of this team the last two years.

"That's something that really sets him apart. Not only does he want to be a great player

but he wants to help the people around him to be great. He takes a huge amount of pride in

being a guy who can be counted on every single day."