When the Buffalo Bills released Langston Walker Tuesday it completed a wholesale shakeup of what had been a reasonably experienced, albeit less than stellar offensive line.

Last year, Walker started at right tackle. He was attempting to move to left tackle to replace Jason Peters, who moved onto Philadelphia during the offseason.

Also gone off of the 2008 line are left guard Derrick Dockery and center Melvin Fowler. Those four have been replaced by rookie guards Eric Wood and Andy Levitre, second-year left tackle Demetrius Bell, and center Geoff Hangartner, who arrives from Carolina where he started 27 games.

The one holdover, Brad Butler, moves from right guard to right tackle.

Other than Jason Peters, the 2008 line was filled with decent to solid but definitely unspectacular players. Melvin Fowler has been a fill-in player for three teams now, starting for a year in Minnesota before joining Buffalo and starting his career in Cleveland. Guys like Fowler, however, are guys coaches are always looking to replace.

Dockery had joined Buffalo under a seven-year deal in 2007 but he, as well as the rest of the line, struggled in 2008. He was cut and then rejoined his previous employer in Washington.

In all likelihood, the 2009 line has more upside than the 2008 one did. Wood and Levitre were high draft picks this year and Bell is in his second year with the team. In the long run guys like Marshawn Lynch  and Trent Edwards will probably benefit from the changes.

But what confuses me about the wholesale changes upfront is that management during the offseason treated 2009 as though the Bills were planning to make a run. You don’t add Terrell Owens to the fold when you’re planning to rebuild.  And that’s understandable, to some degree, because the offense has other offensive weapons in Lee Evans, Fred Jackson and Marshawn.

So the idea of starting three offensive linemen who have yet to ever start a game in the NFL, while perhaps good for the future, seems awfully darn risky in 2009.

Owens has always done a great job in his first year with his new teams before becoming a cancer toward his quarterbacks. If Edwards spends the bulk of his time on his back this season I don’t think it’s going to take a full season before Owens starts burning bridges in Buffalo/Toronto.

And Edwards hasn’t exactly been a Pro Bowler during his first two years with the team. He improved last year but still threw for just 2,699 yards and 11 touchdowns. His quarterback rating was 85.4 but he’s had injury and consistency problems. Throw him behind an inexperienced offensive line and who knows what will happen.

So while some of these moves probably do make sense in the long run, it’s going to take some time for these guys to meld into a unit. As such, you might see some improvement toward the end of the season.

But early on I would expect to see some struggles. It’ll be interesting to see how T.O. reacts to this situation. In fact, while offensive line play rarely makes for sexy headlines, I’d say the ancillary sideshows this overhaul could cause makes Buffalo one of the league’s more interesting teams to watch in 2009.