Before every draft begins, hundreds of players walk around in their underwear in front of scouts.  I can assure you it's nothing gay.  Instead, the scouts want to see what the player's actual height and weight is.  Most importantly though, they want to see what the player's arm length is.  This is a concern mostly for OT's.  The reason the arm length is so important is because the longer the arms are, the more leverage the OT may have in stopping the bull rush of the elite pass rushers.  This factor became especially noticable following Robert Gallery's disspointment following his draft a few years ago.  Before I go into why Gallery was a dissapointment, lets take a look at some big name OT's in the league and take a look at what their arm length is:

Charles Brown (he'll be tied to Bulaga for a while)- 35 1/4

Bryan Bulaga- 33 1/4

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Ryan Clady- 36

D' Brickashaw Ferguson- 35 1/2

Jeff Otah- 34 5/8

Levi Brown- 33 1/8

Jonathon Ogden- 33

Jake Long- 33

Chris Williams- 32-3/4

Joe Thomas- 32 1/2

Robert Gallery- 32 1/4

After taking a look at that list, it's interesting to note that Bryan Bulaga has longer arms than one of the best OT's in history in Jonathon Ogden and the current best OT in the NFL in Joe Thomas.  With that said, do long arms really have that big of an impact in how successfull an OT will be in the NFL? 

When we try and figure out why Gallery fell short, we can note a couple things: he had injury issues and played on an awful Offensive Line.  It's true that the LT is the most important piece in the OL, but as every coach and lineman knows, it's how they gel together.  Did Gallery trust the LG he played next to?  Were all the sacks Gallery gave up a result of the QB holding onto the ball too long?  Was it because teams didn't respect the passing game, so they loaded the box with 8 men, often times overloading the left side of the line?  Those could all be a number of reasons why Robert Gallery failed in the NFL.

Arguably, Joe Thomas is the best OT in the NFL today.  So what makes him different from Gallery if his arms were only 1/4 of an inch longer?  Perhaps the one reason is this: Joe Thomas can play football!  Ok, but seriously, it's a matter of whether or not the player is willing to play his hardest and put all his effort into it. 

It's interesting to note that most scouts are comparing Bulaga to Jake Long.  Scouts claim the 2 are virtually identical.  Promising news for us!  With that said, is the arm length of an OT becoming less of a factor if Bulaga performs at a high level along with Joe Thomas and Jake Long?