--The Bills didn't address their need for a left tackle until selecting Virginia Tech's Ed Wang in the fifth round of the college draft.

By then, the list of top names was picked over with players like Iowa's Bryan Bulaga, Rutgers Anthony Davis, USC's Charles Brown and UMass' Vladimir Ducasse off the board.

Buffalo's decision makers are hardly looking at Wang like a consolation prize, however, and the 6-5, 314-pound former tight end has a better-than-average chance to win the starting left tackle job once training camp rolls around.

The penciled in starter is Demetrius Bell, who was a seventh-round pick out of Northwestern State in 2008 and whose body of work in college was a lot less impressive than Wang's.

Bell started eight games a year ago after the Bills refused to meet Pro Bowler Jason Peters' contract demands and traded him to Philadelphia.

But the gaping hole left behind just keeps getting wider.

Bell struggled during his time in the lineup then suffered a season-ending knee injury. Veterans Kirk Chambers, Jamon Meredith and Andre Ramsey aren't viewed as long-term solutions and free agent veteran Cornell Green will start at right tackle.

Wang, meanwhile, anchored West Virginia's line the past two seasons, recording 176 key or knockdown blocks during his 35 starts. A converted tight end, he has excellent feet that should help him against skilled edge rushers.

"In the fifth round, he's got a lot of redeeming qualities," GM Buddy Nix said. "He's got size. He's got intelligence, good feet, balance, he can pass protect. He's got a lot of things going for him...now it's up to us develop those things."

Doug Majeski, Buffalo's college scouting coordinator, said Wang was rarely beat for sacks and was never out of position.

"You don't see mental mistakes from the kid," Majeski said. "He finishes blocks. Everything about his play is good but there is another level that he can and another step he can take."

Wang showed improvement each year in college and wants to continue that progression in the NFL.

"I feel like I have a lot of room to grow in my game and that's what I'm really excited about," he said. "I just want to get in there and have them develop me more and just get me ready to go."

If Wang makes it, he'll be one of the big stories of the NFL.

His parents, Nancy and Robert, were members of the Chinese Olympic track team in the 1970s. Wang, who was born in Fairfax, Va., would become the first Chinese-American to make an NFL roster if he sticks with the Bills.

"It's really important to me," he said. "It means a lot to be that I was able to be the first (drafted) one so I take a lot of pride in that."

Wang could be the NFL's version of the NBA's Yao Ming, only on a less glamorous scale.

"We're thrilled," Michael Stokes, head of NFL China, told Reuters. "One of the things we have to help people understand here in China is that American football requires great athletes of all shapes and sizes."

A Bills team with Wang as a starter would make Buffalo a leading candidate to play an NFL game in China as part of the league's global expansion.

TV figures for NFL programming in China are up to 102 million "unique" viewers.

A scheduled "China Bowl" between New England and Seattle in Beijing never came off in 2009.

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