ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The gesture didn't mean much to the rookie at the time but, as Buffalo Bills first-round offensive tackle Mike Williams has had a chance to reflect, it may mark a seminal moment of his promising career.

It occurred during a rookie orientation when new Bills starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe cornered Williams to tell the former University of Texas star how important he was to the team. How much he meant to Bledsoe and to the Bills. How the quarterback was looking forward to playing with him.

Nearly three months later, if Bledsoe is in trouble, he can rest assured that Williams definitely has his back.

"I am ready," said Williams after a training camp practice here," to throw myself on the sword for that man."

	There's been nothing but love for Bledsoe since his move to Buffalo.

The sentiment is hardly limited to Williams, with Bledsoe having quickly established himself as The Man in the Buffalo locker room, a player from whom everyone else seems to take their cue. In every chemical compound there is an ingredient that both completes and stabilizes a mixture that might otherwise be considered volatile and Bledsoe is that component.

More than chemistry, however, the 10th-year quarterback provides a dose of confidence, perhaps even more significant to a young Buffalo roster.

The Bills have only a dozen players on their roster whose resumes include more than five years of NFL experience. There are roughly three times that many with two seasons or less in the league.

There is little doubt that team president Tom Donahoe and assistant general manager Tom Modrak prefer to build with younger players and, toward that end, Buffalo has enjoyed superb consecutive draft classes. But the Bills are also a team that has not had an unquestioned leader since quarterback Jim Kelly retired after the 1996 campaign. The locker room first suffered through the split loyalties surrounding Doug Flutie and Rob Johnson. And then when it was Johnson's team alone, he demonstrated little leadership acumen.

So enter Bledsoe, who Donahoe worked indefatigably to acquire from the New England Patriots, and who has been a galvanizing veteran.

"You can call it chemistry or whatever," said Bills center Larry Centers, a 12-year veteran. "To me, it's legitimacy, that's what Drew brings us. Having him lets us think of ourselves as a contender. Every team needs the guy to whom everyone looks at crunch time and he's our guy."

While success on the field is rarely measured by a team's collective mien off it, there is little doubt the Bills organization suffered from a leadership void, and that Donahoe identified Bledsoe as the man he needed to fill it. There were discussions about other quarterbacks, even about perhaps selecting Joey Harrington in the draft, but the best chemist available was Bledsoe.

For his part, Bledsoe is aware that his playing skills represent only a part of the reason Buffalo dealt away its 2003 first-round choice for him, but also believes he still has to earn his place of prominence.

"Guys still have to get to know you, no matter what they've heard about you, and they still have to form their own opinions," he said. "This was a team with good chemistry when I got here. I just need to fit in, you know?"

If the former Patriots star isn't exactly an alchemist, his reputation around the league and his long tenure as a starter command respect, and merit the kind of esteem in which he is held. Players know, for instance, that Bledsoe could have been a vial of nitroglycerine in the New England locker room last season, especially when he had recovered from his chest injuries and seemed ready to reclaim the No. 1 job from Tom Brady.

Instead, he refused to blow the lid off a tough situation, biting his tongue and biding time, waiting to be relocated. That he would land in Buffalo, where the Bills' teams of the '90s often won despite a locker room where jealousy and ill will often festered, is somewhat ironic. Bledsoe knows, though, the right mix can come in a lot of ways. Mostly, though, it comes from winning.

"And that," he said, "is the most important reason I'm here."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.