negativo

Bills Team Grades Defense Secondary: What a surprise to see the secondary perform like an elite unit despite losing pro bowl safety Jarius Byrd to free agency. Holding Manning and Rogers to zero TDs? Incredible. Gillmore, Searcy and Aaron Williams were studs. Duke Williams came up big. Hell, even McKelvin played well before the injury, leading the team with 4 INTs. Corey Graham was a UFA steal. Top 3 pass defense, but NO pick 6's and general lack of big plays hurt rating. Grade: A- Linebacker: Ups and downs. Were strong in coverage, but needed more pass rush and run stuff. Spikes was a major disappointment as a FA signing. Rookie Preston Brown was impressive, and while Nigel Bradham had an up and down year he showed a lot of promise. Former 1st Rd pick Keith Rivers flopped and barely played. Need a healthy Kiko back next year to add some speed and big plays to the unit. Grade: B- Defensive Line: Led the league in sacks and were generally dominant, though pass rush tailed off at the end of the year. Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, Marcel Darius and Jerry Hughes should all be Pro-Bowlers. Darius in particular was a beast. 10 sacks for an interior lineman who also stuffed the run? He deserves to be in the discussion for NFL's Defensive MVP. Grade: A Defensive Coordinator: Schwartz did a great job of protecting against big plays while the studs up front provided pass rush. Stymieing HOF QB's MAnning and Rodgers showed excellent game planning. Blitz schemes generally were effective for the DBs, but need more from the LBs, All too often went into prevent at crucial long yardage moments and got burned for some critical conversions. Grade: B+ Defense Overall: They were solid, especially vs the pass. Better overall than a lot of us figured they'd be. Grade: B+ Offense Quarterback: 2013 1st Rd pick EJ Manuel lost his starting job Week 5. Inaccurate, tentative and appearing over-matched by the speed of the game, it was a mercy benching. Barring a miraculous turnaround, he's looking like a bust and a major black mark on Whaley, who went all in reaching for him as the 16th pick when most experts had him rated no better than a 2nd round project. Replacing EJ was Kyle Orton, a career journeyman who was awkwardly signed just before the 1st game for $5 million, making him the highest paid backup in the league. Orton started out well well enough, but after a few games started showing why he got beat out by Tim Tebow in Denver. Utterly immobile, wildly inconsistent, poor deep ball, and untimely turnovers have been the story of his run as starter. Wouldn't be surprised if no QB on the current roster is on the team next season. Grade: F Running Backs: Piles of injuries hampered the unit, but even when healthy this wasn't pretty. The biggest bust was CJ Spiller, who before and after injury failed to get up field, choosing instead to dance to the edge and go out of bounds. His days are numbered here. Freddy was again our best back, often getting something from nothing and making 1st downs as a receiver. Heart of a lion, but getting long in the tooth. Booby is a solid back for depth, but needs to get in better shape. Bryce Brown is a waste of roster space. Grade: D+ Receivers: Sammy Watkins came in with much fanfare after the Bills emptied the tank to get him in the 1st round with the 4th pick. Giving up both the 2014 and 2015 #1 picks, plus a 4th rounder, is a huge, risky leap for a WR, but Whaley staked his reputation and the Bills future on it. So far the reviews are mixed. Sammy had some good moments, and will likely get 1,000 yards, but he wasn't elite among rookie WRs, finishing outside the Top 3 of the crop in both receptions and yardage. He needs to get better for the price tag to be justified. Despite being targeted less, Robert Woods has as many receptions as Sammy and generally played well. Chandler was solid at TE, and Logan was a good slot receiver. Mike Williams? Not so much. Grade: B Offensive Line: Complete and utter disaster. The lone bright spot was Seantrel Henderson, who was a great find by Whaley in the 7th round of the 2014 draft. Conversely, the biggest bust was Cyrus Kouandjio, who Whaley moved up to take in the 2nd round. The rest don't deserve mention. Grade: F Offensive Coordinator: Nate Hackett was the perfect crap storm: Terrible play calling, bad scheming, no creativity, and failing to develop his offensive unit into anything resembling a cohesive unit. No identity whatsoever. Strategy of passing over 80% in the red zone led to the worst TD conversion rate in the NFL. Repeated failure to develop ground game left QBs sitting ducks, and RBs out of rhythm. Repeatedly calling shotgun draws or long developing passes on short yardage situations was infuriating to watch. That said, he had very little to work with. No viable QBs, a terrible OL and an injury depleted core of RBs. Grade: D- Offense Overall: Nothing went right on offense. Nothing. If not for the solid play of the defense, this season could easily have spiraled to a 3-13 nightmare. A lot of capital has been spent in both picks and money to improve the unit the past two years, and none of it has paid off. Grade: D- HEAD COACH: Marrone won just enough to save his job for one more year. Things better improve on offense in a quantifiable way next season or it will be his last. Cowardly decisions on 4th down have become his signature badge of dishonor. A bickering relationship with management gives the impression the ship isn't being directed with any continuity. At times, he seems out of touch with what's happening both on and off the field. Grade: C

Gotta admit that I was torn between "Meh, same old Bills", and, "Just thrilled the team is staying". In the end, I pulled the lever on "thrilled the team is staying". The way I see it: If not for that the rest of the options are meaningless.

What are your thoughts on the 2014 Bills?

http://www.buffaloru...mack-derek-carr

Tell you who I'd love to get my hands on...Kellen Moore. We have a cushy relationship with Detroit, and he'll be an RFA so a good time for them to unload him for decent compensation before he is a UFA next year. Something about this guy...he's got the IT that was mentioned in another thread.

Orton has about as much chance of being on the roster next year as you do. One and done. Clearly not good enough to start and too expensive to hold a clipboard. EJ will get a chance to show something in preseason, but in reality he's not the future QB, either. So, who is??? Who the hell knows.

The meaning of this game is on par with the final preseason game. Only thing the Bills need to run is for the bus. Goodnight Mrs Calabash wherever you are.

This one feels about right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xYEVp2p2l4#t=57

Really could have used a guy like Khalil Mack today. BTW, if you want to see what a dominant defense looks like check out the Seattle game.

Sadly, EJ sucks just as bad...if not worse. Some still hope that could change with more development, but I think that's just wishful thinking. Bills have no hope at the position for the foreseeable, and Whaley bombing out on EJ was crushing for the franchise. Best hope is we nail a surprise in the 2nd or 3rd round who shows promise. Whaley is better at hitting on lower round picks than high so worth a shot.

Top 10 D. They're good but not dominant.

Orton is one of the best in garbage time, tho. So we've got that going for us. Which is nice.

I agree. Getting a better IT department is critical to becoming a playoff team. Our firewall's suck.

Orton is a horrible QB!

I will say this...I'd rather have Sammy than Clowney. lol

I spend way too much time privately laughing at the expense of some folks on this board. My apologies...I know it's kinda mean. I'll make a new year's resolution to be less smug...though I doubt it'll last long. lol BTW, Mack is beast. Seeing him dominate this game while we were gashed left and right...I mean really. There isn't any debate on who is the more dominant rookie outside Message Board Bubble. Mack is the rookie of the year, and the best player in the league at his position. He must be game planned above any other defender. I'll take him over two Sammy's to be honest.

More "idiots": Alan Pergament ‏@StillTalkinTV It looks like Bills should have taken Mack instead of Watkins after moving up in draft Jerry Sullivan ‏@TBNSully If they redrafted today, I think Mack might go first overall.

So, uhh...anyone care to change their vote?

Dagger to our playoff hopes. This felt so familiar.

Welcome to the Buffalo curse, San Francisco.

Harbaugh prolly on Expedia trying to find a late flight out to Ann Harbor.

You gotta be f-ing kidding me.