Grading The 2014 Bills

[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

Edited December 22, 2014 by negativo

[billsfan_34]

I cant argue with the grades one bit. We have 1 game left to play and something tells me a few grades may go down a little more. The offense may earn an F after this Sunday.

Edited December 22, 2014 by billsfan_34

[KDIGGZ]

I would agree with these ratings. our defense is amazing, our special teams are improved, and our offense is still TERRIBLE. get a new Offensive Coordinator and QB in here asap or we are going to start rioting

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

Defense should be As all the way down.

[CardinalScotts]

D coordinator deserve an A....your secondary has shifted Cory Graham from corner to nickle to safety and back to corner. You have had injuries to McKelvin and Searcy and Duke Williams having to play Ron Brooks and our boy Rambo and continue to play GREAT defense. Replace Byrd some thought that we can't do that...Aaron Williams is turning into a real leader. The linebackers start the year with how do we do anything without Kiko and end up with a fantastic year from Bradham playing a new position and Preston Brown a rookie went from looking lost in week 1 to looking like an 8 year vet by week 10. Spikes has been used perfectly. Defensive line is obviously a wrecking ball when the opposing team is passing -god if we ever got to play with a lead- but on the other hand the two DE have a difficult time setting an edge especially Hughes - great pass rusher but used in the run game. Manny Lawson is quality depth. The D tackles are the reason this defense is so good- Both Kyle Williams and Dereus are great players. Charles and Bryant to me are dime a dozen type guys I hope they can upgrade some depth. Lastly we have played a really tough schedule with very little to no offensive help, like I said our leads happen with 24 seconds left.

 

Jim Schwartz A+

 

Offense- is a lot more complicated than Orton stinks and Hackett calls a bad game- although both true

Edited December 23, 2014 by CardinalScotts

[BmarvB]

Schwartz deserves an A. Jury still out on CJ more so because of the coaches inability to use him properly. Bryce Brown is another one not being used effectively. Overall, the grades are accurate enough, O-line killed the RB grades.

[The Big Cat]

Uuuuh, look: I love our D and all, but let's not pretend like they were bullet proof.

 

They were less than stellar in several winnable games this year: OAK, NE and--yes--KC.

[AJ1]

I disagree with a couple: OC deserves a F- if possible; his talent-level

is Div II college at best.

 

HC gets a C- or D+ for apparently knowing nothing about offense.

[Niagara Dude]

Seems like everyone knows that Marrone just does not have it as a head coach but we have to bring him back just show he sucks.Another wasted year in 2015 wash rinse an repeat!

[Webster Guy]

Our running backs are all very good. All four of them. To call Bryce a waste of roster space when he's your 4th guy in the rotation is way off base.

It wouldn't have mattered who was running, we had the awful combo of predictable play calling and poor line play. Nobody will do well in that situation.

 

As far as Marrone goes, the guy is going for his ninth win of the year this Sunday with Orton and EJ at the helm. That's a significant improvement from last year, and better than a lot of HC's would be able to pull off. Its hard to tell how technical his offensive expertise goes because he's not a great speaker and he doesn't articulate the specifics of the gameplan in interviews, nor does he seem to think his OC is the problem.

 

Either way I think Marrone should stay as head coach, and the new football guy Pegula brings in needs to closely evaluate Hackett's two seasons as an NFL OC and determine if he's the best dude we can hire for the job next year.

 

I disagree with your assessment of Spikes, I think he was a letdown and will be used only on 3rd and short 8 in the box package next year if he's around at all. Love his character and leadership, but he's a full step too slow.

 

Kiko, Preston, Nigel next year. Hughes goes elsewhere for the big money, we plug in Wynn and Lawson and they get 5 sacks each. We take the money we didn't blow on Byrd (thank god) and Hughes, and sign Dareus and the best FA guard money can buy. I still believe in CJ, especially if we get a new OC. The guy can shred teams if he gets better blocking.