You, the FAN, your chance to speak out. VOTE NOW!!

[Ebenezer]

As part of my year ending Up My Flagpole Column (Yes, I am back to writing now that I have moved-notice last week's Outside the Zone article) I am giving the fan the chance to tell us all how good this team was this year. I will review all aspects of the team and will give a vote to the fans. So, please grade each position within the team in the poll I have started here. Also, if you would like, please give some reasons for each vote. I will post the best comment with regards to each position in the article.

In order for everybody to vote I will stick the thread and tally the votes after next weeks game. Feel free to vote now, next week should not have much creedance on the performance over the first 15 games.

I know it is a big poll but thanks for your patience.

thanks,
Eb

[HenryRules]

QB - A. On the overall season, I think Drew deserves an A. His first half would definitely be an A++ and the second half around a B- but he's still the main reason that we were in playoff contention this late in the season.
RB - B. Running ability-wise he's definitely an A, but until the ball can be put in his hands without me thinking he's going to fumble, he can't get an A.
WR - A. Moulds in the pro bowl. Price worthy of consideration. Reed with a strong season. No valid complaints on the overall production. If this category includes TE's, then the grade might come down due to the horrendous contribution of Riemersma, but judging the wide receivers, I say an A.
OL - B. Pass protection deserves a C and run-blocking deserves an A. As the season wore on there didn't seem to be as many penalties as I remember earlier on.
DL - D. Not for lack of effort, more for lack of ability. If not for a few games though, the DL is very close to an F.
LB - C. The strong play of Fletcher gives this group a C. Robinson deserves an F and Newman a D but Fletcher deserves an A. IMO, he was definitely the most over-criticized Bill throughout the entire year.
DB - C. It'd be interesting to see how well they'd do if they had a pass rush and a #3 corner that could cover, but if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle.
Punter/Kicker/Special Teams - An A+ for Moorman, probably because I remember the 84-yarder. A B for Hollis and a C/D for the return units. I don't know if its the return men or the blocking (its impossible for me to tell with most replays), but never once did I think the Bills had a shot at breaking a big return.
Coaches - A. Next to Fletcher, the most over-criticized position on the team. I loved our offensive philosophy throughout most of the year. Gilbride was hamstrung by having an RB that he couldn't trust to hang onto the ball. Its hard to have a ball-control offense centred on the running game, when your RB can't hold onto the ball so I don't blame him for not running more. Jerry Gray is again difficult to judge because he's still lacking talent in key areas.
Front Office - A. Only two mistakes IMO, but they hurt a lot. Keeping Huntley would have allowed us to have much more of a running game as he could spell Henry and be used in situations where a fumble was too risky. Trading Foreman, although I agreed with it at the time, really came back to haunt us as Rogers didn't do anything (perhaps not his fault, but it doesn't matter) and Robinson didn't do anything. An incredibly strong draft and some solid free agent aquisitions made up for it though.

[ArcticWildMan]

QB: B. I don't care what some people say. Drew brings a huge vet presence to the team. He had some bad games, and that drops him to a B grade.

RB: B. Henry had a great year!! His fumblitis drops him to a B grade.

WR: A. Break out year for Peerless and a Pro Bowl year for Moulds. A++!!

O-line: C. Much better than last year, but still a lot of room for improvement. Pass blocking disappeared for entire games it seemed. Run blocking had moments of brilliance followed by sheer ugliness.

D-line: D. 31st in the league against the run says it all. Played much better yesterday. Can only get better with FA and the draft I hope!

LB's: C. Robinson was a liability most of the season. Fletcher had lots of tackles but very few "game breaking" plays. Newman disappeared this season it seemed. This unit will hopefully be addressed via draft/FA.

DB's: C. Clements has the talent, but he was burned too many times for all his hype. A little less hotdogging would be good. Winfield was solid as usual. Watson is a joke and drags the grade of this unit down (almost made it a D).


Kicker/punter/St's: C. Hollis made some crucial kicks but he also missed his share. Moorman was the star of the show. Solid punter!! ST's are better than last year, but they still need some work.

Coaches: C. I'm not sure if it's the talent level or the play calling, but our Defense was horrible for most of the season. There were several games where our Offensive play calling was questionable as well. The Line coaches for both squads seem to be the weak links and are on the hotseat.

Front Office: A. This team was in total cap hell last year. TD has done a masterful job at bringing in talent and getting us out of cap trouble. This coming season will be the defining season however.

[Novacane]

How could you give the coach's an A? That is the ultimate homer grade!

[ArcticWildMan]

Originally posted by BledsoeTOreedfor6
How could you give the coach's an A? That is the ultimate homer grade!


I didn't give them an A.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Name one game where you felt GW & Co. outcoached the other team.

[lordofgun]

Originally posted by Earthquake Enyart
Name one game where you felt GW & Co. outcoached the other team.

Both Miami games. :D

[Novacane]

Originally posted by ArcticWildMan



I didn't give them an A.


That was addressed to HenryRules!

He said:Coaches - A. Next to Fletcher, the most over-criticized position on the team. I loved our offensive philosophy throughout most of the year. Gilbride was hamstrung by having an RB that he couldn't trust to hang onto the ball. Its hard to have a ball-control offense centred on the running game, when your RB can't hold onto the ball so I don't blame him for not running more. Jerry Gray is again difficult to judge because he's still lacking talent in key areas

[Ebenezer]

Everybody is entitled to their own opinion...some may see the lack of talent as being an anchor on a good coaching staff...we'll see what the final tally is!

[Earthquake Enyart]

Originally posted by lordofgun


Both Miami games. :D

That's like being the tallest dwarf, outcoaching Wanny.

That going for it on 4th and 3 late in the first half was the worst coaching call of the year, except for maybe Mornigweg taking the wind in OT vs. da Bears.

[Novacane]

I want to know what grade Wys gives Bledsoe

[HenryRules]

Originally posted by BledsoeTOreedfor6
How could you give the coach's an A? That is the ultimate homer grade!

I voted based on the entire coaching staff in all their duties. I like a lot of our position coaches (OL, S, CB specifically), I like the way our players showed up to play every game, I like the individual improvement that most players experienced from last year to this year, and while I disagreed with a fair number of game-day calls, I've done that every year I've been a Bill fan except some of the Kelly years, and Kelly made the calls in his day, not the coaches.

As I've said many times, I liked the playcalling of our offense. A lot of people don't like that we pass on short yardage situations (i.e. 2nd and 3, 3rd and 2, etc.). Well, I like the fact we pass in those situations. The reason is this: Henry fumbles a lot already without running in short yardage situations. Imagine how many more fumbles he'd have, and at very important times more often than not, if we ran him when teams have their short-yardage D in with all the big hitters.

Now, having given my grade for the coaching staff, there is one assumption I made when determining that grade - that cutting Huntley was a front office decision and not a coaching staff decision (I count all personnel decisions as front office decisions). I predicted in the preseason that cutting Huntley would bite us in the ass and it did in our refusal to run in short yardage situations and inability to have Travis Henry rest on the bench while still being able to run the ball. I still don't how anyone on our staff could have thought that cutting Huntley was a good idea. Even though I hate the decision, I still think the front office made enough good moves (hiring Gilbride, the entire draft, signing Fletcher, etc.) to make up for it and deserve their A.

[PA Season Ticket Holder]

QB: C- For all the great games he had at the start of the year he's had just as many god awful games in the 2nd half.

RB: B- If it wasn't for the fumbles it would be an A. This is one area he needs to improve in to be a Top RB in the league.

WR: A- The talent in this area for the year is just sick. Even with the dropoff in the 2nd part of the year they still deserve an A. Bledsoe just hasn't been on target lately.

OL: C- Great run blocking, suspect pass blocking at times. Will definitely improve.

DL: D- The QB pressures and yards ran against them says it all. If I had to choose for next year I'd take a stud pass rushing force DE over a stud DT. We need to upgrade at the UT position but we need that pass rusher more.

LB: C- Fletcher got off to a slow start but has shown that he can produce in this scheme. Robinson is just a bum and Newman isn't what we thought he'd turn into after his 8.5 sack season.

DB: B- We're ranked in the Top 5 in pass yards against. Most of them have came against Watson. We're very close to having one of the best secondary in the league.

K, P, and ST: C- Our kicking team was great at times but we had our share of problems at times too.

Coaching: B- They've done a decent job overall with what we have to play with. Some bad decisions but that could be said with every coach in the NFL.

Front Office: A- This is definitely one of the best FO's in the NFL

[clumping platelets]

Must be Fish fans still fuming about gettin' swept..........WR got 1 F :rolleyes:

[TypicalBill]

QB - B Lets just say the final 5 games werent pretty.

RB - A The running game this year has been vastly improved from last year and henry is still young, he should improve more and more in the upcoming seasons.

WR - B Great effort throughout the season except the last couple of weeks when both the QB and WR spots didn't produce. Nevertheless, excellent job.

OL - C The group was dominant in the early part of the season but injuries started to slow them down. A young group that are led by a pro-bowler in Ruben Brown. Great run blocking but needs to step it up on pass protection. Overall average.

DL - D This group started to work effectively too late. They've performed well the last couple of weeks and the game against the Vikings. Schobel and Williams are the only players that deserve to start. Needs vast improvement this offseason.

LB - C London Fletcher is the only linebacker flying around the field and making tackles. Robinson is old and doesn't have it anymore and i haven't heard newmans name all season. This group needs some help this offseason through free agency and the draft.

DB - B Winfield has been outstanding and a shutdown corner, Clements is solid but needs to bring it every down(he's letting some slip away). The main problem here was the 3rd CB which was Watson and he was beat on too many huge plays but in the last couple of games Bostic and Thomas took his place and produced.

ST - B

coaches - D

Front office - B

[BFBills]

i gave the an F
for fart head! Yippie wait wait..........:drinker:
Merry z-mas yall!

[BFBills]

every thing got atleast one F

[SABURZFAN]

QB- i gave a B.bledsoe had a few horrible games but it's a tremendous improvement over last year.
RB-i gave a B.henry's fumbles dropped it to a B.not much use out of the rest of the RB's.
WR-i gave a B.not much production out of the TE's.otherwise,it's an A.
OL-i gave a B.they're young and showed some mistakes but they're looking a helluva lot better than last year's bunch.they can be real good if we keep them together.
DL-i gave a C.they're actually a C- .it could've been worse if not for p.williams.
LB-i gave a C.like the DL,i think they're a C- but the more i think about it,i should have given them a D.newman did his best impression of the invisible man and robinson's play has slipped considerably.fletcher did a good job.
DB-i gave a B.watson was a major eye sore but i'm hoping that this idiot coaching staff realizes that k.thomas can play even though he can have his watson-like moments.i've seen him play in college and he's a steal for a 6th round pick.i would have liked a couple picks from winfield and clements showed signs of inconsistency.
ST-a D.they need some work here.
COACHES-(if you want to call them that)-i gave an F.Gee Dubya seemed to get outcoached every game,gilbride's playcalling was ALWAYS questioned,and gray seemed like a lost cause for our defense.d.smith should be coaching pop warner.
FRONT OFFICE-i gave TD a B.i know that he was in a situation that seemed bleak when you have about $18 million(i don't know the exact number)in dead cap space.the bledsoe pickup was huge for this team.otherwise,we probably would have been 3-13 again.ahanotu was a decent pickup.robinson doesn't look to be a good pickup.we need another good draft out of TD to cement a solid foundation for this young team.

[kgun12]

Well it's easy to see where we need help. So bring on FA and the draft!!!

[TigerJ]

I found I was a little harder on DB and Travis Henry that the plurality. I know DB started the season like a house afire, but his late season swoon brought him back to a C on my report card. I like Henry and think he has a truckload of talent but looking at the season as a whole the fumbling was an issue and brought his grade down to a B on my card. On everything else I voted pretty close to the plurality.

[mybills]

Who gave Drew an F? lol...Even I didn't give him an F! :D

[SoCalBillsFan]

The front office can't get an A because they hired 3 dumb coaches....

[Ebenezer]

Please leave stuck until 1/1/03...I will write my article on 1/2/03.

[Ebenezer]

Thanks to everybody who voted!! Please check out the results in my Up My Flagpole article this week.