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With the Superbowl over the season has officially come to an end. So it is time again to assign arbitrary scores to our favorite team(s) so we can then argue with each over them ( and also learn a lot about how other teams did this year ). Rough TemplateTeam Name: Offense QB, Grade: HB, Grade: FB, Grade: WR, Grade: TE, Grade: OL, Grade: Deffense DE, Grade: DT, Grade: LB, Grade: CB, Grade: S, Grade: Special Teams K, Grade: P, Grade: Returning, Grade: ST defense, Grade: Coaching GM, Grade: HC, Grade: OC, Grade: DC, Grade: STC, Grade: Draft/Rookies Grade: FA signings/Trades Grade: Overall Team Score Grade: And starting things off: Team Name: Seattle Seahawks Offense QB, Grade: A Russell started out the season fairly slow. To the point that many people in TFF were calling for him to be benched in favor of Flynn. Yet, every week he kept getting better and better. By the end of the year he had solidified the fact that he is probably the future at QB for this franchise. I know first years for QBs are more like "trials" and the real test will be his 2nd year when teams have more tape on him, but given his insane work ethic I have faith he will continue to be the answer. HB, Grade: A Marshawn Lynch is the engine of the Seahawks offense, and outside of AdP there wasn't a better RB in the league in my opinion. However, I'm a bit nervous about next year. Lynch had a pretty big workload this year, and was clearly wearing down when the team went into the playoffs. I feel like that doesn't bode well for his future if they continue to give him so many carries. FB, Grade: A FBs don't get a lot of coverage in the NFL, but Michael Robinson deserves plenty of credit for the success of Seattle's run game this year. I thought he really improved his blocking this year while still maintaining his ability to occasionally run the ball, and act as a safety valve to the QB. Perhaps more important though, is his role in the locker room. He is often the man in the middle of the pre-game huddle pumping everybody up before the game, and his short video segments with the players are popular with the fans. WR, Grade: B+ Certainly not the best unit in the game, but they made some big improvements this year. Namely, Sidney stayed healthy, Golden started to put his talents to good use, and Baldwin came back from his injury continuing to look like Bobby Engram 2.0. The rest of the receivers are a bit of a mixed bag. I expect someone will be brought in this off-season through FA/the Draft to help fill out the WR core. TE, Grade: B+ Many people said Zach Miller dropped off after he left the Raiders because his receiving yards went way down. Truth is that Seattle has just needed him in the trenches helping out the OL more than acting as a receiver. Which, to his credit, he continues to do a good job at, and doesn't complain about. Toward the end of the season as Seattle's OL started to gel more they gave Miller more chances as a receiver, and he proved he is still good at that to (especially in the red zone). Anthony McCoy is definitely not as good as Miller and had a few headache inducing drops, but didn't do too bad either. OL, Grade: B Toward the end of the year Tom Cable had the Line performing at the top end of the league. However, at the start of the year they were far from it. Between Giacommi false starting every other play, and a revolving door at both G positions thanks to injuries there was plenty to be nervous about. Still, Tom Cable is a god-drat wizard of an OL coach so all was not lost, and both OT Russel Okung and C Max Unger got pro bowl nods this year. Deffense DE, Grade: C The major chink in the armor of the Seahawks this year was the lack of any kind of pass-rush. Clemons does a pretty good job, but he gets no support from the rest of the D-line which is mostly built around stopping the run. Rookie Bruce Irvin showed some promise here and there, but mostly looked pretty raw (especially in the Falcons playoff game where he was the starter). It looks likely he will never be much more than a situational DE. DT, Grade: C A big part of the failure of the DEs to pass-rush is the DTs complete inability to create interior pressure. When Mebane was partnered with Jason Jones it looked like there might be something there, but Jones went out with an injury early in the season. After that whatever pass-rush ability was there among the DTs went out the window. Still, they weren't bad at stopping the run so... C it is. LB, Grade: B+ Thanks to great coaching this was one of the better units in the league. Rookie Bobby Wagner was a tackling machine and KJ Wright has established himself as one of the best OLBs in the league. LeRoy Hill also did well, but after yet another spousal abuse charge (likely) on the way he is probably gone. CB, Grade: A- They play very physical (to the point many say they play dirty), and Sherman talks a bit too much poo poo sometimes (though as the mic'd up with him showed most of it is pretty superficial). However, Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner made up one of the best (if not THE best) CB tandems in the league this year. Some of the rookies also showed a lot of promise as well. Still, a unit is only as good as their weakest link, and Marcus Trufant has become a pretty weak link at NB. I suspect he won't be coming back next year. S, Grade: A Earl Thomas just keeps getting better, and Kam Chancellor is one of the best defensive "enforcers" in the league. There is a legitimate argument to be made that they are the best safety duo in the league. Special Teams K, Grade: C Hauschka continued to be league average, but seemed to be down on leg strength this year. Even before the injury during the playoff game against the Redskin's the team was reluctant to use him on long field goals. I don't expect he will be back next year. P, Grade: B+ John Ryan had a "down" year this year, but that was just because he didn't need to punt as much. He is still one of the better punters in the league. Returning, Grade: B Leon Washington is still a good return man, but I think he has lost some of his explosiveness on returns. He may or may not return to the team next year although no one else on the team can really fill his shoes at the moment. ST defense, Grade: B They showed an improvement over last year, and kept big returns to a minimum. In this case I think adequate is good enough. Coaching GM, Grade: A John Schneider continues to be a great young GM. His ability to find talent in the late rounds of the draft, and find personnel to fit to fit the teams system are among the best in the league. I hope he stays with the Seahawks for a long time. HC, Grade: A Carroll is a... "unique" head coach. Even at 61 years old his enthusiasm on the sideline is unmatched in the rest of the league. The players love him, his "nobody is safe" approach to roster management keeps players from stagnating/feeling safe too much, and he has the secondary playing at a very high level. There are some questions about his offensive game management, but his reasons for holding back Wilson are not without merit. OC, Grade: B Aside from appearing to not really know what to do with Russell Wilson early on in the season Bevell wasn't bad this year. I think he owes more of his success to the offense coming together and playing at a high level than his coaching, but he didn't do too bad all things considered. DC, Grade: A Gus Bradley has been an under the radar great DC since he was named the DC for Seattle four years ago. He is a big part of the reason Seattle's LBs played at such a high level, and it's not surprising Jacksonville brought him in to be their new head coach. I'm sad to see him go. STC, Grade: B I don't know much about Brian Schneider to be honest, but the STs unit is generally pretty good. So I'll give him a B. Draft/Rookies Grade: A Picking Bruce Irvin with Seattle's first pick was a pretty big eyebrow raiser at the time, but with time he will probably be worth the pick (even if he ends up being more of situational player). Second round pick Bobby Wagner will likely be the starting MLB for years to come, 4th round HB Robert Turbin didn't get as much play time as I would have liked, but looked ok as a spell back for Lynch. The other later round picks look to all have a future with the team as well. However, the real news is 3rd round pick QB Russell Wilson, who proved the haters who thought he was too short to do anything in the NFL wrong. I still want another year of production out of him before I call him the franchise QB, but given how he looks so far this draft gets an A no matter what thanks to him. FA signings/Trades Grade: C A lot of people may not agree with giving this a C because of the whole Matt Flynn thing. However, given the context of the time it wasn't a bad move. The only QBs on the roster then were TJax and Josh Portis. Neither of whom were the answer to the QB position. So Seattle brought in Flynn to bridge the gap while they tried to find someone in the draft to fill the "franchise QB" need. They later took a chance on Russell Wilson who at the time no one really expected to turn out as good as he did so fast. And yet, he did turn out to be pretty drat good, and it would have been stupid to bench Wilson in the face of that just because they gave Flynn starting QB money. The other signings were all pretty "meh." Brayon Edwards never really did much of anything, and was cut soon after Baldwin came back. DT/DE Jason Jones looked like a good signing, but couldn't stay healthy. I doubt he will be back next year as the draft is deep with D-line talent this year. Overall Grade: A- The playoff against the Falcons was pretty disappointing for me because of the way it ended, but at least they didn't get blown out. The rest of the season was fun to watch, and got better as Russell Wilson seemingly improved every week. Going into next year I'm worried about how Lynch will fair, and the pass-rush is still way up in the air right now. However, there is a lot to look forward to, and given no one really thought Seattle was going to the Superbowl this year being excited for next year is enough for me.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 02:31 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 21:19 |
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The Baltimore Ravens Offense QB - I've always been a huge homer for Joe, and even though he Joe'd it up this year being streaky in the seasonn, I'll give him an A- because of the phenomenal playoff run. It's no secret that he was being stunted by Cam Cameron. Terrible playcalling, putting Boldin at wideout, and being absolutely awful in adjustments. Joe has done very well with a nerf'd offense, and outside of the Denver game in the regular season, Joe did very well post-Cam. He has the best deep ball in the NFL and I hope we many more playoff runs. I'd love to see him at least make the playoffs in the next 2-3 seasons to extend his streak of playoff appearances since entering the NFL. He's extremely durable and will stay in the pocket until the last second to make a throw, usually taking a brutal hit. However, this is a double edged sword as there have been times this year where he was in the middle of being brought down and would force the ball out and making a stupid throw (There were only 4-5 times this season where he pulled off getting the ball to his receiver when this happened.) Seeing him move around this year was really cool, he's a pretty quick guy for being so big (ran a 4.7 40 at the combine). He was extremely elusive in the playoffs and it was cool to see something new from him. He has not missed a start since week 1 in 2008, really durable guy. A- HB - People say defense has been Baltimore's consistency, but I would have to say the backfield is another consistent thing in the Ravens organization. Ray Rice actually had a "down" year (he led the league in yards from scrimmage last season), but he was still an invaluable asset to the team. The emergence of Bernard Pierce was amazing. In the first half of the season, we didn't see too many Bernard sightings, and he'd bust off for a good gain every now and then. I initially dismissed this as good blocking, but the more I watched this guy the more I was amazed. Most of the time, he will shed/bounce off the first defender that tries to tackle him. He's not the all-around threat that Rice is, but he's an excellent compliment. He's an amazing pure-runner and has that ADP style (not comparing the two, don't kill me, ADP owns). Ray Rice had a super "meh" postseason, but that's okay. I imagine the first thing the teams in the playoffs did when studying Baltimore's offense was try to remove Ray Rice from the game. A FB - Vonta Leach is the best fullback in the NFL. He's a linebacker in the backfield and loves to truck people. He's a classic fullback and a dying breed, I really love this guy. Not very much to say about him because he owns so hard. A+ WR - The Baltimore WR crew has greatly improved this season. Last year we were one of the top teams in drops. In the training camp days of this past season, we were all scratching our heads at the Jacoby acquisition, but it worked out great. The guy reminds of Qadry Ismail when he was a Raven and is a great speedster to compliment Joe's arm. Torrey Smith being more than a speedster also helped quite a bit this year as we saw him do some great blocking and pull off some nice intermediate routes. He drew a lot of attention from the safeties allowing Pitta and Boldin to tear up the middle of the field. Anquan Boldin is a beast and a godsend, and I hope he stays a Raven until he retires. I totally don't mind him stealing Mason's spot as Baltimore's most beloved receiver if he stays. Caldwell keeping Boldin in the slot (WHERE HE BELONGS) helped push us over the top. I'm also looking forward to see how Tandon Doss, Deonte Thompson, and Tommy Streeter pan out. I'll give our starting WR crew a big fat A-. Yes they had trouble against press coverage for the first half of the season, but I'm willing to overlook it because it happened less often after Cam got fired. TE - Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta own bones. I became a Pitta fan after Ravens-Steelers II in the 2011 season after I saw him making some insane snags on 3rd down. In an ocean of dropped passes plaguing the 2011 season, it was nice to see Pitta break out. Last season and this season, he continues to have the best hands on the team. He also got a bit bigger this year and it's nice to see a Todd Heapzilla out there. Ed Dickson is cool and all, and the better athlete out of the two, but he still has rocks for hands and I get nervous every time something is thrown his way. Kawalimus and I would have a few back-and-forths over Pitta and Dickson last season, but I'm glad to see Pitta went from the #2 TE to the #1. However, as good as our tight ends can be on offense, they still have a little trouble when asked to block. B+ OL - Matt Birk actually had a pretty decent year after getting embarrassed multiple times last season. We will be fine if he retires this season (I hope he does for the sake of cap space), mainly because we drafted his replacement, Gino Gradkowski. Gino looked great in training camp and played very well in week 17 when we pulled a lot of starters. Kelechi Osemele at tackle was loving stupid, and once he was moved to LG he started to tear poo poo up. Oher is overrated and was a revolving door at LT, and played much better at RT. He's average but gets clowned a lot. Marshal Yanda totally owns and rarely has an off day. Joe's worst game this year (and one of the worst of his career) was against Denver. Marshal Yanda was injured for this game, resulting in a backup and Michael Oher holding up the strong side. This failed miserably and Joe was running for his life all game. Bryant McKinnie was a breath of fresh air to see simply because it put the rest of the starters in the positions they should've been at all year long. We need to draft a LT badly, as Bryant really can't sustain that level of play for an entire season and does get clowned every once in a while. With the line finding its identity for most of the season, I'll have to give them a B-. Defense/ST/Coaching still to come!
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 03:12 |
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The Baltimore OL needs two grades, because there were really two different units. The first one gets a C-/D+, and the playoff unit with McKinnie at LT gets a goddamned A considering the opponents. I really don't know what we're going to do at LT next year.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 03:29 |
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Yea, it was awful with KO at tackle. I need to look at draft prospects because I can totally see us grabbing a Left Tackle as our first pick. I'm actually hoping Birk retires because I think Gino has a very bright future at center.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 03:43 |
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God damnit I was about to go to sleep, now I'm due for another sleepless night reliving this loving season. Kansas City Chiefs Offense QB, Grade: F- I'll listen to Jets fans if they want to argue they had things worse, Jags fans can go to hell (Gabbert was 'good' in this conversation while his awesome running back was around), Cards fans are out of the running due to injury. Heading into the season Matt Cassel's main good point was that he took care of the ball, which is an amusing thing to think about when you consider that he threw about 18 billion interceptions in a half season. Brady Quinn (Brady loving Quinn) came in and was arguably better just since he didn't turn the ball over at such an amazing rate, but the offense lost any semblance of moving the ball at the same time. Just a putrid season from this position. In the midst of all of this it is worth noting that Ricky Stanzi couldn't sniff the field in all of the copious amounts of garbage time the Chiefs had if they wanted to see what he could do. HB, Grade: B- This grade is a testament to Jamaal Charles. Adrian Peterson going off overshadowed what would have been a CPotY season in most other seasons (Peyton too I guess). Coming off of a torn ACL he rushed for 1500 yards on a team with no real passing threat. Shaun Draughn was adequate as the third stringer. Peyton Hillis made me want to grade the whole position as another F. Hillis attempted a pass this year by the way. In what might be the worst conceived trick play I've ever seen (a throwback to Quinn). It was incomplete, and an improvement on most of his runs. Cyrus Gray was mostly invisible, occasionally bad, had a good run or two. Wasn't used much. FB, Grade: Inc/Who cares? Nate Eachus played fullback occasionally. Very occasionally. Hillis should have played there but he was used as a halfback when he was in the game. Eachus is likeable enough but not at all important to the team other than on special teams. WR, Grade: D This grade might be unfair, because who was going to throw the ball to them? Either way Bowe was sort of ok, not particularly great and the cause of a few turnovers either directly (fumbling) or tipping catchable balls to defenders like he was setting a volleyball. This gets forgiven since he was one of exactly two playmakers on the offensive side of the ball on the entire damned team. Everyone else was poo poo. Jonathan Baldwin spent the year doing nothing, Dexter McCluster was Dexter McCluster--which I guess means he was very occasionally brilliant and mostly terrible. Devon Wylie spent most of the year inactive, Steve Breaston was apparently so deep into the doghouse for whatever reason that he almost never saw the field. Past those guys we get into useful special teams people who took too many snaps offensively and guys who should be on the practice squad if they're on the roster at all. TE, Grade: C- As far as catching the ball they had the same problem as the receivers, but at the same time I don't think Moeaki was getting open all that often. Kevin Boss going down didn't help, he was looking really good right up until he got injured a quarter into the season. They did a sort of ok job blocking from what I remember. OL, Grade: A- at the start of the season C with the MASH unit out there at the end of the year I guess you'd call the problem here depth, but this was a really unlucky year for the Chiefs O Line injury wise. They were a stunningly good unit on a horrible team for a few weeks, then they all started dying off. Defense DE, Grade: D- KC's DE's have been block eating run stoppers who couldn't rush the passer to save their lives. This year they stopped defending the run as well if they didn't get hurt. DT, Grade: C- That might be a generous grade just because I still can't believe Dontari Poe wasn't immediately the most awful draft pick ever made. He was useful. Not great, probably not even good, but useful. He was thrust into the starting role due to injuries in the preseason and every now and then actually looked ok. I believe he had by far the most snaps on the Chiefs D Line. The other guys were more polished but pretty much space eaters. LB, Grade: How the hell to approach this? Incomplete: 1/4 dead If I went by individual player I'd say B, A, loving Murderer, A- for Hali, Johnson, Belcher, Houston. Hali is really fun to watch but you don't get an appreciation for him until you see him every play, the dude just never stops. He wasn't as good as he has been in the past this year, but still really good. DJ was one of the very few players who looked like he cared each and every play during this abomination of a season, I know he's probably not as good as a couple of guys out there but I wouldn't want to trade him for anyone. Uh...Belcher for anyone who's been living under a rock. And Justin Houston looks like he's going to end up as something special. CB, Grade: D+ This grade is probably unfair to Brandon Flowers who is still very good. But everyone else was poo poo. Oh god it was so awful. They cut Stanford Routt a few games into the season after signing him to a pretty decent contract in the offseason because he was so terrible (and possibly just to make him a scapegoat). They didn't really get any better after that. S, Grade: C- Eric Berry (undeserved) Pro Bowler was the good news. And he didn't really seem to get his feet under him until around week 15. The rest were pretty forgettable or maybe forcibly forgettable since I saw so many people running free. Special Teams K, Grade: B- Succup was ok. He's been good in the past, he missed some kicks, whatever P, Grade: A- Dustin Colquitt (mostly deserved) Pro Bowler. I don't know enough about the other punters in the AFC to say whether he actually should have gotten the nod, but he was very good. And used very often. Returning, Grade: C- I'm throwing a dart here, they were ok I guess? They sure didn't break many plays though ST defense, Grade: D Occasionally very good, possibly aided by Colquitt. Also occasionally loving awful, they gave up a bunch of big returns. Coaching GM, Grade: F is for Fired Good goddamned riddance Scott Pioli. HC, Grade: F is for Fired I like you as a person and a DC Romeo, but I'm very glad you will not be my head coach any longer. OC, Grade: F is...whatever One of the local reporters described the situation something like this: "Look I'm not saying Brian Daboll is any good, but he's trying to drive a car with four flat tires right now." He's probably pretty bad, but he had no chance. DC, Grade: D- I guess? The defense wasn't the worst unit on the field and the defense played a little better once Romeo named Gary Gibbs as his DC. Gibbs was one of two guys retained from the previous coaching staff unless I've missed someone STC, Grade: C? gently caress if I know. Dave Toub came available and they kicked Tom McMahon out the door very quickly if he wasn't already gone by then. Overall Team Score Grade: loving the lowest F you can Give Christ gently caress this goddamned team Please be good Andy. I'll let you call all the timeouts you want. I left off the rookies and free agents if anyone wants to do those, or tell me I'm a moron for grading things too high. Or low, but I reserve the right to laugh at you. Grittybeard fucked around with this message at Feb 5, 2013 around 04:03 |
| # ? Feb 5, 2013 04:01 |
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Team Name: Miami Dolphins Offense QB, Grade: D Ryan Tannehill graded out as a bottom 3rd QB in the league. Under most circumstances that would receive an F grade. As a rookie with only 16 college starts under his belt and starting all season on a team with no weapons, Tannehill performed as most thought he would. He has the raw tools, can they be developed? He has already posted a higher comp % and Y/A then Mark Sanchez ever has. Yippy. HB, Grade:C Reggie entered the season as he ended last season, on fire. After the first couple of weeks though, he stopped hitting the hole and started running laterally. He is still the only playmaker on offense, at least until they actually give Lamar Miller some touches. Daniel Thomas has one real nice game a year(Seahawks) but is decidedly average. FB, Grade:D Javorski Lane started the season making plays before proving to be fumble prone. When he stopped getting touches it seemed to effect his blocking. The only thing I remember about Lane after about week 4 is his inability to block. WR, Grade:D Brian Hartline had over 1000 yards. Davone Bess would have as well if he hadn't missed the last couple of weeks. That is the only thing keeping this from being a bright red F. They combined for 2 TDs. Hartline's coming on a broken coverage in Arizona for an 80 yard score. Rishard Matthews ended the season as the third leading wideout with a whopping 11 receptions. TE, Grade:C Anthony Fasano is slow as molasses. His blocking is also slipping. Despite that he lead the team in receiving touchdowns. He also had probably all 5 of the top 5 catches this season in terms of difficulty. Charles Clay was basically a no show. OL, Grade:C Mike Pouncey is an above average starter. Jake Long can be when healthy, but who knows if he will ever be again. He was only average at best. Richie Incognito got an undeserved Pro Bowl appearance. He would be the first lineman I would replace in the offseason. John Jerry and Johnathan Martin were ok. If they get a hair better we would be fine on that side. Defense DE, Grade:B Wake is an A. Jared Odrick is a C+. We drafted a 4-3 DT to be a 3-4 DE and then left him there when we switched to a 4-3. Odrick should be moved back inside on 3rd down. DT, Grade:A Randy Starks and Paul Soliai did everything asked of them this season. Tony McDaniel is a fine back-up. LB, Grade:B Karlos Dansby, Kevin Burnett, and Koa Misi are all average or better linebackers. Dansby is the best of the 3. Burnett looks very good at times but stuck in the mud at others. Misi is basically average. CB, Grade:C- Sean Smith is the only starting caliber cornerback on the roster. He is a mid tier CB2 and he is playing CB1. I didn't like the Vontae Davis trade when it happened and I still think it was a mistake. Richard Marshall, Nolan Carrol, and the revolving door of backup corners showed nothing at all. S, Grade:B Reshad Jones is the best member of the secondary and he deserves an A. He is probably the best defender on the team after Cameron Wake. Chris Clemmons is solid in run support but a liability in coverage. Jimmy Wilson is pretty bad. Special Teams K, Grade:D Dan Carpenter straight up cost the Dolphins 2 wins this season. They outplayed the Jets in the first game but Dan shanked a FG in the 4th quater and then missed again in OT (Rex Ryan would be 2-7 all time against the Dolphins). He missed another in Arizona the next week. P, Grade: A Brandon Fields was robbed of a Pro Bowl spot. He is the best punter in the AFC and possibly the NFL. Returning, Grade:B+ Marcus Thigpen scored both a kickoff return and punt return for touchdowns. He had a few other nice run backs as well. Letting Davone Bess continue to field punts is why this is not an A. ST defense, Grade:B+ Blocked a few kicks and were solid on coverage most the year. Coaching GM, Grade:D Had what I thought was a solid draft. His only free agent acquisitions were 4 games of Richard Marshall and 4 episodes of Ocho. Traded or best corner and our best receiver before the season. HC, Grade:C In terms of game day decisions Joe Philbin is the best we've had in awhile. Seems to be a solid teacher. I'm not sold on him as a motivator. The Dolphins came out totally unprepared twice this season once in Foxboro and getting tarred by the Titans at home. OC, Grade:D Mike Sherman would have one brilliant drive per game right around the 7 minute mark of the 2nd quarter. Sherman is just the next in a long line of Dolphins OCs that call one brilliant play and 7 head scratchers for every 20 plays. DC, Grade:B Kevin Coyle. Loved his use of blitzing the secondary at times. Went into a shell at the worst time possible in a few games. STC, Grade:A Special Teams was much improved, lots of big plays from this unit. Draft/Rookies Grade:B- Johnathan Martin and Ryan Tannehill started 16 games. They both showed flashes. I worry that we are trying to make Tannehill something he is not. His game to me resembles a (poor mans)more athletic Big Ben/Joe Flacco. He is at his best on the run and throwing the ball down the field. Not short timing passes. Lamar Miller and Olivier Vernon both had nice contributions when they got the snaps. Egnew being a total bust adds the - to the B. FA signings/Trades Grade:F I've already gone through all of this but basically traded our best CB and WR and replaced them with guys who werent good and never saw the field. Overall Team Score Grade:D+ TheBizzness fucked around with this message at Feb 5, 2013 around 04:24 |
| # ? Feb 5, 2013 04:20 |
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Might wanna fix your coding there. E: As for my contribution to this thread, basically everything that HappyHelmet said.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 04:24 |
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Benne posted:Might wanna fix your coding there. I'd probably lower the grade he gave to the linebackers (Wright and Wagner were not very good in coverage) and adjust the WR grade upward a smidge. Otherwise, I'm pretty much in agreement.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 04:31 |
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Team Name: The Miami Dolphins Offense QB, Grade: C+. Ryan Tannehill looked serviceable and the offense was its best when Philbin incorporated Tannehill's legs into things. That said, Tannehill will need to continue to make strides in order for the Dolphins to be competitive. HB, Grade: B+. Lamar Miller looks like the real deal, Daniel Thomas isn't totally useless in short yardage, and Reggie Bush continues to be the best playmaker on the team. Only a B+ because while the unit may be the only deep position on offense, it wasn't setting the world on fire. Promising, though. FB, Grade: C+. Jorvorskie Lane is fun and sometimes a viable redzone option. Charles Clay is talented but inconsistent. Neither one is essential to the Dolphins' success, nor do they serve as traditional fullbacks. WR, Grade: D-. Brian Hartline, Davone Bess, and a bunch of scrubs. Avoid avoid avoid. TE, Grade: C. Anthony Fasano is the only player on the team that can be counted on in the red zone, and Charles Clay is still talented and still inconsistent. gently caress Michael Egnew. OL, Grade: B. Jonathan Martin is abysmal as a right tackle, but he's only mediocre at left tackle. The rest of the line is solid, and Mike Pouncey deserves all the acclaim that his brother gets. Not the best unit but certainly much better off than many other units. Deffense DE, Grade: A-. Cameron Wake is fantastic and still underpaid. Jared Odrick could live up to his draft position. Olivier Vernon is... interesting. A lot to look forward to at this position. DT, Grade: B+. Paul Soliai and Randy Starks were a solid combination this season and were a big reason the Dolphins defense wasn't terrible. LB, Grade: C. Inconsistent performance all around, especially disappointing considering their salaries relative to the rest of the team. CB, Grade: D+. Decimated by injuries, Sean Smith looked inconsistent, the team's major weakness on defense. S, Grade: Reshad Jones deserves an A+, the rest of the unit deserves a C-. We'll call it a B. Special Teams K, Grade: C. A platoon of a gimpy Dan Carpenter and a gimpier Nate Kaeding. Lost the Jets game, which is a cardinal sin. P, Grade: A. Brandon Fields is really really good at his job. Returning, Grade: A. Second in the NFL in kick returning and a respectable 11+ yards per punt return. Marcus Thigpen is pretty one-dimensional but it's a drat good dimension. ST defense, Grade: Inc. Can't comment on it, don't know enough about it. Coaching GM, Grade: B. There were some hits (Thigpen, Tannehill possibly, Lamar Miller) and some misses (Martin is not a right tackle, how do you gently caress up that badly with Egnew). HC, Grade: B-. Philbin made some stupid decisions that cost the team games, but ultimately the team held at 7-9 despite being younger in several positions. It remains to be seen if the team will improve but so far he seems to be doing capably. OC, Grade: C-. Sherman's real test will be the development of his players. His offense was supposed to help Tannehill adapt quickl, and that didn't really happen. Despite having a plethora of running backs to use, the rushing offense was underwhelming. Not very impressive thus far. DC, Grade: B+. Kevin Coyle called effective gameplans and managed to generate enough pressure to keep the Dolphins' weak secondary from getting shredded. I like this guy. STC, Grade: B-. Draft/Rookies Grade: B+. Tannehill is starting, Lamar Miller looks like he might turn into the feature back in Miami's offense, Olivier Vernon is useful as a situational pass rusher, Rishard Matthews might turn into something special. Jonathan Martin looks like he might bust, ugh Egnew, and not much else. Overall, not a bad haul for a draft. FA signings/Trades Grade: B. Ireland didn't make any big splashes but he's done an admirable job of managing cap space and managed to flip Vontae Davis (  ) for a second round pick, which is astounding.Overall Team Score Grade: C+. I feel good about the direction this team is heading. All their key contributors on offense should improve next year and the defense is performing at an above average level, so playoffs might not be out of the question.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 04:50 |
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Philadelphia Eagles Season Grade: F QB Grade: D+ I seem to be be higher than most on Nick Foles, but the jury is still out on whether he can be an NFL caliber QB. He showed improvement as the year went on, but still struggled in many areas. His deep ball is poor, and he has a nasty habit of throwing guys into bad areas. Receivers started to get alligator arms because they were being led into the middle of the field. His accuracy can also be hit or miss, showing great touch on some throws and borderline crap on others. Mike Vick is what he is, after 2010 he declined and compounded problems the Eagles had, but wasn't necessarily the cause of them. Also Trent Edwards is on the team, if you were curious. RB Grade: A LeSean McCoy is one of the best running backs in the game, but struggled behind the make shift offense line (we'll get to them later). His cutting was as good as it has been, unfortunately he was putting so much effort into just getting back to the line of scrimmage on a lot of run plays that he couldn't get into a rhythm. With all that said, he's in the top 3 of "Best players in the open field" but of course I am biased. Bryce Brown was incredible his first two games, dreadful in the next two, and fell into the roll of backup RB once Shady came back from his injury. He's got loads of talent, and can become one of the better #2 RB if he keeps working. Goes without saying, but needs to work on protecting the ball. WR Grade: B+ DeSean Jackson was on pace for one of his best years before he got injured. Jeremy Maclin is at his best when he has Jackson out there to free up the underneath passes. Maclin struggled when Foles first started but they seemed to develop a connection as the year went on. His yardage was a bit underwhelming especially considering he was the primary receiver for 6 games (and only 850 yards in 15 games) but had his career high for targets. I'd like to make special mention of Jason Avant who is an amazing slot receiver. The best hands on the team, and makes 3 or 4 incredible catches a year. One of my favorite players. TE Grade: C+ Brent Celek seems to have reached his ceiling. A solid tight end that probably won't make the Pro Bowl. Has a funny way of getting absolutely destroyed by a big hit once a week or so, whether it's the QBs fault or not. Offensive Line Grade: Incomplete The offensive line was ravaged by injuries, and the guys that were forced to start were/are terrible. Demetrius Bell, King Dunlap, Dallas Reynolds are all guys who can make a spot start here and there if you need them to but if you are starting them (especially all at once)... well you get what happened this year. Seems only Arizona, Chicago, and maybe another team I'm forgetting had a worse o-line. The reason I put incomplete instead of an F? Evan Mathis should have been an All Pro this year, but will have to settle for Pro Football Focus accolades. He is/was never brought up when people mention the top guards in the game and has to suffer being lumped in with the steaming turd that was the Eagles offensive line this year. Getting Jason Kelce and Todd Herremans back will help too. I'd like to mention favorite player on the Eagles: Jason Peters. I'm not going to say he's the best LT in the game, but if you are having a conversation on who the best one is his name better come up. Incredibly athletic, every area of the Eagles offense improves with him out there. The sprint draw they ran last year wreaked havoc on defense, with a deadly combo of Incredible LT + Incredible RB (Shady). He ruptured his Achilles last offseason so here's to him coming back strong. (Seriously be okay Jason  )A video to satisfy you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk6lvVbPNQM Defensive Line Grade: C Once the Eagles were through firing all their defensive coaches and getting rid of the wide-9, the defensive line (especially Brandon Graham) really improved and actually started getting sacks (something Jason Babin and Trent Cole couldn't seem to do). Whether it's related to changing the coaching scheme is hard to say, but seemed to have some sort of impact. Rookie 1st rounder Fletcher Cox had a good start to his career, and I'm looking forward to seeing him next year. Linebackers Grade: C+ Seeing linebackers who aren't a nightmare in pass coverage is a weird feeling, and after watching the likes of Stewart Bradley and Keenan Clayton it was nice to see Demeco Ryans soak up the tackles. Rookie 2nd round Mychal Kendricks didn't stand out as much as I would've liked him to, and had a tendency to disappear. In fairness to him I wanted the Eagles to trade up and get Luke Kuechly, which is why I might be down on him more than others. Cornerbacks Grade: F Call me crazy, but I was more upset at Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie than any other defensive back. Sure Nnamdi Asomugha was terrible, but he was bad all the time and you could count on that. DRC would show flashes of competence and then go back to being horrible, which is more frustrating. Rookie Brandon Boykin proved to be a capable starting CB and could be starting next year as a #1 or #2. Safeties: They were so bad they don't even get a grade Nate Allen and Kurt Coleman showed what can happen if a defense ever decided to play with 9 men on the field. Coleman is actually a decent run defender, unfortunately he has the rare ability of biting on every single play action a team runs. Shout out to Colt Anderson. He started the last few games of the year and seemed to actually give a crap. He's a great special teams player too. Also, will someone start a thread with the worst 2nd round picks of the last 10 years? Because I've got some Eagle safeties to toss in the mix. Coaching Hire I loved the Chip Kelly hiring, because it will either be awesome or terrible (and awesome), but either way it won't be boring.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 05:50 |
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Grittybeard posted:God damnit I was about to go to sleep, now I'm due for another sleepless night reliving this loving season. I'll agree with pretty much all of this. I'll just add a couple of trivial, nitpicky things. I almost would want to swap the the grades for the CB's and the Safeties. Flowers is really awesome and Arenas played pretty well after taking over for Routt. And although Jalil Brown is not good he was better when moved to Nickel/Star. The safeties were a huge disappointment for me. Berry didn't start looking halfway normal til the last two games. Lewis spent most of the year hurt and when he was out there he was way worse than usual. All the other safeties may as well have been invisible. Draft Grade: D Everyone was either hurt before the season began or just never saw the field period. The only thing keeping this from F is that Poe is passable and the OL dudes may be as well. Who knows. Free Agents Grade: C Eric Winston was great. Peyton Hillis was terrible. Thats about it.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 05:50 |
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Schwack posted:I'd probably lower the grade he gave to the linebackers (Wright and Wagner were not very good in coverage) and adjust the WR grade upward a smidge. Otherwise, I'm pretty much in agreement. I think Wagner was ok in coverage. He just needs more time to get up to NFL speed I think. KJ Wright is a bit of a liability though which is why he isn't playing MLB anymore. Hill is getting older, and doesn't have the speed to keep up in pass protection. So pretty much agree with you there I guess. I think my WR grade was a little generous though. Tate played much better this year, but he'll never be more than a good #2. Also I have a hard time imagining Rice staying healthy two years in a row so I hope they go after someone in the draft this year to help fill out the roster.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 06:56 |
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Grittybeard posted:Chiefs stuff I remember watching this team three years ago, seeing McCluster bust out killer runs, Arenas return kicks for touchdowns, Berry and Hali making plays, Moaeki showing potential, all of that stuff, and thinking this team could really go somewhere. Now, here we are, and all I can think is, "Man, what the hell happened?" I wonder what would've happened if they'd kept Haley but fired Pioli. They'd probably still be this awful, but drat.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 07:26 |
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I don't think Matt Cassel would still be alive, let alone alone on the roster if Pioli was fired but Haley was retained. Every other game seemed to be a heated yelling match back then.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 07:34 |
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Team Name: The Pittsburgh Steelers Offense QB, Grade: A+/C (Before injury/After injury) Big Ben was playing his career best right before his injury. Haley's "dink and dunk" system matched perfectly with BB and had the injury not happened, would have been in the running for NFL MVP. Coming off the shoulder injury, his play wasn't the same, with a lot of boneheaded mistakes, including two losses due to interceptions. HB, Grade: C- Mendenhall showed a flash of brilliance with his TD catch against the Eagles, but remained inconsistent the rest of the season. Dwyer and Redman are decent backs, but not what I consider NFL-caliber. Tomlin needs to stop rotating the backs so much and focus more on just one back. I disagree with Colbert that there isn't much talent at the position, Mendenhall could be solid if he is behind a great O-Line and given more touches. His suspension might be just enough to not get a contract, though. I anticipate the Steelers looking more at FA to get another back and possibly getting Eddie Lacy in the second round, but doubt it. I'd comment about Rainey looked really good in Florida, and he did ok with the kick returns, but honestly he is the type of player that is dime a dozen these days. So him being cut this year was no big deal. FB, Grade: C+ After David Johnson tore an ACL in the pre-season, Will Johnson took over FB duties. The Steelers aren't known for utilizing a true FB in their offensive scheme (thanks to Arians), but it can work. Johnson played well as a rookie and should have a great career. But, still, we didn't get to see much of him. WR, Grade: C The "Young Money Crew" disappointed this year, with Wallace devaluing himself every-time he dropped the ball. Brown was also sub-par this year compared to 2011. Cotechery was a good replacement for Brown and Sanders was solid (if only he didn't fake a cramp that resulted in the fine). Not a good year for the WR corps, I expect Wallace to leave Pittsburgh and see a WR come in from the draft. TE, Grade: A The "A" is for Heath Miller's fantastic year and it's awful he tore both ACL and MCL. Pope might be a bust, but I look forward to see how Paulson plays next year since Miller will possibly be out for almost all of it. OL, Grade: C- I liked that Mike Adams tried hard his rookie year, but he desperately needed some help. He has a great attitude, loves the team, so I have no doubt he will be improving in the coming years. DeCastro injured in the pre-season continued the tradition that has plagued the Steelers. But next year matched with Pouncey, if they can stay healthy, would be awesome. Beachum played great against the Ravens. Overall this line needs to stay healthy, the talent is there, but I hope BB doesn't become Theismann 2.0. Deffense DE, Grade: B- Well it was another poor year for "going-to-be" Ziggy Hood, but not surprising because of how we use DEs (Why did we draft one (two with Heyward) in the first round again?). Keisel did pretty well and Hampton too near the end of the season. But this defensive scheme doesn't allow the DEs to make a lot of huge plays anyway. DT, Grade: C- Casey Hampton played pretty well near the end of the season, but overall kind of below average compared to prior years. LB, Grade: C+ The "+" is for Timmons, who arguably had his best year, with three interceptions and six sacks. Foote proved to be a good replacement for Farrior. Woodley and Harrison were pretty awful coming off injuries, especially Woodley. CB, Grade: A- Lewis had a terrific improvement this year, and I hope we have the cap space to give him a nice contract. Allen played very well too, especially the last two games with 3 forced fumbles and two interceptions. Taylor had an early rough start, but played great later in the season. S, Grade: B Ryan Clark was just what the doctor ordered after the Broncos game, providing one of his best seasons. Mundy still isn't a good backup option, Troy was out with a calf injury playing only 7 games, so looking towards the future I hope we can pick up Matt Elam in the 1st round of the draft. Don't like the prospect of Will Allen either. Special Teams K, Grade: A- Suisham is awesome except for that Bengals game. But I'll place more blame on the snap. P, Grade: C Butler needs better blocking, and I'll dismiss the inconsistency because of that and him being a rookie. Returning, Grade: D Rainey was ok, but nothing special. Stupid penalties cost us some games, in my opinion. And that fumble lost by Brown could have made us victorious against the Cowboys. ST defense, Grade: D- Ugh. Coaching GM, Grade: A- Colbert is one of the best GM's in the league, and he has consistently picked great players in the draft. Throw in Omar Khan being a genius with contracts and paper pushing too. HC, Grade: D Tomlin needs to discipline his players more, and stop with dog-housing the RBs. Could benefit in better game management. Really, firing Al Everest? How about that dumb decision not going for 2pts in the Chargers game? He played a big contributor, with the injuries, to the 8-8 record. OC, Grade: C There was some awful playcalling after BB got injured, but considering the injuries on the O-Line, QB, WR, and RB, it is really difficult to say what could have been produced if all were healthy. But could be a definite improvement over Arians, we'll have to see. DC, Grade: A- Yeah, yeah #1 defense, but I wish there were more sacks and turnovers, hence the minus. STC, Grade: F Adios, Amos. Draft/Rookies Grade: B+ Picked up a guard that should be good for 10 years, if he's healthy, late in the 1st round. Alameda Ta'amu and Mike Adams should be pretty good (that is if Ta'amu isn't going to prison). It's a shame Spence was out for the whole season. FA signings/Trades Grade: N/A Overall Team Score Grade: C- Neither heart nor desire to win this year. A lot of injuries, veteran players not performing as they should have, bad head coaching, and undisciplined. Next year may prove to be just as bad unless major changes happen as Colbert promises. Confounding Factor fucked around with this message at Feb 5, 2013 around 09:29 |
| # ? Feb 5, 2013 08:10 |
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The Cleveland Browns Offense QB, Grade: C- : Weeden actually looked serviceable a few times in the season. He was mostly terrible though and in serious need of some lessons on pocket footwork. Colt McCoy appears to have been saved by the miracle of brain plasticity after his involuntary lobotomy last season. Thad Lewis owned for one start. HB, Grade: A- : TRich looks like the real deal when healthy. Hardesty actually showed up to play football this year. Brandon Jackson played some spell minutes. This group was solid. FB, Grade: F : Owen Marecic is the single worst football player to ever wear a Browns uniform. I spend most sleepless nights contemplating the existence of someone who is so bad at football yet plays professionally. I would trade him for a singular football from another NFL team. WR, Grade: B : Josh Gordon looks to be the real deal. Greg Little still needs to work on his hands but seemed like an actual receiver this year. Travis Benjamin proved that he could stretch the field and be a slot receiver. Jordan Norwood is a pretty decent 4th. MoMass still disappoints. TE, Grade: B-: Ben Watson was pretty alright as always. Jordan Cameron disappointed for an alleged possible breakout star. OL, Grade: B+: Once Schwartz got his poo poo together, these guys looked good. I would not mind an upgrade at RG, but they should hold up nicely. Blocking scheme was bizarre at the start of the year. Deffense DE, Grade: C+: Jabaal Sheard did his thing, and Rucker/Parker seemed adequate on the other side. Really need a pass rusher. DT, Grade: A: The best position on this team. Taylor, Rubin, Winn, Hughes, Kitchen. Crazy deep. All really good. LB, Grade: C+: In dire need of a better OLB. D'Qwell still rocks, and James Michael Johnson looked solid at times. Kaluka Maiava still sucks a fat one. Gocong is overpaid. Craig Robertson looked like a career backup. CB, Grade: B-: Sheldon Brown managed to not be the worst starting corner in football this year; however, our nickel and dime backs still are terrible. Buster Skrine, I'm looking at you. S, Grade: B: Lots of injuries, but Ward, Young, and Ventrone are a pretty solid group. Really hope Ward can play a full season at SS for once. Special Teams K, Grade: A+: Phil Dawson had a career year. P, Grade: B: Reggie Hodges had a down year Returning, Grade: A: Cribbs is winding down...but we have Benjamin... ST defense, Grade: A: Solid tackling, no complaints here. Coaching GM, Grade: A: I will miss Heckert terribly. His FA and Drafting were all savvy moves based around creating flexibility with pieces moving forward. Can't believe he's gone. HC, Grade: F: Shurmur can suck a fat one. This team could have been 8-8 with the right coaching. Instead, we got to watch battle and progress all year while his vanilla playcalling hosed us over every single game. OC, Grade: D: I can't put all the blame on Childress for this because of how involved Shurmur was. Seriously, the playcalling...and the handling of Weeden... DC, Grade: A: Jauron was an awesome coordinator and will be missed. STC, Grade: A: Unremarkable, which is a good thing. Draft/Rookies Grade: A: TRich, Winn, and Schwartz are all future starters. Weeden is still an enigma. Benjamin was a good pick. JMJ is a solid backer. I literally don't think we could have done much better this year. FA signings/Trades Grade: B: Meant to keep cap open. Few signings were cheap but valuable. Would do again. Overall Team Score Grade: B-: I was optimistic this season because we finally put pieces in place. Now, to crush that away with a new NFL season.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 08:56 |
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Team Name: The Philadelphia Eagles Offense QB, Grade: D I'm one of those crazy motherfuckers that thinks Michael Vick can be a serviceable starting NFL QB behind a decent oline and with shorter routes to throw at. However, he was beyond awful this year (ignoring the Baltimore game where he played brilliantly) and Foles wasn't a whole lot better. However, I think Foles shows potential and hope Kelly gives him a shot this year. HB, Grade: B Ok, so I'm probably gonna get some guff for this one. Yes, we have Lesean loving Mccoy on our team with Bryce Brown, the guy who dominated headlines after Mccoy got hurt for a few weeks. Well, the run game wasn't spectacular, and that's probably the fault of the OL. Even so, we've had trouble running inside the 20s for some time now and even with a healthy o-line I don't see us with a solution to that just yet. Some think Brown can do it. I don't. WR, Grade: B Desean Jackson actually gave a poo poo this season. He played well and wasn't afraid to run crossing routes. And then he got hurt, but that's gonna happen when you're literally made of dandelions. Maclin had his troubles early with missing all important catches/making nasty fumbles when it mattered most but all in all had a good year. Avant is forever underrated. Think Kevin Walter from the Texans, only better and able to make a spectacular catch now and again. TE, Grade: D Celek was really disappointing this year. I've been big on his potential for a while now, but it seems like he's just never going to be particularly good. Serviceable, sure, but not good. We also don't have good depth at the position: Clay Harbor is not a good TE. OL, Grade: F- Yeah, that - is loving necessary. This is probably the singlemost destructive element of our team this year. We were brutally raped and thrown to the side of the road to die from anal blood loss by injuries on the OL this year, and it took a very serious toll on Vick and our general ability to move the ball, especially inside the 20s. Mccoy couldn't run because he had no loving lanes and Vick/Foles couldn't sit in the pocket for more than a second to let a route develop. King Dunlap was actually not too terrible, but Demetrius Bell couldn't block his way out of a wet paper bag I poked some holes in. Dallas Reynolds was pretty much just as bad. This upcoming season with everyone healthy, hopefully they loving STAY that way and we draft something to fill it out, though I suspect we'll be looking for a CB. Still, Warmack or Joeckel would be pretty loving nice. Defense DE, Grade: B Another thing I'm likely to get flak for because by and large the DL unit was underwhelming, especially in the DE department. However, one must give Babin (who is now dead to us) and Cole credit for getting a lot of pressure on opposing QBs if not perhaps always getting to them. Plus, Cole was excellent at making plays outside of solely rushing the passer. Vinny Curry is really exciting and Brandon Graham ain't too bad himself. I don't see this being a problem area for the Eagles in the upcoming seasons. DT, Grade: B Why in the world would I give Cullen Jenkins a B? Well, it's not all Cullen Jenkins. He played alright I suppose though definitely lacked an ability to close gaps and stop runners, but our good friend Fletcher Cox had a nice start to his career. LB, Grade: C Say what you will about our defense, but find no fault with Demeco Ryans while you do. He played very well for us this season and I can't remember a season where we had a competent LB. Kendricks struggled at times in stopping the run, but I think he's going to be a suitable NFL starter LB given another year or two. Otherwise, though? Still a pretty bad unit. Casey Mathews is still rotting away. CB, Grade: F We have two highly touted CBs that did jack diddly all season. Asomugha was a joke this year and it was truly a blessing to watch QBs clown on him. He also drew the dumbest loving penalties while doing nothing and I can't wait for the door to slam on his rear end. DRC was also mostly horrible but, as Faltese pointed out, showed flashes of the person we got in our Kolb trade. After hearing reports on him, he's also a piece of poo poo in real life and basically just gently caress him. These clowns can't even tackle well. At least Boykin is decent I guess. S, Grade: F HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *breathe* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I remember early in the season people telling me that Coleman and Allen were actually playing pretty well. I fart at the notion. They cannot do any aspect of their paid NFL jobs remotely adequately, allowing teams to throw at will or, god forbid someone gets past the DL on the ground, run at will right into the endzone. They can't even tackle. Special Teams K, Grade: A We seem to have gotten rid of Akers at precisely the right time. Henery was an excellent pickup and will continue to serve us well for years to come. P, Grade: B Mcbriar is pretty good and he's Australian. How can you not like him? Returning, Grade: B- We didn't score much, but getting Desean out of there and replacing him with Boykin and Damaris Johnson was an excellent idea. They're both better than we really need. ST defense, Grade: C We usually gave up alright field position, but we only let them score on us once via ST, so I'm not really excited nor angry at this aspect of our team. Coaching GM, Grade: B- Roseman was given credit for our draft this year, which I'm happy with, but also with our FA extravaganza. I don't really know how he'll pan out but I have a good feeling. HC, Grade: D Reid wasn't given the best hand of cards this season with the injuries and all that, but really, he chose the deck. Our offense didn't adjust much to the decimation of the OL, Vick was kept in that Cardinals game way too long, and the Wide 9 and Castillo proved that he really was a crazy idiot. Still, his son died and all that, so I can't just go and flunk him. OC, Grade: F gently caress MARTY DC, Grade: C Castillo was put in a position he never should have been in and actually made our defense work pretty well for a few weeks. He did make that one boneheaded decision regarding Calvin Johnson, but I don't think he should have been fired for that. In fact, we should have just moved him back to OL and apologized for being dicks. Draft/Rookies Grade: B. Cox, Curry, and Boykin made me very happy, and Foles was a good pickup in the 3rd. Brown also played admirably. We get a B here because Kendricks struggled a bit and Foles wasn't more than he should have been (I mean gently caress, what did people expect? Rushing a 3rd rounder like that?) FA signings/Trades Grade: C We still have baggage from our FA mistakes in the past, but this season was more about taking care of the guys we had. Ryans was a great pickup, and getting rid of Samuel was prudent if not helpful. Overall Team Score Grade: D- We have the talent, but we certainly didn't have the organization or the health to be anything other than jokes this year. The good news is it will hopefully pave the way for a phoenix-like rebirth. Aw who am I kidding 
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 09:36 |
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Confounding Factor posted:Team Name: The Pittsburgh Steelers I really feel this season is going to be the point where Tomlin has to prove himself, he's done really well so far but now the team needs to be rebuild as the veteran players simply can't cut it anymore. He's had those veterans when he took the team over from Cowher so all those drafts should start to pan out. I'm somewhat concerned about discipline and putting guys in the doghouse, I do agree with some of the stuff he's done but the RB situation should've been handled better. A new conditioning coach or something like that might come in handy with the injuries we've sustained over the last 3-4 seasons, something they are doing is wrong and I hope they figure it out.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 09:55 |
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lockdar posted:I really feel this season is going to be the point where Tomlin has to prove himself, he's done really well so far but now the team needs to be rebuild as the veteran players simply can't cut it anymore. He's had those veterans when he took the team over from Cowher so all those drafts should start to pan out. I'm somewhat concerned about discipline and putting guys in the doghouse, I do agree with some of the stuff he's done but the RB situation should've been handled better. A new conditioning coach or something like that might come in handy with the injuries we've sustained over the last 3-4 seasons, something they are doing is wrong and I hope they figure it out. They've said they're going to look into the team's training staff. I think it has less to do with their conditioning and more to do with rushing people back from injuries though. I don't think they're ill-prepared, they're just making dumb personnel decisions when people are still hurt. The RB situation didn't really bother me much because everyone was perpetually hurt or turning the ball over. The only person who really got "doghouse'd" was Mendenhall and he deserved it for not bothering to show up for the game once he was told he was inactive. I'm excited to see what Dwyer could do with a healthy line for the majority of the year, though. When the OL was at it's peak during the Cincy game, he looked like a beast.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 12:52 |
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Team Name: Arizona Cardinals Offense QB, Grade: F HB, Grade: U FB, Grade: C WR, Grade: K TE, Grade: Y OL, Grade: O Defense DE, Grade: U DT, Grade: A LB, Grade: S CB, Grade: S S, Grade: H Special Teams K, Grade: O P, Grade: L Returning, Grade: E ST defense, Grade: S Coaching GM, Grade: D HC, Grade: I OC, Grade: C DC, Grade: K STC, Grade: S Draft/Rookies Grade: FA signings/Trades Grade: Overall Team Score Grade:
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 12:55 |
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The New York Jets Offense QB, 2012 Grade: F Were you expecting something better? The Jets QB situation is a fiasco, and likely will remain so next season. Mark Sanchez regressed into one of the very worst quarterbacks in football in 2012 and the Jets are probably stuck with him in 2013 given his albatross of a contract. The Tim Tebow experiment was a complete clusterfuck, and Greg McElroy is at best a backup in the NFL. HB, 2012 Grade: C- For a squad that defined itself as a "ground and pound" football team, the Jets sure had an uninspiring set of tailbacks. Shonn Greene, despite showing a great deal of potential earlier in his career, lacks any burst whatsoever and doesn't even run very well in between the tackles; he's the definition of mediocre. Bilal Powell was solid as a backup, but he likely won't cut it as a feature back. A lot of Jets fans are fond of Joe McKnight given his big play ability, but he hasn't had the same success at tailback that he's had as a kick returner. Expect Shonn Greene to be elsewhere in 2013 and for the Jets to search for their next feature back in the draft. WR, Grade: D- The Jets WR corps was hit hard by the injury bug forcing them to give a lot of playing time to talentless hacks like Clyde Gates and Patrick Turner. Santonio Holmes went down with a Lisfranc injury, and 2nd round pick Stephen Hill was limited by nagging injuries all year. When healthy, I think this is actually a solid group. Santonio Holmes is an rear end in a top hat but is capable, Jeremy Kerley emerged as a very solid slot receiver, and Stephen Hill showed flashes of potential and could improve in 2013. However, due to a lack of depth to make up for injuries, this unit was truly despicable in 2012. TE, Grade: C- Dustin Keller, one of Mark Sanchez's favorite targets, was limited all year by nagging injuries; he'll likely be elsewhere in 2013. Keller was replaced by Jeff Cumberland, who was serviceable but completely unspectacular. I honestly have no idea what the Jets are going to try to do at the tight end position for 2013. OL, Grade: A- PFF actually ranked the Jets offensive line play third best in football this year. Nick Mangold and D'Brickashaw Ferguson were both excellent, Brandon Moore was very good, and Matt Slauson and Austin Howard were solid. Expect Brandon Moore to be elsewhere next season, and for Vladimir Ducasse to step in at RG, something that might be legitimately hysterical to watch. Defense DL, Grade: A- The defensive line might have been the brighest star in an otherwise dark season for the Jets. Mo Wilkerson, the Jets 2011 first round pick, emerged as a dominant force, and was one of the best 3-4 DEs in the league. Quinton Coples showed a lot as an inside pass rusher in the second half of the year after a somewhat slow start and looks like he could prove a lot of people wrong after the Jets picked him 16th overall in 2012; he needs to become better as a run stopper, however. Mike DeVito was excellent as a run stopper, but didn't do much else; expect him to be gone in 2013. The Jets still struggled with a pass rush, but if the Jets can pick up a good pass rushing OLB/DE at #9 overall this year, their DL play could be some of the best in the league in 2013. On the downside, Kenrick Ellis didn't show much of anything and, with Sione Pouha likely gone in 2013, the Jets might need to think about the NT position this offseason. LB, Grade: D Bart Scott is a corpse. Calvin Pace is a corpse. Bryan Thomas is a corpse. David Harris is going to make $12 million next year for running directly at the line of scrimmage and doing nothing else. You get the idea. Demario Davis, a Jets 3rd round pick in 2012, played will in limited action and should fill in well for Scott, who will likely be a cap casualty. One of the Jets priorities in the offseason should be fixing the OLB position to help them generate more of a pass rush. The Jets also need more versatile linebackers who can show some modicum of ability in pass coverage. S, Grade: B- Laron Landry and Yeremiah Bell were both pleasant surprises. Landry struggled in coverage, but was excellent near the LOS, and Bell was solid all around. Landry is almost definitely gone in 2013, as he expressed no interest in taking a discount deal from the Jets. Bell might be back. Eric Smith is still bad. CB, Grade: B+ Darrelle Revis went down with a torn ACL in week 3, something that should have absolutely ruined the Jets cornerback play. Somehow, it didn't, as Antonio Cromartie quietly had a fantastic year, and Kyle Wilson managed to be adequate. I hope both Revis and Cromartie will be back in 2013, but I suspect one of them will be traded in the offseason. Special Teams K, Grade: B- Nick Folk is adequate, but definitely nothing to write home about. P, Grade: C Robert Malone was solid if unspectacular. KR, Grade: B+ Joe McKnight is still a solid kick returner, even if he didn't have as good a year as last year, when he owned. PR, Grade: B+ Jeremy Kerley is a cool punt returner. ST General, Grade: D I'm just gonna quote Rich Cimini's analysis here because it says exactly what I think: Cimini posted:Mike Westhoff's last hurrah turned into a weekly nightmare. You name a mistake, the Jets made it. They allowed two blocked punts for touchdowns, a kickoff return for a touchdown, a punt return for a touchdown, a fumbled kickoff return that resulted in a touchdown, three blocked field goals ... and a partridge in a pear tree. With no offensive support, the Jets needed their special teams to be dynamic and game-changing. Actually, they were game-changing, but not in a positive way. On the positive side, Nick Folk and Robert Malone were solid, and Joe McKnight finished fifth in kickoff-return average. Oh, yes, they executed a couple of successful fakes, using the World's Most Famous Personal Protector -- Tebow. Coaching General Manager, Grade: F Bloated contracts for guys like Mark Sanchez and David Harris. The Tim Tebow Trade. Almost zero legitimate talent on the offensive side of the ball. Tannenbaum had to go. Head Coach, Grade: C I tend to think that Rex is a very good coach, and I think that it shows on the defensive side of the ball. However, he looked somewhat lost this year. The Jets lost five games by more than 19 points, which says that something is going wrong in the days leading up to gameday. That's on the coach. Nonetheless, the Jets offense had almost nothing going for it this year, so it's hard to blame this disaster of a season all on Rex. Offensive Coordinator, Grade: F If there was something worse than an F, I would give it to Tony Sparano. I want to fire that fat fucktard directly into the sun. Defensive Coordinator, Grade: A- This is hard to grade, since Rex is essentially a defensive coordinator, but Mike Pettine did a good job with the unit this year. Draft/Rookies, Grade: C Quinton Coples and Stephen Hill were both high risk-high reward picks in the first and second rounds, respectively. Coples seems to have found his game, while the jury is still out on Hill. Demario Davis looks like he could be a solid replacement for Bart Scott at ILB. The rest of the Jets picks didn't really play very much, so they are tough to grade. Trades/Free Agents, Grade: C- Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow Tim Tebow. Laron Landry and Yeremiah Bell were pretty good. OVERALL TEAM SCORE: D The Jets were a capital-D disaster in 2012. Even with a very good defense, an offense devoid of talent dragged them to a 6-10 record. Even worse, the sideshow created by the Tim Tebow trade and the deplorable quarterback situation made the Jets the laughing stock of the league. It was the first time in a while that I was legitimately and actively embarrassed to be a Jets fan. Professor Funk fucked around with this message at Feb 5, 2013 around 14:45 |
| # ? Feb 5, 2013 14:39 |
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The idea of both Slausen and Ducasse starting at guard for the Jets in 2013 is scarier than any horror movie... They might just need to take Warmack at 9...
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 14:59 |
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mcmagic posted:The idea of both Slausen and Ducasse starting at guard for the Jets in 2013 is scarier than any horror movie... They might just need to take Warmack at 9... I'm not that down on Slauson, but yeah, the idea of Ducasse starting is terrifying.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 15:06 |
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Team Name: Chicago Bears Offense QB, Grade: B-/C+ I think Cutler did a remarkable job, all things considered. He was a God-damned miracle worker behind that line. The only reason anything happened on offense was because of him. Just seeing how Campbell looked behind that line tells you all you need to know. HB, Grade:B- Forte and Bush were a very solid duo. Definitely above average. FB, Grade: Who cares WR, Grade: B Brandon Marshall almost makes we want to bump this group to an A. Jeffrey was pretty solid as a rookie. Earl Bennent is a solid #3. I worry about the back end, but going forward, this should be a position of strength. TE, Grade: F Kellen Davis was abysmal and he was still clearly our best player at the position OL, Grade: D+ While I want to give them a straight up failing grade, Lance Louis was a pleasant surprise and Roberto Garza was consistent. Deffense DE, Grade: A Julius Peppers turned in another great year, but Corey Wooten coming on strong is what solidified this group. Also, rookie Shea McClellin showed a lot of promise as a pass rusher. DT, Grade: A Henry Melton is the obvious name, but we had depth and talent throughout the year. Stephen Paea had a quietly strong year, and Nate Collins was also pretty good. LB, Grade: B Briggs probably should've gotten to the Pro-Bowl, but it is understandable why he did not. Urlacher is a shell of his former self. Roach is JAG. CB, Grade: A+ Tillman is a stud and Jennings led the league in interceptions. Both Pro-Bowl starters. Enough said. S, Grade: B Major Wright made some strides this year and Conte was decent. Special Teams K, Grade: A- The minus is for the time Gould missed  P, Grade: C The first half of the year was rough in this department, but we gradually got better. Returning, Grade: C Hester had some decent returns and had ST defense, Grade: A Our coverage units are still among the best in football. Coaching GM, Grade:A-/B+ This was Phil Emery's first year, and it is hard to find fault with what he did, outside of neglecting the offensive line if FA/draft. And even with this, he explained his reasoning very well. Still too early to give an accurate assessment, but I like what I see so far. HC, Grade: C I gave Lovie a C, simply because the defense was an A, and the offense was an absolute F. It equaled out to a slightly above average season, with us missing the playoffs and him missing his job. OC, Grade: F Tice was awful and I should've taken Gendo's laughter at the promotion more seriously. DC, Grade: A Marinelli was awesome and I am sad that he ended up leaving. STC, Grade: A Same for Toeb. Draft/Rookies Grade: B Honestly, I love what I've seen, but it is too early to tell. I think McClellin was solid as a rookie, I think Jeffrey solidified himself as our number two and Evan Rodriquez was a pretty good H-Back. But I don't like judging rookies this early. FA signings/Trades Grade: C I can't point to any FA moves that actively hurt our helped us this season. They just sort of existed. Overall Team Score Grade:B- We were an above average team, but our deficiencies were game-breakers in the spots they happened, and ultimately cost us the playoffs and Lovie Smith his job.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 15:07 |
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Professor Funk posted:I'm not that down on Slauson, but yeah, the idea of Ducasse starting is terrifying. Slauson is an OK player. He's a guy who should be the worst guy on your line if you have a good line. You can't have 2 black holes at G.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 15:08 |
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Team Name: Buffalo Bills Offense QB Grade: D- I can't find it in my heart to fail Fitzpatrick, because it's really not his fault, so much as it is Chan Gailey's fault. Fitz went out there and played the best he could, proving he's nothing more than a stop-gap beyond a shadow of a doubt. The - is for Tyler Thigpen. He (thankfully) never took the field for anything important, but he's terrible, so I'll assume he would've been in competition with Sanchez for the worst QB in the division title. HB Grade: A C.J. Spiller is pretty amazing. He has incredible straight-line speed, accelerates in the blink of an eye, and shifts effortlessly while in motion. If that weren't enough, he has pretty good vision, excellent hands, and is just big and powerful enough that he doesn't break easily and can actually be called upon to pass block. If you read that paragraph and thought to yourself, "I need to keep him fresh by using him sparingly," you are undoubtedly Chan Gailey. Might as well register for an account, because it seems like you'll be out of work this year. The existence of Tashard Choice is enough to strip out the + that ought to be there. Fred Jackson was fine, if injury-prone. FB Grade: ? I really don't know. McIntyre is just kind of there. We don't ask him to do much of anything, and he doesn't. How am I supposed to grade that? WR Grade: B Stevie Johnson once again had a great year, having no trouble justifying his contract. Unfortunately, we did not field him and three clones of him, we fielded Donald Jones across from him. Donald Jones is pretty bad. He's not especially fast, or especially big, and none of that really matters, because he shows almost no ability to catch a football away from his body. I think he made one such catch all season. T.J. Graham performed pretty well for a rookie, but it doesn't show up on the stat sheet because Fitzpatrick's favorite past-time was overthrowing him by 5 yards(and keep in mind that T.J. Graham is really loving fast). TE, Grade: B Scott Chandler is pretty above-average. He's pretty big, he has decent hands, he can block okay in some circumstances, and tends to get hurt now and again. A good TE, but not a special one. Thus a good grade that isn't special. No need to acknowledge the existence of Lee Smith and Dorin Dickerson. OL Grade: A- Given that it's clear that offensive lines have fallen behind in the never-ending athletic arms race between offense and defense, the Bills offensive line was very good pretty much all year long. Andy Levitre is one of the best guards in the NFL, Eric Wood is one of the best centers(or would be, if he ever played 16 games), and Kraig Urbik and Chad Rhinehart once again turned in pretty good years. Most promising of all was Cordy Glenn, who impressed at left tackle as a rookie. He had his growing pains, and was lost to injury for a time, but he looks as though he could be a franchise guy out there. Erik Pears, our right tackle, is the weakest link in on our line, and he's pretty average. Can't complain. That's it for me, for now, at least. If another Bills fan wants to pick up with the defense or something, they can go right ahead. I think it'd be cool to get some collaboration up in here, and I'd probably be too nice to Chan anyways.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 15:26 |
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Team Name: The Oakland Raiders Overall Team Score: D Grade: Offense QB, Grade: B. Carson actually owns kind of but at the same time doesnTHAT PASS IS INTERCEPTED BY BRANDON FLOWERS HB, Grade: Faaaart. McFadden turned into a pumpkin in the zone blocking scheme, which I had gone on record saying would happen in this dumb forum FB, Grade: B. Marcel Reece made the probowl WR, Grade: C. They're all super young so I have hope TE, Grade: B Brandon Meyers had a breakout year OL, Grade: Hard to tell, they are good power blockers and not zone blockers. Mike Brisiel was entirely ineffective and the entire right side of the line sucked Deffense DE, Grade:C. Lamar Houston will anchor the line for years to come while we blow it the gently caress up this offseason DT, Grade:C to D. Hurt, old and regressed LB, Grade: C to B. Wheeler and Burris good, McLain and everyone else we put in bad CB, Grade: F. Imagine a giant fart sound. We had no one at the CB position until we had to sign other teams terrible corners, and then THEY got injured so who else do we put in? S, Grade: D. Giordano bad. Needs more people. Huff had to switch to CB for the year and Tyvon Branch was injured iirc Special Teams K, Grade: A. Jano is pretty good P, Grade: B. Lechler had a down year and probably won't be resigned Returning, Grade: D. Jacoby Ford being out for the year didn't help ST defense, Grade: D. Gave up too many drat plays. Coaching GM, Grade: NA. Hard to tell yet if Reggies moves will be a positive or negative but he seems to be saying and doing all the right things HC, Grade: NA. Hard to tell whether the offensive collapse was Allens fault or Knapps fault, but I like the guys attitude and I hope we keep him for a few more years (obviously barring a disastrous next season) OC, Grade: F-. gently caress Knapp. He turned McFadden into a pumpkin with his awful schemes that took no players strengths into consideration. He's fired now DC, Grade: D to C: Tarver took an awful defense and made them not completely terrible by the end of the year STC, Grade: D. Special teams were special, and the coach was fired right after the regular season Draft/Rookies Grade: B-. Obtained quite a few defensive players and even a starter at linebacker with no first day picks. Not terrible for the situation they were handed FA signings/Trades Grade: C. WR Rod Streater and P Marquette King were good rookie FA pickups. Oakland didn't make a big splash in the market(good) or trade (very good) but did pick up Mike Brisiel(bad), Phillip Wheeler (good)
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 15:30 |
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Professor Funk posted:I'm not that down on Slauson, but yeah, the idea of Ducasse starting is terrifying. How in the gently caress do the Jets owe David Harris $12 million next year? They would get a better return on their investment if they just stuck a wheelbarrow at the line of scrimmage and hope opposing RBs run into it and trip.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 15:37 |
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haljordan posted:How in the gently caress do the Jets owe David Harris $12 million next year? They would get a better return on their investment if they just stuck a wheelbarrow at the line of scrimmage and hope opposing RBs run into it and trip. Sorry, he only has a $10.9 million base salary, but a cap hit of $13 million. His cap hit this year was $12 million.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 15:40 |
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Professor Funk posted:Sorry, he only has a $10.9 million base salary, but a cap hit of $13 million. His cap hit this year was $12 million. Even still! He's gotta be one of, if not the highest paid linebackers in the league with that kind of money.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 15:41 |
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haljordan posted:Even still! He's gotta be one of, if not the highest paid linebackers in the league with that kind of money. Pretty sure he had the biggest contract in history for a MLB. So yeah, pretty absurd.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 15:46 |
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Professor Funk posted:Pretty sure he had the biggest contract in history for a MLB. So yeah, pretty absurd. It's absurd but at least he's a productive player at times... Unlike some of the other guys on the Jets. He's obviously a dinosaur because he's can't cover though. It's pretty funny that they are going to pay guys like Sanchez and Harris and let Revis walk though.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 15:48 |
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mcmagic posted:It's absurd but at least he's a productive player at times... Unlike some of the other guys on the Jets. He's obviously a dinosaur because he's can't cover though. It's pretty funny that they are going to pay guys like Sanchez and Harris and let Revis walk though. I don't think Harris is a horrible player but I do think that he's the definition of a one note guy, which is absolutely not worth the money the Jets are paying him. I imagine Idzik will try to get him to restructure in the offseason.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 16:10 |
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mcmagic posted:It's absurd but at least he's a productive player at times... Unlike some of the other guys on the Jets. He's obviously a dinosaur because he's can't cover though. It's pretty funny that they are going to pay guys like Sanchez and Harris and let Revis walk though. Yeah I mean he can be productive, but its just another example of the Jets inability to properly structure player contracts. Not only is he the highest (or one of the highest) paid LB in the league, but he was also the highest paid player on the team for 2012.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 16:12 |
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Professor Funk posted:I don't think Harris is a horrible player but I do think that he's the definition of a one note guy, which is absolutely not worth the money the Jets are paying him. I imagine Idzik will try to get him to restructure in the offseason. They are probably better off just letting him play this season and cutting him after it than pushing the money down the road. haljordan posted:Yeah I mean he can be productive, but its just another example of the Jets inability to properly structure player contracts. Not only is he the highest (or one of the highest) paid LB in the league, but he was also the highest paid player on the team for 2012. Obviously he's absurdly overpaid.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 16:13 |
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Team Name: Dallas Cowboys Offense QB, Grade: B Tony Romo had a rough start to open the year, but was pretty awesome in November & December before finishing the season with an awful game against Washington. He threw a lot of picks, many of which can at least partially be attributed to miscommunication with receivers and pressure given up by the offensive line. Still, Romo has to know when to take a sack and not throw a game-ending pick. Overall, Romo's still a great QB though. HB, Grade: F DeMarco Murray looked good for a few games before his injury; after his return, he didn't look as hot. Felix Jones was notoriously awful, and both Philip Tanner and Lance Dunbar looked little more than practice squad fodder. FB, Grade: C Lawrence Vickers was signed to help pave the way for Murray, but he didn't live up to expectations. He also didn't see the field much because Garrett didn't run a lot of sets with FBs. WR, Grade: B+ Dez Bryant broke out during the second half of the season and looked like a Top 5 receiver. Austin was decent; I was mostly happy that he managed to stay healthy all season. Ogletree's ineptitude after the first game brings the grade down some, although Dwayne Harris emerged as a promising #3 guy going into next season. Cole Beasley is not the next Wes Welker despite what some fans believed after training camp. TE, Grade: A Witten had a career season, setting the record for catches for a TE and franchise receptions for a Cowboy. For some reason he doesn't get many targets in the red zone so his TDs were down, but he's still awesome. James Hanna had like 8 catches but looked promising in that small sample size, and I forgot John Phillips was even on the roster. Witten is the only reason this grade isn't a D. OL, Grade: D Tyron Smith struggled in his first season at LT, but improved gradually and was far from a liability. His biggest issue was with penalties, which seemed to get better over time. Nate Livings was a surprise at LG; he was the team's most consistent lineman. Costa was injured most of the season, and his replacement at C Ryan Cook was mediocre at best. Cook was worth the 7th rounder we traded to get him, he's just not much more than a decent backup. RG Mackenzy Bernardeau was pretty terrible and I hope he gets cut. Doug Free was infamously awful at RT, but once Garrett started rotating Jeremy Parnell in at RT Free got a little better. Still, there's a lot of questions surrounding this line and Smith is the only sure thing going into next season. Poor blocking was definitely responsible for some of the losses, especially for the last game. Defense DE, Grade: C Jason Hatcher is quietly one of the league's best 3-4 DEs. Kenyon Coleman was injured most of the season, and his replacement Marcus Spears wasn't great. Sean Lissemore, whom I hoped would break out this year, was also injured. He looked okay when he did get to play. Tyrone Crawford flashed some talent (he abused Carl Nicks of all people) so there's some hope there. Overall, the line failed to make much of an impact outside of Hatcher. DT, Grade: F Ratliff was injured most of the season and may or may not be back next year. Josh Brent was playing great before he killed a teammate, so it's hard to give him more than an F. LB, Grade: A+ with all 4 starters healthy; C otherwise. Ware had a down season by his standards and still finished with double-digit sacks. Anthony Spencer finally emerged, but he's a free agent and will likely walk. Sean Lee and Bruce Carter look like Willis/Bowman light, which is good enough for me. Both ended up on IR though, and their replacements varied between mediocre (Ernie Sims), bad (Dan Connor) and who? (Poppinga, Albright) CB, Grade: C- Brandon Carr didn't have a stellar season, although injuries at safety may have hindered his own effectiveness. Claiborne had a respectable season for a rookie corner; he gave up some receptions but always seemed to be in position to limit YAC. Scandrick had maybe one or two good plays a game but otherwise was bad. Mike Jenkins was awful. I forget who else we had at corner so I'll assume they were terrible too. S, Grade: D- Gerald Sensabaugh used to be underrated in my eyes, but he was actually mediocre this season. I will say that he plays harder than most guys on the team. He deflected a pass in the end zone one play after injuring himself (first Washington game I think) and forced a fumble on an open field tackle of Trent Richardson (which may have saved the game for us), so overall he gets a C. Danny McCray's struggles at FS lower the overall grade though. McCray is a special-teamer who does not belong on a defense. Special Teams K, Grade: A++ Dan Bailey is quietly one of the league's best kickers but most people only know him for being iced by Garrett. Still, the Cowboys Kicker Curse appears to have been broken. P, Grade: F Chris Jones looked decent for a few games before suffering a season-ending injury. Brian Moorman was terrible though. He shanked more punts than anyone I've seen in a season. Returning, Grade: F when Jones/Bryant returned, B+ after Harris took over. ST Defense, Grade: C- We gave up at least two returns (Baltimore, Philly) one of which cost us a close game. Outside of those two plays though our coverage units were pretty good. We also had a punt blocked. Coaching GM, Grade: I don't know what a GM is but if Dallas had one it would probably be mediocre. HC, Grade: C Garrett was awful the first half of the season, and improved to mediocre over the second half. I'm glad Jerry stripped him of playcalling duties because he sucks at it. He also sucks at gameplanning, considering how many times the team was outscored in the first half. On the other hand, he is apparently good at halftime adjustments because in many games we overcame early deficits to win. He's definitely on the hot seat though and I expect Jon Gruden had a greater chance of being HC in 2014 than Garrett. OC, Grade: D I'll include Garrett as OC. His play calls and gameplans were awful for the most part. DC, Grade: C- Ryan's departure has been discussed at length. On one hand we suffered a large number of injuries to key players. On the other hand, the team finished with a franchise low number of turnovers, didn't produce many sacks, and didn't play with much discipline. I'm kinda glad he's gone and the fact that he remains unemployed says something about his production:hype ratio. STC, Grade: C I never cared much for Joe DeCamillis. Our coverage units are generally pretty good, but our return game has been bad during his tenure. He won't be particularly missed. Draft/Rookies Grade: C In terms of instant impact, this class was awful. Claiborne started 15 games (missed 1 to injury I believe). Crawford saw some rotational snaps. Kyle Wilber mostly played on special teams. Matt Johnson, Danny Coale and Caleb McSurdy never saw the field due to injuries. James Hanna had about 8 catches. But I don't expect instant impact from rookies. That's generally considered a bonus, because if you're in the position of having to start several rookies you're usually in trouble. In terms of long-term impact, this class is decent. Claiborne could be a top-flight corner. Crawford may excel in the 4-3. Wilber had a shot at contributing at linebacker. Hanna looks promising. Even assuming the other guys bust completely, if Claiborne and Crawford turn into adequate starters and Wilber/Hanna log some quality snaps it won't be a bad draft class. FA signings/Trades Grade: D Outside of Carr and Livings, our free agents were pretty bad. Vickers underwhelmed, Bernardeau was terrible, Connor will probably be cut. Kyle Orton is a backup, but that's what we need from him so I guess it wasn't a bad signing. Overall Team Score Grade: C+ The offense was stellar, despite issues with blocking and running. The defense was decimated by injury, but we still saw some young guys contribute. The change to the 4-3 raises a lot of questions though.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 16:18 |
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Team Name: Green Bay Packers Offense QB: Aaron Rodgers, Grade: A- Had his second best year, throwing for 39 touchdowns and 8 picks despite a revolving door at OL/WR/RB. Took too many sacks, which is sometimes a function of the offense. Had various injuries during the year, including an ankle injury that forced him to hobble around for the last 4-5 games. HB: Cedric Benson, Alex Green, James Starks, Ryan Grant, DuJuan Harris, Grade: D Benson is done, Starks can't stay healthy, Alex Green looked hurried, Ryan Grant was out of football for a reason, and Harris was selling cars in Jacksonville before becoming a serviceable running back. His vision and cutback ability is better than what GB has had, but it remains to be seen if he can hold up with 250+ touches. He seems like a natural at catching out of the backfield, which GB almost never seems to utilize in their backfield. FB: John Kuhn, Grade: C Kuhn is a good bodyguard for Rodgers on obvious passing situations, he'll often be the protector on bootlegs and designed scrambles. Otherwise he sucks and should never get the ball, but McCarthy has a huge boner for running him into a wall on short yardage plays. WR: Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, James Jones, Donald Driver, Grade: B The group of record setters from 2011 had a litany of injuries, forcing backups to become starters. Jennings had groin, ankle, and knee inuries, as did Nelson; the two of them were almost never on the field together. Randall Cobb had a terrific year and is probably the team's number one receiver. Jones had an outstanding year catching the ball, but I expect his TD% to drop off. Driver is toast. TE: Jermichael Finley, Grade: B- Finley had an ok year, but really pulled it together for the second half. Plagued by drops for the past two seasons, had a similar start this year and quickly got in Rodger's doghouse. An article was written in the middle of the season about how the Packers were ready to move on and cut or trade him after the season, which seemed to be a wake up call. Did a much better job blocking (and catching), and became a weapon in the passing game again. Finley isn't Gronk or Graham, but he's no slouch either. OL: Newhouse/Lang/Saturday/Sitton/Bulaga (also featuring appearances from Evan Deitrich Smith and Don Barclay, Grade: D? The Packers O-line remains a mystery to me. Newhouse is just OK at LT, Lang is a good guard, Smith is a big upgrade over Saturday, Sitton is in the Pro-Bowl (deservedly), and Bulaga is Pro-Bowl quality when healthy. I'm not sure what the problem is here - bad run blocking or bad field vision by the RB's? Probably a little of both. They are good enough to protect Rodgers for one of the best seasons by a QB ever, but still give up stupid sacks. I blame some of this on McCarthy, there are way too many examples of the offense being put in bad situations over and over again and allowing Rodgers to be hit. The first half of the Seahawks game being a good example. Defense DE: Mike Neal, Jerel Worthy, CJ Wilson, BJ Raji, Grade: B- Serviceable, Neal showed why he was drafted in the 2nd round, Raji had a couple of games where he was the best defensive lineman on the field. Not great, but much better than the 2011 crapfest. Worthy can rush the passer but is inconsistent. DT: Ryan Pickett, BJ Raji Grade: C+ Pickett is excellent but is on a snap count, Raji is much better at DE than NT for whatever reason. LB: Matthews, Bishop, Hawk, Boston Store mannequin. Grade: INC Matthews was excellent when healthy and deserved the Pro Bowl nod. Bishop got hurt the first week of camp and never played a snap, DJ Smith stepped in and played well before going on IR, Brad Jones (former 7th rounder OLB) replaced him and played serviceably. Hawk was ok at ILB when he didn't have to cover, but as soon as he's in coverage look out. OLB opposite Matthews is still a poo poo show. Perry played ok but injured his wrist against the Colts and was placed on IR. Zombo and Walden are hot garbage. CB: Sam Shields, Tramon Williams, Casey Hayward, Charles Woodson Grade: B- A huge improvement over 2011. Shields took his starting job back after losing it to Jarrett Bush (!!!) and played great. Williams was good with occasional bouts of ineptitude, Hayward was a revelation as a second round pick and became the best player in the secondary very quickly. Excellent awareness, hands, and short area burst. Woodson is completely done. S: Morgan Burnett, Jerron McMillan, Grade: C- Green Bay is still trying to replace Nick Collins. Burnett was capable of making some plays but is inconsistent, McMillan was a rookie and was generally bad. Special Teams K: Mason Crosby, Grade: F------------- Seriously, could be he be any worse? McCarthy showed a lot of loyalty to a kicker who was never even particular good at his best, and was putrid all year. Thankfully it didn't affect the playoff loss! P: Tim Masthay (The Ginger Wolverine) Grade: B Good enough. Returning: Randall Cobb, Jeremy Ross, Grade: B+ Packers have had good return games since drafting Randall Cobb, and now that Cobb is going to be having a bigger role in the offense they need a replacement. Jeremy Ross looks really good at both KR/PR, running through people and showing break away speed. He did have a part in two head scratching plays, including the muffed punt in the playoffs that completely changed the game. I'm willing to give him another shot in 2013. Coaching GM: Ted Thompson, Grade: B Another very good draft providing an infusion of talent to the defense. Consistently finds talent in the late rounds or UFA. Refuses to spend money in FA, to the detriment of the team. Marshawn Lynch and Tony Gonzalez are two guys who were basically freely available and would have been massive upgrades at minimal cost. I'm worried that his insistence on building through the draft and keeping the team young is going to keep Rodgers from returning to the Super Bowl - Packers are always the youngest team in the league and lots of mistakes and problems are because of inexperienced guys playing a huge amount of snaps. HC: Mike McCarthy, Grade: B- Never trust a guy who can look two different people in the eye at once. Stubborn to a fault, slow to react to the league "figuring out" his offense (rush the passer with four, keep 7 in coverage and play zone). Good coach, but not to the level of either of the Harbaughs. OC: Tom Clements, Grade: Whatever McCarthy is the HC/OC/play caller DC: Dom Capers, Grade: C Was forced to play with 6 rookies on the field at once, correctly predicted that they would be much better at the end of the year than when they were starting JARRETT BUSH at CB. Week 17 at Minnesota (playing for a bye) and the Divisional Round at San Fran were both debacles. STC: Sean Slocum Grade: B Special Teams is a strength of the team, or at least not actively hampering it. Some head scratching calls a few times, but whatever. Draft/Rookies, Grade: A Perry, Worthy, Hayward all started immediately. Perry looks like a solid contain OLB in a 3-4, capable of rushing the passer and shutting down the run. Looks slow and hesitant in coverage, as expected. Worthy was inconsistent, but showed flashes of dominance. Hayward is great, deservedly in the top 3 for DROY. He'll be Woodson's replacement as the slot corner. Mike Daniels stepped in and played ok. Don Barclay replaced Bulaga after his hip injury and wasn't awful, and even had a few blow up blocks on run plays. All in all, exactly what the team needed from the draft. FA signings/Trades (uhhh) Grade: n/a Overall Team Score: 85.7/100 Grade: B- Green Bay won the division despite a butt load of starters on IR or missing multiple games due to injuries. Rodgers had another fantastic year despite playing with backups and rookies, and the defense was effective. Despite the playoff run I feel like the window has closed on this first championship team, and the goal will be finishing the rebuild on the fly and returning to a championship level in the next year or two. Actually addressing team needs in FA would be great, but I expect nothing. Rodgers is the same age as Favre was in '99, and is facing the same situation.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 17:29 |
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Team Name: New England Patriots Offense: QB, Grade: A+ Tom had another Tom year, this time the offense featuring a ridiculous hurry up offense while dealing with constant injuries among the TE's and oline. HB, Grade: B+ As far as running backs go, this group has it relatively easy, tending to run against nickel sets and defenses that are too slow to set. Steven Ridley was the breakout of this group, replacing the efficiently plodding Lawfirm, and managed a solidly impressive 1250 rushing yards at a 4.4 clip. He and Woodhead combined to take most of the snaps, and close to the traditional roles of a starting and 3rd down back. Vereen contributed with a very solid divisional round game, and this grade gets knocked down to a B+ mostly off of some inopportune Ridley fumbles. WR, Grade: A- Was was his usual self, a ridiculous number of catches, gumbying ridiculous hits, and being Tom's go to guy whenever a play went fubar. Still a ton of drops, but that happens when you have 200 passes thrown at you. Brandon Lloyd was a slightly mixed bag, dropping some easy passes, but making ridiculous sideline catches constantly Everyone else was awful and shot. The lower free agents and draft picks were all disappointing messes. TE, Grade: A Hernandez and Gronk each missed 6 games, which led to most of the losses, but were dynamite when around. They combined for only just over a 100 catches and 16 touchdowns, so yeah. Backing up (mostly Gronk) were Daniel Fells and Michael Hoomanawanui who were roughly equivalent blockers, while providing basically no receiving support. OL, Grade: A- Despite a bunch of injuries to the guards, this unit graded out as one of the best by all advanced statistics. A touch mis-labeled, as the Patriots offensive game plan resulted in tons of very quick passing this year to work around the injuries, they were still a very good group. Solder and Vollmer were fine bookends, providing Light-esque pass blocking, and very good run blocking, opening massive holes for the running backs. Mankins was voted an all pro, which he didn't deserve this year, but he still played a high level, despite missing a month. RG was more of a mess, as Connolly was the weak link (and he combined with Wendell at center got Brady killed a few times), but still, admirable job all in all for this unit. If you graded by each individual position, it'd probably go: A-, A-, B, C-, A Deffense DE, Grade: B- Chandler Jones had a DROTY candidate first half of a rookie campaign, but ongoing ankle issues caused him to disappear. On the other side, Ninkovich is a solid guy, but disappeared quite often. Every sub package guy, injury replacement were replacement level quality at best. DT, Grade: B Okay, really this is Wilfork A and everyone else D. Wilfork is seriously overworked at this point, and no idea how long this can continue. Need some pass rush help here desperately. Speaking of, get the gently caress out Fanene. Kyle Love is a fine rotational guy, but nothing special, and that's it. LB, Grade: B+ Preseason injuries meant there was no one to come in for the starters, which was mercifully fine, since Mayo, Spikes and Hightower went wire to wire. Spikes is a liability in pass coverage, but a very good run stuffer, Hightower had a fine rookie campaign, missed a chunk to injury. Mayo was his usual self, a few forced fumbles, some sacks, a billion tackles. CB, Grade: C- Oh man, it got better for the second half of the regular season, once Dennard and Talib started and Arrington was kicked to nickel. Arrington's coverage woes have been expounded on, and boy did he suck this year. Dennard was significantly better then Talib, despite notoriety implying the opposite. The guys behind Arrington were even worse, and this came to a head in the AFCC when Flacco picked them apart in the 2nd half. But seriously, this has to be an awful grade, because the first half of the season was a mess, as the Patriots were forced to run extremely simple coverage schemes to minimize the damage these assholes did. Please do not go to prison Dennard. S, Grade: C+ Maybe I'm grading slightly on a curve after the straight F this unit was last year, but McCourty was a rather good safety this year, and the combination of Gregory / Wilson / Chung were merely below average as opposed to total poo poo. Special Teams K, Grade: B- Missed more FG's then usual, including some easy ones, but caused tons of touchbacks, and opponents had the 6th worst starting field position. P, Grade: B+ Mesko had a pretty easy job, punting only 60 times (2nd least) on the year, and was solidly fine while doing so. Ho hum, good player, great nickname, let's move on. Returning, Grade: C McCourty returned a kickoff for a score, otherwise nobody ever broke past the 20. Ho hum, just kneel fucko's. On punts, Edelman went down early leading Welker to have to go on punt returns. Edelman had a TD return, and has a style that can best be described as inspiring heart attacks, while Welker was much more efficient and took what was there and had me horrified he would die. Please do not use Welker on punt returns. ST defense, Grade: B+ Blocked well on punt returns, mediocre at best on kickoffs. Contained well and put Slater in the pro bowl again for containing returns. All in all, one of the better units. Docked a notch for that awful punt block TD against Arizona. Coaching GM, Grade: C+ Needs going into this season were: Fix the loving secondary (yes to safeties, nope to CB's) Replace the pass rush from last year (Didn't do enough) Sign Wes to a long term deal (nope) Add a competent outside WR (mostly yep) Get Waters to come back or replace him (mostly nope) Then in the season, filled a gaping, monstrous hole by trading a 4th for Aqib Talib (necessary, but wish it wasn't). Jones/Hightower/Dennard and to a lesser extent Wilson all contributed solidly as rookies, which kicks this grade up. The grade would be higher, but has to suffer for the defense being so thin. HC, Grade: A+ The offensive scheme he worked on this year was wonderful, and bringing McDaniels back seemed to allow enough time to turn a unit that was total poo poo last year on defense, into something reasonably near league average. Injuries hurt as the year progressed, but a twelve win season, another trip to the AFCC, and many more tired Hoody / Empire puns. Please coach til you drop. OC, Grade: A It hurts to do so, I kind of hate Josh McDaniels, but dammit, I have to. He had more injuries, a worse oline, implemented a ridiculous hurry up offense, returned the screen game, and really just totally revamped the offense from last year. Some team should totally give him another HC gig so I can laugh as he burns it all down again. DC, Grade: C+ So it's a better unit overall then last year, worse on the Dline, better linebacker play, significantly better secondary play, which is about what we could hope for from the promoted safties coach Matt Patricia. Still a rather vanilla defense, but forced a ton of turnovers and weren't the massive, gaping sieve they were last year. Room for improvement. STC, Grade: A- Outside of that one major fuckup against the Cardinals, and some bad kickoff coverage against the Texans, this was a well coached unit, thanks to long, long, long time ST coach Scott O'Brien. Draft/Rookies Grade: B+ Traded up twice in the first round, and walked away with Chandler Jones, who had a great first half of the season before injuries and Dont'e Hightower who was quite solid aside from also battling injuries in the middle of the season. Tavon Wilson was a reach in the draft, but has contributed reasonably as a rookie, and showed far more athleticism then Gregory while helping him glue Patrick Chung to the bench. Dennard rounds out the class, as a steal in the 7th, and hopefully a plea bargain can mean he'll be available going forward. The other draft picks did not contribute outside of some ST work. FA signings/Trades Grade: C+ Brandon Lloyd followed McDaniels here like a lost puppy, signing a below market deal and giving the Patriots a fine outside receiving option, even if he wasn't the explosive deep threat Pats fans thought. Drastically outplayed his contract, which is more then you can ask for from a free agent. Behind him, were some tertiary pickups in Gregory and the Tight Ends that contributed and weren't terribly detrimental to the team. Behind those guys were a few flops on the Dline like Jonathan Fanene, Trevor Scott, and some other too old and slow reclamation projects like Stallworth, Joseph Addai, Jabbar Gaffney, Robert Gallery and the like. All in all, a good hit, but could've really used some defensive depth that did not pan out. Overall Team Score Grade: A Extraordinary offense combined with league average defense allowed the team to overcome some lovely replacement ref football, go 12-4, get another bye week, and go to the AFC Championship game for the 7th time in 11 seasons with Tom as a starter. The hurry up offense was a hilariously potent, incredibly entertaining show to watch as we're spoiled rotten by Tom, Bill & Friends.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 18:41 |
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Team Name: San Diego Chargers Offense QB, Grade: C+ Phil had his worst year as a pro, there’s no doubt about that, but I put most of the blame for that on the god-awful play of the Offensive Line. Phil’s streak of 4000 yard seasons ends at 4, but he still had 3600 yards on the year and 26 TDs. His problem with INTs didn’t go away, but he came down from his career high 20 last year to 15 in 2012. This was somewhat offset by his career high 15 fumbles (7 lost), however when paired with the career high 49 sacks I think it’s clear where the blame for that lies. I’m convinced Phil isn’t the problem and can be part of the solution next year. HB, Grade: C- Ryan Mathews doesn’t appear capable of ever being “the guy” in San Diego. The oft-quoted stat on Mathews last year is that he had more broken collarbones than TDs. He is talented and still has a role on this team, but he’s never going to be a feature back. Ronnie Brown was an above average receiving back but he’s old as dirt and can’t run the ball worth a drat. Curtis Brinkley’s story is inspirational, but he brings very little to the field. Honestly the HB I was most impressed with was Jackie Battle and he’s a one-dimensional straight-ahead power back (whose hands aren’t quite as stony as I had been led to believe). FB, Grade: F LeRon McClain is clearly not the second coming of Lorenzo Neal. McClain is a bad run blocker, a below-average pass blocker, he’s slow as molasses, he’s a poor receiving threat out of the back field, and he’s a less effective short yardage threat than Jackie Battle (or Jacob Hester for what it’s worth). Basically he is bad at all of the things. If it wasn’t for Meachem he would be the worst FA pickup from last year. I was really high on his signing before the season because I am an idiot. WR, Grade: B- With a departing Vincent Jackson the Chargers turned to a combination of Robert Meachem and Eddie Royal to replace VJax’s production. That didn’t work out. Meachem is the worst, he never seemed to grasp the offense (how loving hard are Coryell receiver trees? Is Robert Meachem retarded?) Eddie Royal is still an unknown because he was barely able to get on the field due to nagging injuries. Danario Alexander and Malcolm Floyd both are both excellent football players. The reason I didn’t grade this lower is because of the pre-season injury to Vincent Brown. With Brown back in next season I actually think this is a fairly strong unit. TE, Grade: D Antonio Gates is no longer a factor. He’s old and slow and too easily taken out of games. Ladarius Green has a lot of potential, but he’s a raw as poo poo receiver and a terrible blocker. Dante Rosario is bad. Randy McMichael is still a good blocker but not much more than that. This is a weak unit overall. OL, Grade: F I personally think this is the worst offensive line in the NFL. When Mike Harris was starting along with Jeromey Clary (which happened 6 loving times) we had absolutely the worst pair of OTs in the NFL and I will fight anyone who says different. I take back what I said about Meachem, Jared Gaither was the worst FA signing last year, and maybe of AJ Smith’s career (just kidding, I haven’t forgotten you David Boston). How the gently caress was Tyronne Green supposed to replace Kris Dielmen again? You know what, gently caress this; just thinking about this is making me super mad. The Chargers O-Line was real bad. Deffense DE, Grade: B+ Corey Liuget loving rules hard and bounced back from having an extremely mediocre rookie campaign to being a loving beast last year. Kendall Reyes was by far the best draft pick for the Bolts last year and is a hell of a player. Vaughn Martin, if he sticks around, would make a more than serviceable back up/rotational guy. Antonio Garay was supposed to get some reps in at DE, and I think he would have been solid there, but that never materialized as far as I can remember and he’s almost certainly on his way out. Melvin Ingram got some time here, and will probably continue to in the future since he can line up just about anywhere, and I expect a Liuget like second year from him. This is one of the key strengths of this team going forward. NT, Grade: B Aubrayo Franklin is the best run stopping NT the Bolts have had since Jamal The Wall Williams. Cam Thomas does a hell of a job pushing the pocket on passing downs. I wish we could combine them The Fly style, but even still I was extremely happy with them last year. Garay is likely out in 2013 so this will be an area to address in the late rounds, but it’s pretty far from a pressing need at the moment. LB, Grade: C+ Butler is a star and Shaun Philips had a bounce back year, but the rest of this unit is filled with mediocrity and role players. Demorrio Williams had 2 int TDs (should have been 3 but Ingram had to give Brees the business) which was pretty cool, but he’s kind of lovely against the run and useless as a pass rusher. Takeo Spikes is a born leader and can still battle at the line to stuff the run, but he is awful in coverage and is a mediocre pass rusher. Ingram made some impact plays, but they were few and far between. I kind of set myself up to be disappointed by him though; I had him picked as at least in the discussion for DRoTY. Larry English is useless. Jarret Johnson is a great edge setter but he’s old and provides little to no usefulness on passing downs. Antwan Barnes is a one-trick pony, but at least it’s a pretty good trick. Jonas Mouton is on this roster, and no, I don’t know why. CB, Grade: D+ The biggest problem with the Chargers’ CBs is we have no answer for a team’s No. 1 guy. Quentin Jammer used to be that guy, but Jam’s best days are so far behind him I doubt he can even make them out in the rearview mirror. Cason is athletic, but he’s soft and simply can’t compete with physical receivers, which are pretty in vogue nowadays. Gilchrist doesn’t look like he’ll ever be able to play outside, but at least he’s a decent option at the nickel. Shareece Wright isn’t ready to be the #1 corner, but he’s probably going to have to be because Cason has shown he can’t do it and that’s assuming he gets re-signed. OT is our biggest need, but CB really isn’t that far behind. S, Grade: B- Eric Weddle is the best Safety in football and if I only had to grade him this would be the easiest A+ ever. I was actually happy with Atari Bigby last year because, even though he wasn’t all that great in pass coverage, he attacked the run viciously and effectively. He’s not durable though, so even if he sticks around he’s not the solution, although I think he can be part of the solution. We barely got to see any Brandon Taylor due to injuries, but the coaching staff was consistently high on him and he very well may be the answer beside Weddle. Special Teams: C+ We had a couple returns and we gave up 3 blocked punts. Coverage was solid. Novak didn’t cost us any games. Meh. Coaching GM, Grade: D AJ Smith was the chief architect of these last 3 disastrous seasons. He doesn’t fail because he left us with some parting gifts in the last couple drafts, but I put the blame squarely on him for allowing this team to deteriorate over the last several years. gently caress you AJ Smith. HC/OC, Grade: C- Norv is gone, and the team as a whole and the offense in particular underperformed the last 3 years on his watch. This was a confounding team to cheer for in 2012 in all areas, but the offense in particular was the worst it has been since probably 2004. We lost a game 7-6 to the Cleveland Browns. Yes, that actually happened and I watched the whole drat thing. DC, Grade: B Overall John Pagano’s unit performed well, but then you have baffling poo poo like 4th and 29. I noticed that 3 of the candidates for the Never Say Never bullshit award involved the Chargers. 4th and 29 was one of them, the other two were the Saints in the Drew Brees Consecutive TD bullshitstravaganza (where we got loving jobbed) and, the worst thing I have ever witnessed, the Bronco’s 35 unanswered points in the second half to come from behind Monday Night Meltdown. Not all of that falls on Pagano’s defense, obviously, but a hell of a lot of it does. Still, overall this unit improved and it was only his first year on the job. STC, Grade: C I already addressed this above but, meh. 2 return TDs, 3 blocked punts, no games lost by the place kicker. Meh. Rich Bissaccia is now in Dallas. Draft/Rookies Grade: C Ingram was a disappointment but not a failure. I still expect a lot from him. Kendall Reyes was a pleasant surprise. I didn’t see enough of Brandon Taylor to form an opinion one way or the other. Ladarius Green is raw, but that was expected. I don’t think any of our other rookies played. FA signings/Trades Grade: D- The only reason I’m not failing this group is because Danario Alexander was an amazing signing. Every other FA brought in was a disappointment at at least some level with the possible exception of Jarret Johnson who was more or less exactly what everyone thought he was. Overall Team Score Grade: D I’m really just grading a dead regime, and in some ways that seems pointless, but last year was the most disappointing year in a decade or so. Change has come, let’s see if that leads to anything.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 19:12 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 21:19 |
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Confounding Factor posted:Draft/Rookies 
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 19:18 |
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