The Bills find themselves at a surprising 4-4 record heading into Week 10 of the NFL season as big favorites on the road versus the pitiful Miami Dolphins. Here are my assessments of the Bills thus far through an academic style grading, which I feel is detrimental to student development, but continues to be the standard.

Quarterback: Going into the season, the job was for the first time in years, firmly JP Losman’s. The Bills had their QB and for once other positions were an issue, but not the signal caller. Then Marv Levy heeded to the advice of the late great Bill Walsh and selected Stanford QB Trent Edwards (Or Tredwards as Zak Korman prefers). I predicted before Week 1, based on what I saw in preseason ball, that if JP Losman were to go down with an injury, he’d never play again for the Bills….that almost happened. JP hurt his knee on a dirty hit by who else, New England, and Trent came in and pulled the Bills from an 0-3 hole. Trent was named the starter going forward until he hurt his wrist after landing on it awkwardly late in the Jets game. So here we are, JP gets another shot at the helm for the Bills this week in Miami after a very impressive game at home vs Cincinatti, and then assuming he plays decent in Miami, will probably get the nod for a primetime home game with the unbeaten Patriots. Here’s the thing: I am a Trent Edwards guy, I think he’s the future. He has thrown a few horrible, horrible interceptions…but chalk it up to being a rookie. I think Trent is the guy, but if JP gives the Bills their bets shot to sneak into the AFC Wild Card, I have to support him. Grade: C+

Running Back: I was desperately pleading with the Bills front office on draft day in April to trade up to draft Oklahoma RB Adrian Peterson after he slipped down to 7th. They didn’t, and the Vikings landed what will be one of the top five greatest pure runners in NFL history if he stays healthy. That said, how about Marshawn freakin Lynch? I admit it, I had my doubts….He looked like another McGahee to me out of the gate. Marshawn is about 4th in the entire NFL in rushing yards right now, has put up a respectable amount of touchdowns, and even threw a TD to Robert Royal last week. The guy is a monster, and further, he likes Buffalo! Anyone who can move his entire family to Western New York and run for 60 yard TD’s is going to yield some supporters. Hell, I bought his jersey, I think we can expect Lynch to be really special. Grade: A

Wide Receiver: Paging Roscoe Parrish! Where have you been Roscoe? Fairchild needs to find a way to get Parrish the rock at least 5x a game, and also he should be returning kicks as well. I know McGee has been sensational but Roscoe is about 50/50 to break it every time. If he returned kicks for a full year, he’d be very comparable to Devin Hester. Lee Evans seems to be breaking out of his slump with a string of good performances, including that Superman catch in double coverage from Losman. I’m still not convinced he is a great #1 WR but if the Bills could pick up another viable receiving threat, Evans would put up huge numbers. Josh Reed has played well this year, consistently making the tough catches around the first down sticks. In order for our QB’s to have some of the pressure off, the WR’s need to continue the success they’ve been building upon and really put together a solid second half of the season. Grade: B

Tight Ends: OMFG! The Bills have tight ends! I can’t remember a Bills TE since Riemersma even being on the field, let alone catching passes and making plays downfield! I contribute this to Edwards who actually checks down and got the TE’s into the mix, Losman seems to see that it worked and did it a few times versus Cincinatti. We’re actually beginning to look like a pro football team. Get well Kevin Everett. Grade: B

Offensive Line: There has been tremendous strides on the line the past few games, and with good reason. The Bills put a whole lot of money into their line this year and it seems to be starting to pay off. Losman had more time in the pocket Sunday than any Bills QB in a game since Jimbo in the mid-nineties. Lynch has found success running on the big left side of this line, anchored by two potential Pro Bowl candidates Jason Peters and Derrick Dockery. A lot of pressure is on these guys down the stretch if the Bills plan to shock everyone make their first postseason trip in the Bush presidency. Grade: B

Defensive Line: Again, another place were Marv put a lot of money in over the offseason to get the Bills better in the trenches. Aaron Schobel signed a monster contract for his monster sack season last year, but hasn’t produced what those dollars expect. His 2.5 sacks lead the defense but are sub-par with premier DE’s around the league. Josh McCargo, injured all of last year as a rookie, is beginning to look like a bust. Chris Kelsay has been solid throughout. Kyle Williams has been the biggest surprise of the bunch. The Bills are playing inspired defense lately, but it still doesn’t mean its good. The last time the Bills played a ‘good’ offense it was New England and we know how that went. The Bills have played the Jets 2x, the Bengals, and Ravens recently…none of which have anything offensively to really consider. So the line needs to step up down the stretch, a ton of room for improvement here. Grade: C-

Linebackers: A unit that lost London Fletcher and Takeo Spikes began this season with a returning Angelo Crowell, rookie from Penn State Paul Posluzny, and veteran safety turned LB Coy Wire. Wire and Posluzny were knocked out early, Paul for the year, but the linebackers have been so solid all year. John DiGiorgio is my Bills Surprise player of the year, he’s absolutely played his guts out in relief. Angelo Crowell has proved this year with a depleted core that he’s one of the most underrated LB’s in all of football, seamlessly replacing Fletcher and Spikes as the anchor of the unit. In my opinion Crowell should be in the Pro Bowl as the team leaders in tackles by almost twenty. I am unsure of whether or not we’ll be able to hold up to some of the more talented offenses coming forward though. Grade: B-

Secondary: Donte Whitner is going to prove to be one of the best Bills 1st round draft picks ever. The guys has been all over the field this season and should be a Pro Bowl pick. Terrance McGee has improved his game from last season trying to take on the role of #1 Corner with the departure of Nate ‘The Date Rape’ Clements to San Francisco. Jim Leonhard has been a ballhawk when healthy, leading the team with a paltry 2 INT’s. George Wilson was out of football and now is earning everyone’s respect playing tough opposite Whitner. There isn’t a lot of talent back here beside Whitner (I don’t regard McGee as much more than average) but they are playing tough football despite the odds, let’s hope that they continue to surge down the stretch. Grade: C+

Special Teams: Lindell is a fantastic NFL kicker, especially with the swirling winds in Orchard Park, Moorman has further proved he is the best punter in all of football, and McGee/Parrish have been productive returning kicks. But there was the matter of the allowed onside recovery vs Dallas and far too many penalties on special teams that we are not accustomed to seeing from Bobby April’s unit. Grade: B

Coaching: Dick Jauron, besides from maybe Belicheck, has to be the most mundane Coach ever. Throw Wade Phillips in there as well. While he has done a lot with a little so far, I’m not convinced that Buffalo would be much worse or much better with someone else at the helm. And for &*@! sake, get Steve Fairchild out of the playcalling position. I have a theory that he is betting against the Bills with some of his ass backward playcalling thus far. Bobby April is the best Special Teams coordinator in all of football. Unimpressive overall, but they do have this team at 4-4 somehow when it could easily be 6-2. Grade: B-

Offensive Player: RB Marshawn Lynch
Defensive Player: SS Donte Whitner
Most Improved: CB Jabari Greer
Biggest Surprise: LB John DiGiorgio
Biggest Disappointment: DE Aaron Schobel
Best Play: Lynch’s TD pass to TE Robert Royal
Best Moment: Reports from the hospital of Kevin Everett having some movement one day after doctors said it’d be very unlikely he’d ever walk again

Things are going to begin moving in a new direction here. Gone are the days of posting every YouTube clip I find funny, since finding anything worthwhile on GooTube has changed into sifting through a murky river for any speckle of twinkling gold.

The new direction will focus on worthwhile content. Personal analysis concerning, but not limited to; politics, finance, business, the occasional sport related writeup, social musings, current events, or anything else I deem worthwhile. So posting will be less frequent, but hopefully more extensive, I guess this signals another step in becoming a real adult, another childhood Horcrux destroyed if you will.

I’d move the blog to a more professional/respected engine with this transition but Blogger has been good to me and their archiving is top notch. Plus its free, which is a plus, Google is a beast…and now officially over $700 a share, a far cry from the IPO price of ~$88 that I thought was too expensive to invest in…the lesson as always folks, I am an idiot.