NFL Report Cards: 50 Players, Coaches and Coordinators Receiving Failing Grades

The season is now 75 percent completed, so we are able to make some reasonable conclusions about how specific players, coaches and team coordinators have been able to perform in the 2011 NFL season.

Some players have wildly exceeded expectations, while others have failed miserably. What we are interested in locating in this presentation is the 50 biggest failures of the 2011 NFL season from the standpoint of the players, the coaches and the coordinators.

At some point down the road we will probably address the owners, general managers and other NFL dignitaries. But for today, it is limited to the three subset groups we highlighted.

Please note that there are going to be different degrees of failures. In some cases you might initially scratch your head wondering why a certain player is on here, but that is usually going to be the case for somebody for whom the level of expectations was set so high that they had little chance to succeed; thus, the end result was a failing grade for the year.

Braylon Edwards

When the San Francisco 49ers signed free-agent wide receiver Braylon Edwards, they were smart to sign him to an incentive-laden deal, because his performance this year has been far from impressive.

Edwards signed for a one-year, $1 million contract, with another $2.5 million available through incentives based on receptions and a Pro Bowl berth. For starters, we can easily say that the Pro Bowl berth isn't going to happen.

Coming into action in Week 13, Edwards has a whopping 14 catches on the year, which means he is basically averaging one catch per game. He is sixth on the 49ers in receptions coming into Week 13. Furthermore, Edwards has no touchdown receptions for the year and has only been able to generate 172 yards in receptions for the year.

In Edwards' five years with the Browns, he had two seasons of over 800 yards in receptions, and his career-best year was in 2007, when he had 1,289 yards. Last year with the New York Jets he had 904 yards. Where did that player go? He is listed as questionable for Week 13, but I would list him as a failure for this year. Wonder if he can get a good deal on some 5-Hour Energy drinks, because he could use some.

Ndamukong Suh

Should we just chalk it up to the old sophomore slump? Somehow, I think everybody was expecting Ndamukong Suh to step up his game to another level this year, but that simply hasn't happened. If anything, he has taken a step backwards. 

It's bad enough that he felt the need to stomp Green Bay Packers guard Evan Dietrich-Smith in prime time on Thanksgiving Day in front of a national audience, which led to his two-game suspension from the NFL.

But then, when he is out serving his suspension, he rams a 1970 Chevy Coupe into a tree at 1:15 in the morning in Portland, Oregon. Can't he even stay out of trouble while on suspension?

Other evidence that Suh has failed this year is that over the past 30 weeks of play in the NFL, Suh leads the entire league with nine personal fouls. When quizzed about the potential suspension for the stomp, Mike Pereira, the former head of NFL officials said, "Suh isn't dirty, he's filthy." This means that the jury is now out, and he will be watched closer than ever by referees.

Other aspects of this lost year: In his rookie year, Suh had 66 tackles, 10 sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and one interception. This year, the tackles are down to 31 with only three sacks, and the rest of the stat line is empty. Heck, he hasn't even tried an extra point this year.

Even his own team can't endorse what he's doing. A team statement from the Lions read: "The on-field conduct exhibited by Ndamukong Suh that led to his ejection from yesterday’s game was unacceptable and failed to meet the level of sportsmanship we expect from our players,"

To put his play into perspective, Suh has now received the distinction of being awarded with the first multiple-game suspension for on-field actions from the NFL since 2006. Who was it that had the honor in 2006? Albert Haynesworth. You are traveling in some interesting circles these days, Mr. Suh.

Nnamdi Asomugha

When Nnamdi Asomugha was prepared to enter the wild, wild world of NFL free agency, 2011-style, the world was his oyster. Teams were fighting with each other to get the top bid to secure his services, and he had his pick of the litter. Asomugha was perceived to be a difference-maker, and if a team only needed to shore up its secondary to get to the promised land, Asomugha was the guy that could take it there.

Or so we all thought. If anything, the Eagles must also be thrown under the bus here for taking a superior talent and turning him into an inferior player. In this excellent article by Bill Barnwell, entitled, "A Requiem for the Dream Team from Philly," he asks the question: What happened to Nnamdi Asomugha?

Barnwell describes the chain of events by illustrating how great Asomugha was at utilizing the sidelines to pin his receiver down to an easier area to defend, and then Philadelphia moved him to the middle of the field, where he lost the majority of his effectiveness. Brilliant!

Now with a record of 4-8, the injuries are starting to pile up on Asomugha at an alarming rate. He had the hyper-extended knee in practice, and now we learn from the Thursday night game that he picked a stinger and a concussion.

The year just keeps going from bad to worse. For signing a five-year deal for $60 million, of which $25 million was guaranteed, there's no way that the Eagles received anywhere close to that value from his play. I would call this deal, so far, a miserable failure.

Mike Munchak

OK, let's see if I can set this up properly. Mike Munchak played in the NFL for 12 years, and during that time he was named to nine Pro Bowl teams and was also named to 10 All-Pro teams. He was such a good offensive lineman that he was named to the NFL's 1980s All-Decade Team.

Munchak was then the offensive line coach for the Titans/Oilers organization for 14 years, preparing him to become head coach of the team.

So, with somebody with all of this great knowledge of how to block and how to make a running game work, you insert one Chris Johnson into the picture, who coming into the 2011 season has been averaging 96 rushing yards per game for his entire career.

After 10 weeks of action, the Munchak-led Titans team had somebody turned Johnson from averaging 96 yards per game down to 50 yards per game. Granted, he did finally explode for 190 yards per game against Tampa Bay in Week 12, but when the Titans were able to bring Johnson in to end the holdout, I was expecting so much more in production.

The fact that it took so long to materialize is a big failure.

Brian Schottenheimer/Mark Sanchez

When the 2010 season came to an end, the New York Jets had the No. 11 overall offense in the NFL, averaging 351 yards per game. Coming into Week 13, the Jets have seen their offense plummet down the charts, where they currently stand at No. 25 in the NFL, averaging only 314.8 yards per game.

Who's the culprit for this failure? I decided to put this as a combination slide, sharing the blame between quarterback Mark Sanchez and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. The biggest issue with the Jets offense is that they no longer have an identify.

Are they a running team? Are they a passing team? Are they a team that really can't do either one very well? As Schottenheimer tries to develop Sanchez in his third season as an NFL quarterback, the Jets find that their scoring has actually improved by 0.4 points a game, so it isn't a total failure.

However, the Jets defense has gone from No. 3 overall in 2010 down to No. 8 in 2011. Not a huge drop, but not as dominating as they were before either. So, instead of the offense picking up the slack for them, they have gone in the opposite direction, placing more stress on the defense.

While the Jets still have a shot at the playoffs with a 6-5 record, if they fail to make the postseason, they can thank the offense and the big drop in the running game for making Rex Ryan's predictions look so bad.

Miles Austin

In September of 2010, the Dallas Cowboys signed wide receiver Miles Austin to a seven-year, $57.168 million contract. That was after Austin had come up big in the 2009 season, leading the Cowboys in reception yardage with 1,320 and 11 touchdown catches.

When the ink dried on that deal, the production from Austin has been in a slow and steady decline. The touchdowns have dropped from 11 to seven to just four this year. The passing yards have gone the same way, from 1,320 to 1,041 to just 403 this year. The number of catches? Yes, same thing. Dropped from 81 to 69 to just 28 this year.

In 2011, the Cowboys are paying Austin a salary of $8.54 million. For that amount of money, Austin is fourth on the team in receptions and fourth in yardage. Any sign of him turning it around?

He has been ruled out for Week 13 already due to his hamstring woes, so we will have to see if there is an improvement for Week 14.

DeAngelo Williams

Before the 2011 NFL season began, the Carolina Panthers decided to make a major commitment to their running back when they signed DeAngelo Williams to a five-year, $43 million contract. The deal contains $21 million guaranteed, including a $16 million signing bonus, which is another way of saying that Williams is now a wealthy man.

The deal wasn't Chris Johnson money, but still, the Panthers were expecting big production from Williams when they made this deal. So how is this working out for the Panthers so far? The Panthers have another talented back in Jonathan Stewart that can help Williams stay fresher throughout the season.

Williams didn't have a full 2010 season due to injury, but if you look at his production from 2010 through the end of September of 2011, a span that covered 10 games, Williams was only managing 43 yards on the ground per game. His average gain per rush had dropped to 3.6 yards. The Charlotte Observer was calling for the Panthers to give the ball more to Jonathan Stewart and to forget Williams.

Williams had his peak year in 2008, when he rushed for 1,515 yards on 273 attempts and 18 touchdowns. Since then, the production has been sinking. In 2009, the numbers dropped to 1,117 yards on 216 attempts and seven touchdowns. In 2011, Williams only has 540 yards after Week 12 on 108 carries and three touchdowns on the year.

For all of the other running backs out there like Matt Forte, Ray Rice and Fred Jackson who are looking for new contract deals, NFL owners and general managers can point to DeAngelo Williams and Chris Johnson and find millions of reasons why it just doesn't make sense to do that.

Trent Edwards

After opening the 2010 NFL season as a starting quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, the 2011 NFL season for Edwards has to be considered as a giant failure.

Think about all of the NFL teams that have gone through big changes at the quarterback position to open up the year. Now think about all of the teams that have needed to make a change from their opening-day quarterback to who they are playing now. The list is getting pretty long, right?

Now, think about all of the injured quarterbacks that have been cropping up lately and the flurry of veteran quarterbacks that have been signed as free agents, as well as the veteran quarterbacks that have been placed on waivers. All of those teams looking for quarterback help, and where's Trent Edwards in all this? He's still unemployed and waiting for the phone to ring.

The year didn't start off so well in 2011, when he was beaten out for the Raiders job by Kyle Boller and Terrelle Pryor. You would have thought that returning to Northern California would have been the ultimate location for the Stanford graduate.

When Matt Leinart went down last week for the Houston Texans, Edwards was beaten out by Jake Delhomme in workouts to become the new backup. Even in Miami, where Edwards worked out, they have signed another ex-Bills starter in J.P. Losman.

For Edwards to have sunk this far in terms of not even being able to land a backup job has to be considered one more failure to add to our list.

Tom Coughlin

If there was one thing you could always count on, it was that the New York Giants could run the football with the best teams in the NFL year in and year out. Big Blue was all about being physical and playing smash-mouth football.

Enter 2011. Head coach Tom Coughlin has seen his Giants team miss the playoffs for two straight years and knows that unless he directs them into the postseason this year, he's probably out of a job. So, here we are after Week 12 of the season, and do you want to take a crazy guess as to what team has the worst rush offense in the NFL?

That would be the New York Giants, who are averaging an amazingly low 82.3 yards per game. It's not like the Giants aren't trying to run the ball. They are actually No. 22 in rush attempts with 285. But what's really surprising is that the Giants now are only averaging 3.2 yards per rush, which is last in the league by a wide margin.

Sure, there have been some injuries, but Ahmad Bradshaw has played in seven of the 11 contests this year, while Brandon Jacobs has appeared in nine of the 11 games. The fact is that the Giants are just inept at running the ball in 2011, and that has to come down on Tom Coughlin.

If the Giants find a way to come up short for the playoffs and Coughlin loses his job, he can think back to how the Giants lost their identity as a running football team and wish that he could back up and start the whole thing over again.

Jonathan Baldwin

The Kansas City Chiefs raised many eyebrows when they decided to reach for wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin from Pittsburgh with the 26th overall pick in the first round of the 2011 NFL draft.

Baldwin was considered an attitude problem and showed a number of diva qualities that would lead teams to evaluate him as a second- to third-round talent. Instead, the Chiefs ignored all of the noise and went with Baldwin.

Fast-forward 12 games into the Chiefs' 2011 season. Baldwin has led the Chiefs in receiving yards one time this year. He has amassed 14 catches on the season, which ranks him fifth on his own team. He's even trailing tight end Leonard Pope, if that puts things in better perspective. Baldwin has gained 172 yards on the season and scored one touchdown.

Then to top all of that off, there was the training camp fight with veteran running back Thomas Jones. The veterans had grown weary of Baldwin's antics and attitude in training camp, and things reached a boiling point that culminated in Jones and Baldwin squaring off in the locker room.

Baldwin emerged with a fractured thumb. The thumb injury has since healed, but Baldwin has only had one good game for the year. In four other games, he has only managed to come up with one catch each.

Gregg Williams

Some people around the NFL tend to view New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams with more respect than I think he deserves.

Let's take a look at the numbers to see what Williams has been able to do with the Saints defense. From an overall perspective, the Saints rank No. 27 in the NFL, as they allow 378.8 yards per game. The pass defense is ranked even worse, as they currently sit at No. 30 in the league, allowing 264 yards per game.

Out of the four current division leaders in the NFC, the Saints give up the most points at 22.4 points per game. That ranks them as 19th-best in the NFL in that category.

Williams is known for dialing up lots of blitz packages, but in 2010 the Saints only had 33 sacks, which was good for No. 18 in the league. This year, they are lower at No. 19 with 25 sacks after 12 games. The Saints defense was ranked dead last in the NFL in 2010 with only nine interceptions on the year. This year they have seven for the season, which ranks them No. 27.

If you look at the overall numbers, I just don't see how you can give Williams a passing grade. The Saints defense looked terrible last year when they were bounced by the Seahawks, and I just don't see much improvement, if any.

Steve Loney

Why is this man smiling? Steve Loney is in his fifth year as the offensive line coach of the St. Louis Rams.

Sam Bradford, the Rams' starting quarterback, has already been sacked 33 times this year. Leading the league with 34 sacks are Ben Roethlisberger and Alex Smith. Since Bradford has missed three games due to injury, his totals would have been even worse than they are now.

The Rams know that they have to protect Bradford since he's their franchise quarterback, and they also know that he's not the strongest or toughest of quarterbacks. Bradford was sacked 34 times last year as a rookie, which placed him in the top five in the league.

I don't know what goes on at the Rams' film review sessions or at their team practices, but one thing is for sure: Steve Loney is not getting the job done.

Bob Sanders

Bob Sanders is the Buffalo Bills' outside linebackers coach. He's responsible for generating some pass rush from the outside, as well as coaching his troops on how to establish outside containment in the run game.

The Bills went through a difficult transformation in 2010 when they switched from a 4-3 to a 3-4 defense. They really didn't have the right personnel to make the switch then, and the end results were pretty disastrous. The Bills had the worst run defense in the NFL, and the linebacking corps had a lot to do with it.

In the offseason, head coach Chan Gailey brought in his longtime friend Dave Wannstedt to come in to coach the middle linebackers, taking some of Sanders' duties off his plate.

Early in the 2011 preseason, it was clear that Sanders was still having trouble getting through to Aaron Maybin to turn him into the player that the Bills needed him to be.

Whatever they tried, nothing worked. Was it the player or was it the coach? Well, as we all know, Maybin was picked up by the New York Jets. Guess who's now leading the New York Jets defense with six sacks? You guessed it—Aaron Maybin.

Out of the linebackers that Sanders is working with, here are their sack totals for the year: Spencer Johnson (two), Danny Batten (0.5), Arthur Moats (0.5), Shawne Merriman (one) and Chris Kelsay (one). So, Maybin has more sacks that the entire Bills outside linebacking corps combined. Lovely.

If you watch the Bills play on television, you will normally see the quarterback have all day to throw the ball since the Bills generate such a weak pass rush. It didn't help when they lost All-Pro nose tackle Kyle Williams to injury.

But whether it's lighting a fire under his current players or for not finding out how to get Aaron Maybin to produce, Bob Sanders gets a failing grade for failing to generate much of anything.

The Bills' 17 sacks this year have them ranked last in the NFL in that category.

Peyton Hillis

Peyton Hillis went from penthouse to doghouse in one quick and very bad year. Hillis was of course the cover boy for EA Sports' Madden NFL 12 video game. He ignored the warning signs that players that grace the cover are usually in for a bad season, as the "Madden Curse" seems to be more than just coincidence.

If you look at the results, the numbers speak for themselves. In 2010, Hillis set career highs with 270 rush attempts, 1,177 yards gained and 11 touchdowns via the rush. He also came up with 57 first downs on rushes. He averaged a healthy 4.4 yards per rush.

In 2011, Hillis has played in six games and sat out six games due to injury. He has missed games due to strep throat, injuries to both hamstrings and most recently a strained hip. He has failed to cross the 100-yard mark in any game in 2011, and his totals are less than impressive. For the year, he has 79 rushes, amounting to 276 yards, which is a poor 3.5 average yards per rush. He only has two touchdowns on the year.

His receptions are down as well. In 2010 Hillis had 61 catches for 477 yards. This year, he's down to 17 catches for only 72 yards.

There's plenty of speculation that the Browns will let Hillis walk at the end of the year since he's playing out the final year of his rookie contract.

This is typically not the way you would want to be playing for a new contract. Well, at least he has all of those royalties from EA Sports going for him, right?

Raheem Morris

We all know that Rex Ryan tries to inspire his team by making wild predictions that he hopes will elevate the self-confidence of his players. Tampa Bay Buccaneer head coach Raheem Morris instead prefers to boast to everybody that he has the best team in the NFC South.

Morris used that ploy repeatedly in 2010 to elevate his team and to inspire them. The Bucs sneaked up on the NFL in 2010, going from a 3-13 record to 10-6 in one year, which is a remarkable turnaround. It was rather curious why he was snubbed in NFL Coach of the Year voting, but perhaps that was a reflection of his bravado rather than his actual coaching.

The Tampa Bay defense, once feared throughout the league, has now become anything but feared under Morris. It is currently ranked No. 30 overall in the NFL. The pass defense is ranked No. 26, while the run defense is ranked No. 29, so the Bucs are basically equally bad in all phases of defense.

In 2011, Morris knew that the rest of the league would be ready for his team, so he again turned to the media to boast long and hard about how good his team was and that it would even be better in 2011.

Now after 12 games, the Bucs have returned to 2009 form with a 4-8 record. If you watch them play, they take a number of dumb penalties, look disorganized and don't really play like a team. Morris seems to have lost a certain degree of control over his team, and if he can't snap them out of their funk in the early going of 2012, you would have to wonder how much room he has before he experiences a mutiny.

The Bucs are now in a free fall of losing six straight games. I like the situation on Sunday when he sent home Brian Price in an attempt to get the attention of his team. It may be a case of too little, too late, but it's a start.

Romeo Crennel

In doing research for this story, I was surprised to see that the Kansas City Chiefs were ranked last in the NFL in sacks coming in to play in Week 13, with just 13 sacks. Knowing that Tamba Hali was having another solid year, it meant that the rest of the defense must not be doing anything, which turned out to be the case.

I realize that timing is everything, but as I mentioned, one game "does not a season make." Yes, Romeo Crennel found a way for his defense to come up with seven sacks against the Chicago Bears and backup quarterback Caleb Hanie, but that's hardly a major accomplishment. The Buffalo Bills are now last in sacks in the league, and they managed to get nine of them in a preseason game against the Bears.

Justin Houston was thought to be a prolific pass-rusher coming out of college, but he didn't record a sack until he met the Bears' woeful offensive line. This is the Bears team that allowed Jay Cutler to be sacked 52 times last year. Fifty-two times!

The Chiefs suffered a major loss when Eric Berry went down early in the season, but losing Berry shouldn't make that much of a difference in explaining why the Chiefs run defense is ranked No. 25, giving up 130.3 yards per game. Between the run defense and the weak sack totals, I have to give Crennel a failing grade for his work as defensive coordinator this year.

Rex Grossman

Rex Grossman must have felt that his Washington Redskins weren't getting enough respect around the NFL from all of the talking heads, so he decided to become a talking head himself when he proclaimed that the Redskins were by far the best team in the NFC East and were going to win the division.

Predicting the NFC East title is one thing, but delivering on your words is something totally different. After 12 games, the Redskins are firmly in the basement of the NFC East, tied with the Philadelphia Eagles at 4-8.

As far as Grossman goes, his performance this year is as good as his ability is to make predictions. He's currently ranked No. 29 in the NFL with an anemic passer rating of 69.8. His touchdowns to interceptions ratio is an upside-down 10:15, and he's only completing 57.9 percent of his passes. Grossman is involved in trying to hold John Beck off from beating him out for the starting quarterback job.

Wonder what Grossman will proclaim in 2012, not that anybody really needs to pay any attention to him.

Michael Vick

Like I said in the beginning, nobody is safe from this list, which includes adding Michael Vick. How can I call Michael Vick a failure this year?

Well, for starters, he found a way to turn his collection of All-Star caliber talent into a bunch of losers, as the Eagles are only 3-6 in the nine games Vick has started this year. He found ways to lose to teams like the Arizona Cardinals and Buffalo Bills, two teams that the Eagles had no business losing to.

Then, we look at his decision-making process this year in where he decides to throw the ball. From 2009-2010, Vick played in 24 games with the Eagles. During that time, he threw only six interceptions. In just nine games this year, that number jumped up to 11 interceptions. Rather than getting better, he has progressively become worse.

Now take into account that the Eagles signed him to a six-year, $100 million contract of which $35.5 million is guaranteed.

If you look at what the Eagles invested to keep Vick happy, and how he has performed since, you realize that he's not coming close to the level of expectations that were established. In 2010, Vick ranked No. 4 in the NFL, as he came up with a passer rating of 100.2. He had a great ratio of 21 touchdowns to six interceptions. This year, his rating is No. 20 at 79.8. The great ratio has dropped to a not-so-great 11:11.

It's conceivable that Vick will turn his game around in 2012 and look more like he did in 2010. But for this year, he gets a failing grade.

Jim Schwartz

NFL teams are said to take on the personality of their coach. That's clearly true for the Detroit Lions, for better or worse.

Jim Schwartz had his Detroit Lions coasting along in the early stages of the 2011 season at 5-0. The Lions were playing smart, inspired football. They were composed, they played with passion and they were able to overcome adversity in their comeback wins over the Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys.

But then came the improbable ending to the game against the San Francisco 49ers and the infamous game-ending handshake incident with Jim Harbaugh. The Lions went from a 5-0 start to 2-5 over their next seven games.

I don't know how much of the current losing streak is coincidence or how much of it is a direct result of the players losing some degree of control, just like head coach Jim Schwartz lost a degree of control over his own actions.

Schwartz could have opted to let the Harbaugh slight go and move on, but he chose to take a stand and not be bullied around. Since then, if you watch the Lions play, they continue to play in a similar fashion, as their players will take dumb penalties or play without control.

If they feel the slightest bit insulted by a hit or somebody talking trash, they will lash out and take a swing. It was evident again on Sunday with rookie wide receiver Titus Young taking a bad penalty against the Saints when the Lions were still in the game.

The two-game suspension of Ndamukong Suh is unfortunate, but to some degree it also falls in line with the player losing control of his emotions like his coach does. Overall, the Lions are ranked No. 29 in the NFL with 7.9 penalties per game. The Lions defense leads the NFL with 94 penalties.

With each passing loss, the Lions' playoff chances will be slipping away. Too bad, because this team exhibited so much promise over the first five weeks of the season.

Kerry Collins

At the end of the year, Kerry Collins will turn 39 years old. Back in September, Collins received a very generous early birthday present from the Indianapolis Colts, who gave him $4 million to play in what amounted to a three-game season. That breaks down into a cool $1.333 million per game.

The Colts were willing to pay Collins the $4 million to keep the team competitive this year, to serve as a bridge until Peyton Manning could recover from his neck surgery. Collins had the Colts in just one game, the Week 3 loss to Pittsburgh, when they dropped the game 23-20.

While it might have been foolish for the Colts to think that Collins could roll off his couch and come right into the starting lineup, it also meant that the Colts had turned their backs on any other viable trade options, as they had essentially gone "all in" on Collins for the start of the 2011 campaign.

This slide doesn't cast the entire blame on Collins, but also on Bill Polian for not orchestrating a better contingency plan if something happened to Peyton Manning. We will be dealing with head coach Jim Caldwell later in the presentation.

Shawne Merriman

If you happened to watch the first preseason game between the Buffalo Bills and the Chicago Bears, you would think that Bills linebacker Shawne Merriman was all the way back to his All-Pro form and health when he was terrorizing offenses for the San Diego Chargers.

Merriman was pushing around the Bears' offensive linemen like they weren't even there and was able to register sacks in his only quarter of action. That was the last time we saw the Shawne Merriman of old in 2011.

Between Merriman and the Bills' team physicians, they were able to convince Bills general manager Buddy Nix that the Bills would have a fully healthy Merriman in the lineup for the 2011 season.

Nix was so convinced of Merriman's potential health that he intentionally chose not to draft a pass-rusher in the 2011 NFL draft, even though the draft was supposed to be stocked with a wealth of pass-rushers.

Merriman lasted into the fifth game of the 2011 season before he injured his Achilles tendon again, forcing the Bills to place him on IR shortly after. For the year, Merriman was credited with one sack. That came against the Cincinnati Bengals when Andy Dalton scrambled and was forced out of bounds. Since Merriman was the closest Bills player to Dalton, he was credited with the sack.

The Bills do have Merriman under contract for the 2012 season, and he finally underwent surgery to repair the ongoing Achilles issues, so it will be curious to see how long he can be last in 2012.

Meanwhile, the Bills' pass rush is still in terrible shape, as they are ranked dead last in the league with just 17 sacks on the year. Nix will have to draft a pass-rusher in 2012, because as we have witnessed from Week 5 on, there's nobody else on the roster capable of putting up any kind of consistent quarterback pressure on the team.

Albert Haynesworth

The contract that Albert Haynesworth signed with the Washington Redskins was the beginning of the end. Haynesworth was paid so much money by Washington, $100 million for a seven-year deal, that he became a different person. The fierce warrior or competitor went away and turned into a lazy player that would rather hold out and complain than suit up and go bang heads on Sundays.

Today, he's under a much different kind of arrangement. Playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Haynesworth is only making $1.5 million in 2011, which is part of the two-year deal he signed for that will pay him $8.7 million overall.

But is he worth the money? For the New England Patriots, Haynesworth had three tackles in six games. In four games, he came up with an empty stat line for the contest. Since he has joined the Tampa Bay Bucs, Haynesworth has showed some signs of life, as he has come up with 11 tackles in four games. 

For the year, Haynesworth does not have any sacks, passes defended or forced fumbles. He's still only a shell of the former All-Pro player that he was, but with all of the money that he has in the bank, it's somewhat understandable that he has been going through the motions.

Josh Freeman

Much was expected from Tampa Bay Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman this year. In his rookie year, Freeman predictably had a rough season, throwing 10 touchdown passes to 18 interceptions. He then made a tremendous jump in his sophomore season, throwing 25 touchdown passes to only six interceptions.

Freeman wound up the year ranked as the No. 6 quarterback in the NFL for passer rating with a mark of 95.9.

Now in 2011, he has regressed and regressed badly. His ratio is more like his rookie year, with just 12 touchdowns compared to 16 interceptions. His QB passer rating has plummeted from No. 6 to No. 27. That's consistent with the Bucs' record as well.

Maybe things came too easily for Freeman last year, but whatever the reason behind the 2011 collapse, he surely knows that he has a lot of work to do to turn his game around again. The sprained thumb at the shooting gallery doesn't explain away all of the bad games from this year.

Freeman still has a long career ahead of him, and no doubt he will turn things around again. But has there been any other player that's so unpredictable as Freeman to start out his NFL career?

Ken Flajole

Ken Flajole is the defensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams. This is now the third year that he has been in charge of the Rams defense.

If you happen to go to the Rams' website, you will find the following description when you click on his picture: Ken Flajole is in his third season as the Rams defensive coordinator after overseeing one of the NFL’s most improved units in 2010.

I have to wonder if his picture will still be there with the rest of the Rams' staff in 2012. For one thing, his defensive unit has lost the tag of "one of the NFL's most improved units," as it is now the answer to the dreaded question of "Which is the worst defensive team against the run in the NFL?" It's not like the Rams ignored the defense in the draft, as they made Robert Quinn their first-round draft pick.

From a progress standpoint, Flajole's unit can't seem to show consistent growth. The defense was ranked as low as No. 29 in 2009 and then improved to No. 19 in 2010. Now, they are back down to No. 23. The run defense has also been up and down. They were No. 27 against the run in 2009 and jumped up to No. 17 in 2010 before the free fall back down to No. 32 this year.

DeSean Jackson

While we had Michael Vick on this list earlier, in all fairness, we would be remiss if we didn't include DeSean Jackson on our list of 2011 failures.

Jackson's 2011 season was anxiously awaited not only by his fans, but by everybody that owned him in fantasy football as well. The 2011 season hasn't turned out well for anybody connected with Jackson.

If you read the reports from people that follow the Eagles on a regular basis, things aren't looking too good for Jackson to be part of the Eagles organization after his contract expires in 2011. Jackson seems aloof at times, misses team meetings and was suspended for one game as a result of his absences.

After putting together two straight seasons of topping 1,000 yards in receptions, Jackson doesn't appear to able to do that in 2011. He's averaging 63 yards per game this year, which projects out to 950 yards for the season. He has scored at least one touchdown via the return game each season in his career but has yet to score on a return in 2011.

He came up with 62 receptions in both his rookie year and sophomore year but doesn't look like he will reach that level again this year. He only had 47 catches last year. There have been some key dropped passes at crucial times in games this year. Jackson was thought to be a key reason why the Eagles would be a Super Bowl contender, but the level of his play has not come close to matching expectations.

Rex Ryan

Rex Ryan has the New York Jets on a two-game winning streak, which follows a two-game losing streak. At 7-5, Ryan still has the Jets in the hunt for an AFC wild-card berth, but I just don't see the Jets as the Super Bowl-worthy team that Ryan has been promising or guaranteeing since the year began.

Ryan can still be entertaining in his press conferences, but for the most part now, I just tune him out as you normally do with any figure that you believe is full of hot air.

Ryan is basically all about noise and hype but is coming up short on substance. The loss to the Broncos and Tim Tebow told me that the current version of the Jets is not up to the challenge and will fall short of the ultimate prize one more time.

If Ryan would stick to coaching his team and leave the prognosticating to somebody else, I would prefer him much more than I do now.

Josh Boyer

In case the man in this photo is not familiar to you, don't feel bad; you are not alone. He's Josh Boyer—the defensive backs coach for the New England Patriots.

I am not positive who's the coach most to blame for the Patriots' anemic pass defense, so I decided to throw Boyer and safeties coach Matt Patricia (in the next slide) under the bus together. They can fight it out between each other as to which coach is most responsible for the Patriots' lack of pass defense.

The number of personnel moves that the Patriots have made in the secondary is absolutely mind-numbing.

Here's the Patriots' 2011 secondary honor roll: Devin McCourty, Patrick Chung, Kyle Arrington, Phillip Adams, Nathan Jones, Julian Edelman, Antwaun Molden, Sterling Moore, Ross Ventrone, James Ihedigbo, Josh Barrett, Sergio Brown, Leigh Bodden and Ras-I Dowling all have taken turns at taking snaps in the Patriots secondary this year.

Wonder how many of the above names we could have eliminated if they had decided to keep Brandon Meriweather on the team.

I wonder if they put on those little "Hello, My Name is ______" tags on the front of the helmets at practices during the week so the coaches and other players will know who they brought in that week. I will reserve the actual data of the pass defense performance for the following slide.

Matt Patricia

Matt Patricia is the second half of the prior slide. He's the safeties coach for the New England Patriots and must share a portion of the blame for the anemic Patriots pass defense.

As promised, we were saving the results for this slide. After 12 games, the Patriots are dead last in the NFL in overall defense, as they are the only team in the league giving up at least 400 yards of offense every week (412 yards to be exact).

As for the pass defense, they are also ranked dead last, as they are the only NFL team giving up at least 300 passing yards per game (310).

The only saving grace for the Patriots is that the run defense is fairly stout at No. 10, and from a points-allowed standpoint, the Patriots bend plenty, but they don't break. Allowing 20.6 points/game is No. 13 in the NFL, so they have learned how to tighten up their act in the red zone.

It also helps to have Tom Brady and the rest of his weapons on offense to bail out the secondary every week. It's still wild to see the Patriots as one of the four teams tied with the best record in the AFC knowing that they have such a poor secondary.

Philip Rivers

This article was written prior to the Monday Night Football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, so we don't yet know if the Chargers were able to snap their six-game losing streak. Whatever happens, it's clear that this season has to be considered a failure for Philip Rivers.

In 2009, Rivers was ranked the No. 3 quarterback in the NFL with a lofty passer rating of 104.4. He threw 28 touchdown passes to nine interceptions on the year, completed 65.2 percent of his passes and threw for 4,254 yards.

In 2010, Rivers moved up to the No. 2 rank among NFL quarterbacks with a rating of 101.8. He again had a great ratio of 30 touchdown passes to just 13 interceptions. He threw for a whopping 4,710 yards and again completed a very high 66 percent of his passes.

Now in 2011, Rivers has suddenly lost it. His ratio is upside down, with 16 touchdowns to 17 interceptions. Nobody in the league has thrown more interceptions than Rivers has this year. His completions percentage has dropped down to 61.1 percent. His QB passer rating, normally in triple digits, has dropped down to 80.8, which has him ranked at No. 19.

You can blame the injuries to the offensive line to a degree. You might think that Rivers has an injury and is hiding it from the media. Whatever the reason, one thing is clear: This is not the Philip Rivers we are accustomed to seeing, and this year has to be chalked up as a failure.

Sam Bradford

It appears that Sam Bradford has taken a step backwards in 2011. After his rookie year in 2010, there was hope that Bradford would take his game up to another level this year.

It wasn't that the production in 2010 was bad; it was more in line with what was expected. Bradford got his feet wet and gained some valuable playing time and experience. He threw 18 touchdown passes to 15 interceptions. Bradford completed 60 percent of his passes and threw for 3,512 yards. But he was sacked 34 times and fumbled six times.

So what has happened in 2011? For starters, Bradford has missed three games due to injury. His numbers across the board are reduced. He only has six touchdown passes in nine starts and has five interceptions. He has passed for only 1,971 yards, and his completion percentage has dropped from 60 to 54.6 percent.

The only number that's up is the sacks total, as in three less games he already has been sacked 34 times, meaning that he has still not learned how to throw the ball away to avoid taking sacks.

Oh, and in 16 rushes this year, Bradford has fumbled four times, meaning that he coughs up the rock 25 percent of the time that he carries it. Not a very good statistic to be sure and just one more reason why this is a failed year.

The losses continue to pile up, and the Rams have to improve the offensive line. However, Bradford needs to step up his game if the Rams are to have a chance to win in the NFC West.

One thing is for sure: The Rams are averaging 11.7 points per game this year, and until that number starts to rise dramatically, this will be a team that loses far more games than it wins. That's an embarrassing average in the current NFL.

Lee Evans

Lee Evans is now in his eighth year in the NFL. During the first seven years of his career, he was a member of the Buffalo Bills, and they never appeared in the playoffs during his stay with the Bills.

Thus, Evans must have been eagerly awaiting his debut with the Baltimore Ravens this year, knowing that he stood an excellent chance to experience what the second season is all about.

Evans unfortunately experienced a high-ankle sprain early in the year, and it has reduced his production to career-low levels.

In five games this season, Evans has only registered three catches for 53 yards. Just in one game alone in 2010—against the Baltimore Ravens, by the way—Evans caught six passes for 105 yards and three touchdowns. If only the Ravens saw that kind of production now, they could view him in a different light.

The way things stand now, it's not clear if Evans would even be dressed as an active player in the playoffs. Last Sunday, he was targeted three times but failed to come up with a catch. Despite being there all year, quarterback Joe Flacco has not been able to click with Evans in game situations, and you have to wonder if he truly feels comfortable throwing to Evans.

It's a shame that things have worked out this way. Evans has always been a professional guy, never a diva, and doesn't throw his teammates under the bus. He's soft-spoken and leads by example. But for a guy that has put up strong numbers every year until 2011, Evans has to consider this a failed year.

Curtis Painter

You have to wonder how much attention Curtis Painter was paying in team meetings for the Indianapolis Colts over the prior two years. It's not like he ever saw any game action, as he did throw the ball 28 times in the 2009 season. There was game review film work, as well as preparing for the upcoming opponent in meetings with Peyton Manning for two straight years.

Not only that, but Manning has been there to advise Painter on the sidelines and tell him what he's observing. Despite all of the personal lessons, Painter has proved to be an inept student. His record as a starter is 0-8.

In three starts this year, Painter failed to crack 100 yards in passing even though the majority of Manning's receivers are back from the prior season. Painter has completed only 54 percent of his passes, which is not an acceptable NFL level of performance.

Backup quarterback Dan Orlovsky has now stepped in to take over for Painter, and in his first start he threw for over 350 yards. Sure, it was against the New England Patriots secondary, but we will see how well he does over the other starts before we pass judgment.

The point is that Painter had an extended opportunity to prove his worth. In 2012, you would expect Manning to be running the Colts offense, but if the nerve damage in his neck is too much for him to play, then you would expect to see Andrew Luck at the controls. Either way, it appears that the opportunity for Painter has come and gone, and he failed to seize the moment.

Kevin Gilbride

We earlier took issue with the job that Tom Coughlin was doing, as the Giants are in the midst of a four-game losing streak. But the blame does not come down solely on the shoulders of Coughlin, as the blame should honestly be spread around to at least one other culprit.

The other culprit is Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. You have seen Gilbride over the years in various scenarios. One of the more infamous moments was the wild-card playoff game when Gilbride served the Houston Oilers as quarterbacks coach and watched them blow a 35-3 lead over the Buffalo Bills in the greatest comeback in NFL history.

You might also recall the time that defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan went after Gilbride by throwing some punches at him in the middle of a game.

Gilbride has been with the Giants for five years and was with them for their Super Bowl XLII victory, so he has seen his share of highs and lows. But the Giants offense has stopped becoming a balanced attack under Gilbride, as the run offense is ranked No. 32 in the league.

With weapons like Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs aboard, there's just no way that the Giants should have this bad of a run game. In just one year, look at the changes.

The Giants ran the ball 480 times for 2,200 yards in 2010, averaging 4.6 yards per game. The team averaged 137.5 yards per game on the ground. This year, the Giants have dropped more than 53 yards per game off their rushing totals, which is huge.

In 12 games, with 305 attempts, they are averaging 3.3 yards per rush and have gained only 83.8 yards per game. The Giants have been outrushed this year 1,524 yards to 1,005. I think this is one of the fundamental reasons why the Giants are struggling right now.

Kevin Kolb

The Arizona Cardinals paid a hefty price to the Philadelphia Eagles in order to acquire quarterback Kevin Kolb. The Cardinals gave up Pro Bowl corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a second-round draft pick in the 2012 NFL draft.

Kolb didn't have a great amount of experience, but he did possess potential. The problem was that nobody had witnessed Kolb play enough to really know what he could do with an extended opportunity to play. Well, the Cardinals learned firsthand, as Kolb was handed the starting quarterback job and promptly led the Cardinals to a 1-6 record in his first seven starts before a turf toe injury forced him to the bench.

The Cardinals then promptly won three out of four games behind backup quarterback John Skelton, which led some to wonder how come Kolb couldn't do the same thing. Kolb finally returned this past Sunday and led the Cardinals to a dubious win thanks to a decision by Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett to ice his own kicker.

Coming into the year, Kolb had a career stat line of 11 touchdowns to 14 interceptions. This year, he has improved that slightly to nine touchdown passes against eight interceptions. His QB passer rating is 81.0, and he has completed just 57.5 percent of his passes. Having a target like Larry Fitzgerald to work with, you would have expected some better results. 

Dirk Koetter

If you are scratching your head trying to figure out who this guy is, you shouldn't feel too bad. I probably would have recognized him easier if they had left the tire track marks from the bus on his face, because that's usually where Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter has been thrown this year: under the team bus by head coach Jack Del Rio.

If you read the stories from Pro Football Talk, Del Rio (while he was still head coach of the Jaguars) would explain away baffling decisions at press conferences by saying that the media would have to check with Koetter about certain decisions, as if Del Rio didn't have any say in the matter.

OK, so how bad is it in Jacksonville? The Jags offense is ranked dead last in the NFL. Their pass offense is also ranked dead last, as they average only 131.3 passing yards per game. The Jags passing attack is so bad that they are even behind Tim Tebow and the Broncos.

Coming into their game on MNF, the Jags trailed the No. 31 offense of the St. Louis Rams by over 650 yards. The Jaguars are averaging 12.5 points per game, which ranks them at No. 31 in the NFL. It would not be a surprise if the Jaguars hire a new offensive coordinator in 2012, whenever they have identified who the new head coach will be.

Larry Coyer

Larry Coyer started out the year as the defensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts. Somehow, Jim Caldwell felt that firing Coyer might be one way to save his own job. We will see about that. Coyer got the axe on November 29, as the Colts decided to promote linebacker coach Mike Murphy into Coyer's old job.

How bad of a job was Coyer doing? The Colts are ranked No. 32 in the NFL, giving up the most points on defense. They are allowing 29.8 points per game. They gave up 31 points to the New England Patriots in the first game under Murphy, so obviously he doesn't have any new answers to the problems yet.

The overall Colts defense is ranked No. 28, as the Colts are giving up 387.1 yards per game. The pass defense is No. 22, and the run defense is No. 30, giving up a big 144.2 yards per game.

The defense has generated only 19 sacks for the year, which is tied for next to last in the league. It's hard to imagine that the Colts only have 19 sacks total when you consider that they have both Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis playing for the entire year and still reigning terror on their own.

Perhaps it was right for Caldwell to fire Coyer, but I somehow think the defense would have played much better if Peyton Manning was still healthy.

Norv Turner

When you see that look on Norv Turner's face, you want to ask the question, "Who was the second NFL coach to be fired in 2011?"

Turner is the head coach of the San Diego Chargers. He has failed to deliver in the postseason for the talented Chargers teams since taking over the head coach job in 2007. Typically, Turner has the Chargers starting out cold to begin the year, and then they come on like gangbusters in December, hoping to ride that momentum into the playoffs.

Last year, the Chargers had the No. 1 overall offense and the No. 1 overall defense in the NFL, but somehow Turner couldn't lead the Chargers to win the AFC West division.

Then in 2011, Turner led the Chargers to a 4-1 start, which is atypical for the team. But the hot start was then followed up by a six-game losing streak, and the Chargers have to the AFC West cellar as they prepare for their MNF game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

At this point, it appears likely that the Chargers will not be qualifying for the playoffs, and it's also very likely that Turner will be relieved of his duties. No matter how you cut it, the 2011 season has to be considered another failure.

Kyle Orton

How can this year not be considered a failure for Kyle Orton?

For starters, as the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos, Orton led the team to a 1-4 record. The Broncos then turned the reins over to Tim Tebow, and he proceeded to take the same group of personnel to a record of 6-1. For a starting quarterback, is there any statistic more important than the win-loss mark?

Now, Orton is obviously going to finish out his season with the Kansas City Chiefs. He's going to be playing out the final year of his contract with the Chiefs, so there's no way of knowing if they will want to bring him back in 2012 to compete with Matt Cassel for the starting job.

As far as 2011 goes, Orton has a chance to redeem himself somewhat. But no sooner does he play for the Chiefs then he dislocates his right index finger, making the rest of his season a question mark as to how effective his throwing will be.

Orton just did not have a very good year with the Broncos this year. He threw eight touchdowns to seven interceptions. He completed only 58.7 percent of his passes, and his QB passer rating was a poor 75.7.

Consider this a failed year for Kyle Orton.

Clyde Christensen

Since Colts defensive coordinator Larry Coyer was already fired, you have to wonder how safe the job is for Colts offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen.

Under Christensen, the Colts knew for the majority of the preseason that there was a chance that Peyton Manning had a serious neck issue and a possibility that Manning might not be able to recover in time to play this year.

With that being the case, Christensen was charged with the duties of finding offensive plays that could work for Kerry Collins, Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky. It's not like the cupboard was completely bare, as the Colts still had weapons like Pierre Garcon, Reggie Wayne, Austin Collie and Dallas Clark to throw the ball to.

They also had Donald Brown, Delone Carter and Joseph Addai to run the ball, with the addition of new blood in Anthony Castonzo and Ben Ijalana to fortify the run-blocking and pass-blocking talent.

Now that we are 12 games into the season, the Colts are ranked No. 26 in both run offense and pass offense. The offense is scoring 14.5 points per game and is ranked No. 29 in the league.

To be sure, if Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees or Aaron Rodgers were lost for the year, it would have an impact on each of their teams. But the Patriots proved they could win without Brady, and they did.

The Colts proved that they can't win without Manning, and thus, it has to be considered a failure under Clyde Christensen that he couldn't come up with better answers on the fly, when he was needed the most.

Jack Del Rio

If you are fired as a NFL head coach during the season, it's a given that you had a failed year. That was sadly the case for Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio.

As the first head coaching casualty of the 2011 NFL season, Del Rio knew coming into the season that his owner expected a trip to the playoffs or his job would be in jeopardy.

Del Rio further complicated his own chances of making that happen when he decided to release starting quarterback David Garrard before the season even began. We don't know for sure if the injury that prevented Garrard from accepting offers from other teams later in the season was something that Del Rio already was aware of and that factored into his decision.

Del Rio had a long run at Jacksonville and was considered a "players coach." He will undoubtedly be given another shot next year, as he is still young and has a passion for his work.

Matt Leinart

Matt Leinart received some starts during the run of his four-year rookie contract with the Arizona Cardinals. Then he joined the Houston Texans but didn't see any game action during the 2010 season. Leinart was undoubtedly rusty when he finally had his chance to see some snaps with the Texans this year.

But when word came down that Matt Schaub was going to go to IR due to the damage to the Lisfranc ligament in his right foot, Leinart finally was going to have an opportunity to show what he could do.

Wide receiver Andre Johnson was finally over his hamstring injury and was returning to the starting lineup. The Texans have as strong a running back committee as can be found in the league with Arian Foster and Ben Tate.

You also have a defense that has been taking turns being ranked the No. 1 overall defense in the league with the Pittsburgh Steelers. What NFL quarterback wouldn't want to have that kind of a scenario to step into to show what he can do?

No sooner did Leinart receive his first start of the year then he went down with a season-ending broken collarbone, which required surgery. Now Leinart is on the IR list along with Matt Schaub, watching what rookie T.J.Yates can do.

We don't know how far the Texans will go in the playoffs this year, but one can only imagine that Leinart will look back at the 2011 season and consider it a failure. Everything was set up so perfectly for him to come in and be the knight in the shining armor.

Blaine Gabbert

The 2011 NFL draft class has allowed a number of rookie quarterbacks to be thrown directly into the fire, as teams have decided to give their new franchise quarterbacks a baptism by gaining a number of starts this year.

From Cam Newton and Andy Dalton to Christian Ponder and Blaine Gabbert, this quartet of NFL rookie signal-callers has seen extensive action this year. Heck, even rookie T.J. Yates will be seeing a number of starts for the Texans.

The two rookie quarterbacks who never really got the call to play this year were Colin Kaepernick with the San Francisco 49ers and Jake Locker with the Tennessee Titans.

Of the rookies that saw plenty of action, the one that has to be considered the biggest failure is Blaine Gabbert. We have already detailed at length the plight of since-fired head coach Jack Del Rio and the pitiful performance the Jaguars offense has put up for offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter. No need to rehash all those stats and rankings again.

With respect to Gabbert, though, the biggest surprise was that you never heard him as being described as timid before, but that's the latest term used to describe his play in the pocket according to a recent entry by Rotoworld.

Coming into the game on MNF, Gabbert was ranked No. 31 in NFL passer rating for starting quarterbacks with a mark of 62.2. He has completed only 48.5 percent of his passes, which is an alarmingly low rate.

Gabbert is only passing for 118.6 yards per game, and his ratio of six touchdowns to six interceptions isn't very encouraging. The Jaguars are 2-7 under Gabbert, so his rookie experience would have to be considered an overall failure.

Jim Caldwell

We have already dedicated prior slides to Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen and defensive coordinator Larry Coyer, so now it's time to rake head coach Jim Caldwell over the coals.

The Colts have a veteran team made up of a number of key veteran players on both offense and defense. Yes, the Colts team and the entire organization was shocked and hurt by the news that the team would not have Peyton Manning to start out the 2011 season. I get that part. I realize that it had to create a reeling sensation for the organization.

But that's the nature of the NFL. A player goes down, and the next guy steps up. That's the nature of the game. For the Colts to completely fall apart the way that they have done and gone 0-12 to me is a direct reflection on the head coach. He's the guy who needs to light a fire under the team, and if he isn't capable of doing it, he should resign from the position to let somebody else step in and try to do a better job.

The Colts appear to be headed to an improbable 0-16 record this year. If you had asked anybody before the season if they thought the Colts could go the entire year without a win, you would have considered them crazy. The fact that they are well on their way towards turning that into reality tells you that this is a failure for head coach Jim Caldwell.

George Edwards

The Buffalo Bills started out the year 5-2 and were looking like they might finally break their decade-long playoff drought. Then the Bills embarked on a five-game losing streak where the Bills defense, under defensive coordinator George Edwards, finally broke down and lost all resemblance to what had led it to the impressive early-season showing.

What the last five games have demonstrated is that the Bills were unable to stop any offense in the red zone. Teams that were having trouble scoring touchdowns in the red zone (see Miami Dolphins in Week 11) are now able to score at will.

The Bills defense had employed the "bend but don't break" philosophy under Edwards all year, but they at least were coming up with a number of key turnovers, as they led the NFL in interceptions after the first month of the season.

The yardage continued to pile up, but then the defense stopped coming up with turnovers, which really complicated everything. The defense couldn't find a way to get off the field, while key veterans continued to land on the IR list like Kyle Williams, Shawne Merriman and Terrence McGee. Safety George Wilson emerged to be a key player in the defense, but he missed three starts due to a stinger.

Under Edwards, the Bills were the worst run defense in the NFL in 2010. This year, the Bills are again No. 32, but this time in a new category—sacks. Opposing quarterbacks have so much time to throw against the Bills that it's almost comical.

I don't believe that it's coincidence that head coach Chan Gailey brought in his old friend Dave Wannstedt to become the assistant head coach under Gailey. I think that Gailey wanted Wannstedt on board to see how the defense was playing under Edwards with the intent to make him the new defensive coordinator in 2012.

Juan Castillo

You have to hand it to Juan Castillo. After more than a decade of experience as an NFL offensive line coach, Castillo was open to the idea of taking on the position of Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator when head coach Andy Reid offered him the job.

To take a team with three All-Pro-caliber secondary members like Nnamdi Asomugha, Asante Samuel and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, add other high-caliber free agents to your defense like Cullen Jenkins and Jason Babin and not come up with a unit that can dominate any offense in the NFL has to be considered a failure.

The Eagles implemented a wider spread of their defensive linemen, making it harder to block them, but it also paved the way for teams to find bigger lanes to run the ball against the Eagles. The spread has allowed the Eagles to generate 33 sacks on the year, which is tied for No. 5 in the NFL. But the run defense is not as good, ranked No. 17, allowing 115.6 yards per game. The Eagles defense is also ranked No. 17 overall, allowing 344.8 yards per game.

We detailed earlier in the presentation the issues with Nnamdi Asomugha. But for all of the talent that Juan Castillo was presented to work with, and what he ultimately produced with it, this year has to be considered a failure.

Chad Ochocinco

During the summer of 2011, Chad Ochocinco went on a national media blitz with one crazy career choice after another in the attempt to entertain us all and keep his name in the headlines. He openly campaigned to join the New England Patriots, and lo and behold, he got his wish.

The only problem then became was Chad Ochocinco good enough to fit into the Patriots offense and run patterns to the detail required by quarterback Tom Brady?

After 12 games of the 2011 season, we now have enough evidence to declare that the jury has come back with its decision. Ochocinco goes down in flames as a huge failure as a member of the New England Patriots.

Sure, he has said a number of nice things about the Patriots and working with Tom Brady, but actions speak louder than words. As things stand, the Patriots are one of four teams in the AFC with a 9-3 record, so nobody knows for sure how many home games they will have in the AFC playoffs. Ochocinco will be remembered for dropping the winning touchdown pass in the waning minutes of the game in Buffalo in Week 3.

As for his results, Ochocinco has caught 12 passes on the year, good for 213 yards. He has not scored a touchdown yet and has caught less than half of the passes thrown his way (12-of-25). He's the sixth-leading receiver on the team. Ochocinco is averaging 19.4 yards per game as a member of the Patriots.

Andy Reid

Maybe it was overkill. Is it possible that Andy Reid just didn't have enough time on his hands to figure out a way to put all of the moving parts together into one cohesive team? How else do you explain the end result of the 2011 "Dream Team" that was also known as the Philadelphia Eagles?

Reid has been highly thought of over the years as a coach that continues to get his teams to the playoffs. Once there, the record hasn't been the greatest, but wouldn't you want a team that you could usually count on to get to the playoffs and then take your chances from there?

Well, it's hard to fathom how this team of talented veterans couldn't find a way to put it all together in 2011. Sure, the limited offseason practice time hurt. But Reid is the guy that's ultimately responsible for both the successes and the failures of the team.

If spreading out the defensive line to wider splits was causing too much of a problem to the run defense, then it was up to Reid to make the call to make the needed adjustments until he had something working that was more effective.

If DeSean Jackson wasn't performing up to his prior standards, it was up to Reid to sit him down, talk and work with him or pull veterans aside and ask them to work with him.

Reid saw what Michael Vick could do in the Eagles offense in 2010, but somehow his game went terribly south in 2011. Reid couldn't find a way to slow down the turnovers that Vick kept coming up with every week.

The 2011 Eagles team will have to go down as one of the biggest NFL disappointments in recent history, and Reid will have to be considered the ultimate failure for not being able to find a way to make it all work.

Mike Shanahan

The Washington Redskins are not in the greatest of places right now. Who's their best quarterback for the near term, and who's their quarterback of the future?

Shanahan felt confident enough in the abilities of Rex Grossman and John Beck to not draft a quarterback in the 2011 draft, but now that we have seen what both Grossman and Beck were capable of doing this year, we have to ask the question, what was Shanahan thinking? Has he lost the ability to be a capable judge of quarterback talent?

As 2012 will be the third year under the Shanahan rebuilding effort, the Redskins still do not have a quarterback that they can turn to with confidence for the upcoming season. They may have to go the free-agency route since their current record of 4-8 places them in a logjam with a number of other teams with an identical record.

I have not seen many Redskins games this year, but the one game I watched from opening kickoff to the final whistle was the game they played in Toronto against the Buffalo Bills, which is the first time in Shanahan's career that his team has been shut out.

Allowing the team with the worst pass rush in the league to sack his own quarterback 10 times in the game is downright embarrassing. I'm just not sure how much lower the Redskins can sink, but most fans would probably tell you they have already bottomed out.

Donovan McNabb

The Minnesota Vikings brought Donovan McNabb in to become the starting quarterback for the 2011 season. The Vikings gave McNabb six starts to show what he could do with their offense.

After opening up the season with the lead heading into the fourth quarter in each of the first three weeks, only to see the Vikings offense fade in every game down the stretch, the Vikings started to tire of McNabb's inability to seal a victory.

McNabb was able to win only one of his next three starts, so after a record of 1-5 to open the year, the Vikings pulled the plug on the McNabb experiment and handed the ball to Christian Ponder.

After asking for and receiving his release, it had to be a slap in the face for McNabb to learn that none of the other NFL teams thought it was a good idea to claim him off the waiver wire.

Sure, the Bears might follow up with a phone call due to their season quickly going on thin ice due to the injury to Jay Cutler, but McNabb must be going through a serious self-confidence reality check. 

For the year, McNabb threw four touchdowns and two interceptions in his six games. His average yardage per attempt of 6.58 yards per pass is the lowest average of any year since the 2002 season.

He completed 60.3 percent of his passes, and his QB passer rating of 82.9 isn't very special either. Perhaps he will get one more chance to redeem his legacy with the Bears, but if not, this will go down as a failed year.

Vince Young

Vince Young, the creator of the Dream Team nickname for the Philadelphia Eagles of 2011, will go down as our final entry for the 50 failures of the 2011 NFL season.

It wasn't that Young played all that terribly in his three-game stint to relieve the injured Michael Vick, but his coming up with the Dream Team moniker helped to fuel the media attention that created a level of expectations that couldn't possibly be met.

For what it's worth, Young has personally handled himself well enough this year that he will have restored enough of a degree of confidence around the league that he should be brought in to compete for a starting job next year.

His record as a starter was only 1-2, but he had some drops by DeSean Jackson that could have improved the record. He did throw for 400 yards against the Patriots, but then again, who hasn't?

Young did have the chance to help turn around the monster that he had a hand in creating but couldn't do enough to stop the Eagles' slide out of the playoff picture.

If you have a player you think should have been on our list of 50 failures for 2011, feel free to leave him in the comments section.