POLL: Worst Single Season Performance in Recent Memory?

There were so many options that a poll wouldn't really work, so I decided to whittle it down to a few, and I made up some rules to make that easier.

Rules:

-Money and draft status not a factor. I don't care if you're comparing a 1st round pick with a 7th and the 1st rounder only outplayed the 7th rounder by a single grain of sand. Maybe the 1st rounder disappointed and the 7th exceeded expectations, but for this poll we're just weighing the fertilizer they poured all over the grass, not what we expected from them beforehand. Gotta say the 7th rounder played worse.

-Crappy play, not draft busts! Bruce Davis may have been a huge bust and he may have been terrible, but he never saw the field. True, the reason was because he wasn't good enough, but he just doesn't qualify. Only guys who saw serious playing time on offense or defense, and in fact were starters. Which brings us to...

-Starters only! If a backup replaced the planned starter (Darnell Stapleton for Kendall Simmons, Tyrone Carter or Anthony Smith for anyone), he is not eligible. We're only talking about men the team selected to start. However, players that began the season as the starter but did not finish because they were benched still qualify.

Edit: I originally gave everyone 2 options, but I just bumped it up to 3 because they are all so bad, it's very hard to choose... And this is more about having fun, so enjoy.

 

i went graham,mahan,kemoeatu in that order.

 

how abut adding the Big Ben performance against the ravens on opening day a few years ago

 

This is for whole seasons, not individual games. That would be a whole new poll...

 

Bugger, I voted before realising I had more than one vote.

Went for Mahan, and probably would have gone for Kemo after. I think those two are the one's where I look and think: these mistakes are all on you. I mean, they were all terrible, but those are the two that stand out for me as the individual performances deserving the most blame (so, for example, Gay was terrible; but there were times where he could have had help from the safety, or from the calls being made, when the DC must have known how much he was suffering. I'm not sure you can say the same for Mahan in the same way).

 

I've temporarily changed it so you can edit your votes. You can vote 3 times. Let me know when you do so I can change it back.

 

Done! Cheers man.

 

Voted Mahan.....

 

This should be a landslide...Mahan without question...with Graham behind him...the other 3 dont amount to anything compared to them. Scott stunk...but after a few games was removed and only had spot duty...so that should rule him out...Kemo...while he was up and down...was no where near Mahan...and Gay...eh...again nowhere near the mess Mahan was (esp based on his contract...to this day I dont know why they signed him to that kind of deal without even seeing how things would go first).

 

Mahan gets my vote for #1 as well. When you consider the contract it's even worse, although I was trying to get people to focus on the play on the field and not the money/potential, that kind of thing. He was still probably the worst. Scott was benched and replaced by a guy that had been out of football, unsigned by all. The team's (and fan's) desperation to replace him shouldn't get him off the hook in my book. To me the difference is that Scott was supposed to be our #1. The fact that the coaches eventually made a good decision by kicking him out doesn't help him. Another guy who sucked, Stapleton, could be equally bad as Scott, but he was never the team's planned starter. He was always a depth player. No matter what Tomlin says about the standard being the standard, we all know less is expected of guys filling in for injury.

Gay did a lot to salvage his reputation in 2011, which is probably why people are cutting him slack, but if you're talking about bad performance by starters, Gay in 2009 was one of the worst I've ever seen.

I think saying Kemoeatu was up and down last year is generous. The worst starters in the league still have good plays every single game. I counted one good game for Chris last year. When he is bad, he is really really bad. I would absolutely put him in Mahan's league, especially if we're limiting it to 2011. Check out the Houston and Arizona games. Some of the worst play I've ever seen.

I actually didn't vote for Graham. I have horrible memories of that time because I was such a huge Kordell fan, and watching them play Graham over him was agonizing. Graham went 0-3, was finally benched, Kordell went 2-0 over the next two games, and then Cowher inexplicably put Graham back in because he had a feeling Kordell was going to start playing badly (there were stats that said Kordell did better on the road than at home, and Cowher bought them completely. He said as much at the time). Graham's first game back was my first NFL game, which I traveled from California to see. I was pretty pissed. We won 15-0, and I saw Graham's only touchdown as a Steeler (yes, he only accounted for one TD in 5+ games). It was a decent pass but an amazing play by Ward. He played like total crap the rest of the game, and was benched again the next week. I hate him for playing that day, even though it wasn't his fault. It was the only game of the season that Kordell did not step on the field once.

However, looking back at the stats, he also only had one turnover. Don't get me wrong, he was absolutely horrible, but his undoing was incompletions, not interceptions. He completely grounded our offense to a hault, but at least he gave us a chance to punt. I was surprised by those numbers, and was very tempted to vote for him, but at the last minute my votes went elsewhere. I think if he'd played the whole season, I would have stuck with him. That 2000 Oakland game was pretty classic. Kordell went out with a knee injury, Kent came in and threw a pick-6 on the first play. The Raiders eventually lost with the help of Rich Gannon forgetting what down it was. That was an awesome game. I wonder why it's never on NFL Network as a classic.

 

I voted for kemo