Buffalo Bills 2000s Worst-Decade Team - RB Selection

About a month ago MattRichWarrenpresented us with his Buffalo Bills 2000s All-Decade Team series.  And for about a month we voted on a series of poles to determine who was worthy of being on that team.  But more often than not we also ended up complaining over the limited sometimes horrible talent that we had to pick from for any given position.  So it was about at the TE position that I thought "hey why don't we also vote on the worst players that played for this team over the last decade?"  And so here we are.

Now just like MattRichWarren'sseries I have a few criteria for players to be eligible for this team.  They had to have played in at least a full season's worth of games in this decade to be eligible.  Starting is not requirement, but you do have to have played significant amounts of snaps in those games.  That means that, for example, the Bills 3rd receiver might make the list, but a 4th or 5th stringer wont be considered.  That means that we wont end up voting for 7th rounders that ended up playing 2 snaps.  These are going to be real players that played real roles on this team over the last ten years.  And just because a player ended up on the All-Decade team does not mean that you can't also be on the worst-decade team.

 Now is the time to select the running back that would fit on this illustrious team.  Now I'd like to start off by saying that the running back position has actually been very kind to us Bills fans during this last decade.  We've seen players like Travis Henry, Willis McGahee, Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jacksonall play in their prime in a Bills uniform.  So in term this it will actually be a little harder to find a "worst" player at this position as a poll will mainly be composed of backups and no names... and one RB who left the team and left us all with a sour taste in our mouths.  In fact the picking for bad RBs are so few in this list that I'm actually bending the qualifying criteria a bit.  So lets get started shall we?

Now these players are named in order of when they played for the Bills, and not in order of how much they sucked.

Sammy Morris
Drafted in the 5th round by the Bills in 2000.  He spent 4 seasons in a Bills uniform, mostly playing second and third stringer behind Shawn Bryson and Travis Henry.  In those 4 seasons he amassed 134 carries for 488 yards and 6 TD's.  He played in 53 games for the Bills, starting in 9 of them.  His best season was his rookie season when he had 93 carries for 341 yards and 5 TD's.  He was mostly used as a special teamer in his final two seasons in Buffalo, and the team let him walk after his contract was over.

Shawn Bryson
Bryson was drafted in the third round of the 1999 draft, although he did not play his rookie year.  He was the team's initial starter during the 2000 season, but ended up losing his job to Morris halfway threw the season.  Bryson spent three of his seven active NFL seasons in Buffalo, the other four were spent in Detroit.  In those 3 season Bryson had 254 carries for 967 yards and only 2 touchdowns, both of which were scored in his second active season in the league.  His inability to score touchdowns is what made him lose his starting job to Morris during his the 2000 season.  Bryson played in 37 games for the Bills, starting in 10 of them.  He spent his second active season as the primary backup to Travis Henry, but only had 13 attempts during his third active season, which was cut short due to injury.  He was let go after the end of the 2002 season.

Antowain Smith
Yet a third RB that started games for the Bills in 2000.  Smithplayed during 4 season for the Bills, but only one during this decade.  This decade Smith had 101 attempts, for 354 yards and 4 TD's during the running back carouselyear that was the 2000 season.  In that season he played in 11 games for us, starting in 3 of them.  Smith was let go after the 2000 season, when the Bills drafted Travis Henry in the second round.

Willis McGahee
Now I must put emphasis that McGahee is only on this list because of how he left Buffalo.  Of this list of RB's he is by far the most productive, and should have also probably been included in the 2000s All-Decade team.  His talent for the Bills was incredible, and few would argue that he spent his best years in Buffalo.  I included him on this list for name recognition (we have to be able to instantly recognise at least one of these guys), and the way he left this team.  To this day McGahee remains one of the most hated former Bills in team history.

Shaud Williams
Williams signed on with the Bills as an Undrafted Free Agent in 2004 and played 3 seasons with the Bills, mainly as a backup to Willis McGahee.  In his 3 seasons in Buffalo Shaud had 89 attempts for 330 yards and 2 TD's.  He played in 25 games for the Bills and started in none of them.  Williams was re-sign in the 2007 off season to backup both Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson, but was let go during training camp.  He spent the 2009 season with the Florida Tuskers of the UFL, and has recently signed with the Omaha Nighthawks, also of the UFL.

That concludes our list, no other backs are even worth mentioning here, and some of the ones I have mentioned are borderline.  Time for you guys to vote.  And may I remind you that we're suppose to vote for who we think was the worst back, not the one who you hate the most.... but who am I kidding? Hate away!

Poll

Which Bills RB was the worst of the last decade?

4%

Sammy Morris

10 votes

38%

Shawn Bryson

93 votes

11%

Antowain Smith

28 votes

14%

Willis McGahee

36 votes

30%

Shaud Williams

74 votes

241 votes | Poll has closed