It's official..Bldsoe trade worst in Bills history

[PromoTheRobot]

The Darrell Lamonica trade has been eclipsed at last by the fleecing of "genius GM" Tom Donahoe by the New England Patriots. Not only did we give up a #1 pick, we guarenteed a division rival 2 W's a year. We gave up a #1 pick for a QB that turns into a quivering bowl of jelly every time he faces his old team.

 

Glad that finally everyone (except for Tom Donahoe, Mike Mullarkey, Fezmid, Campy, and NJSue) realize this was a horrible mistake.

 

PTR

[BillsNYC]

I think the Walker trade is worst in history...but this may be the worst in Bills...

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

The trade renewed alot of interest in the Bill's and sold alot of tickets. It also gave the Bills credability as an up and coming team and might have helped convince people like Spikes, Adams, and company to sign here as FA's So no way was it such a terrible trade as you makje it out to be. Most people around here embraced the trade too. It's easy now in hindsight to call it a bad trade, but at the time the clear majority of people thought it was a good deal.

[Thailog80]

The Rob Johnson deal rivals the Bledsoe deal.

[billsfanone]

I'm not THAT down on the guy. He's done, yes. But it wasn't a perfect situation from day 1. I know, I know, that's the NFL. I do not think it's the worst trade ever. Not even close. We could have stayed with RJ or had Jeff Blake - which were probably the only 2 options in 2002.

[Guest vinnie bumbatz]

I would think that a team desperate for a QB should be extra careful when accepting someone else's castoff QB's. After all, why would a team trade a QB if they thought he could play? Good QB's are not given away lightly (especially to a division rival.)

 

Jacksonville and New England both exploited the Bills by sending their castoffs to the desperate Bills for Number 1 draft picks.

 

The Rob Johnson deal and the Bledsoe deal both rank as the worst trades in Bills history.

 

I was shocked and disgusted when the Bills acquired Bledsoe, but I was thoroughly flamed by about 99.9% of the posters here for the next year.

 

Well its time to say, "I told you so!"

[Zamboni Man]

C'mon the Rob Johnson trade is 100x worse than the Bledsoe trade. Rob Johnson for Fred Taylor.... Bledsoe is done, but at the time he was a good pick up, helped sell tickets and get people excited about the team again. Saying the Bledsoe trade was worse than the Rob Johnson trade or the Hershel Walker trade is a stretch.

[Beerball]

I would think that a team desperate for a QB should be extra careful when accepting someone else's castoff QB's. After all, why would a team trade a QB if they thought he could play? Good QB's are not given away lightly (especially to a division rival.)

 

Jacksonville and New England both exploited the Bills by sending their castoffs to the desperate Bills for Number 1 draft picks.

 

The Rob Johnson deal and the Bledsoe deal both rank as the worst trades in Bills history.

 

I was shocked and disgusted when the Bills acquired Bledsoe, but I was thoroughly flamed by about 99.9% of the posters here for the next year.

 

Well its time to say, "I told you so!"

120253[/snapback]

 

Who is vinnie bumbatz?

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

I would say the Bledsoe and RJ trades rank up at the top in the annals of Buffalo sports trades.

 

Have the Sabres had a worse one?

 

Andreychuk, Puppa and a 1st rounder for Grant Fuhr wasn't too spectacular, albeit Fuhr played a big role in finally getting out of the 1st round of the playoffs.

 

 

The Real Cloutier trade in the early 80s was also pretty poor.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

The Darrell Lamonica trade has been eclipsed at last by the fleecing of "genius GM" Tom Donahoe by the New England Patriots.  Not only did we give up a #1 pick, we guarenteed a division rival 2 W's a year.  We gave up a #1 pick for a QB that turns into a quivering bowl of jelly every time he faces his old team.

 

Glad that finally everyone (except for Tom Donahoe, Mike Mullarkey, Fezmid, Campy, and NJSue) realize this was a horrible mistake.

 

PTR

120220[/snapback]

 

 

Hey what gives! I should be on the list of folks who do not realize what a horrible mistake trading for Bledsoe was.

 

I am of the illusion that it was a good thing to do as a time even from a football perspective as we desperately needed an NFL quality starting QB to replace RJ (who I agree with another poster the trade for him was a candidate for the stupidest move of all time) because AVP is a great back-up but no starter and Jeff Blake and Chris Chandler were the guys available in the free market.

 

The Bledsoe deal provided this as seen by the team's improvement on the field from 3-13 to 8-8 and Bledsoe's play had a big role in this as he merited his reserve Pro Bowl nod (do you disagree and if so then who deserved it instead of him?)

 

As far as fleecing it was actually NE that got initially raped by the presence of Bledsoe because they studpidly signed him to a "lifetime" deal he didn't merit at the time because even then it was clear it takes a great HC and a lot of luck to work with the limitations and strengths of Bledsoe (strength in the case of Parcells who led a team QB'ed by Bledsoe to the SB, and luck he made for himself because BB deserves a ton of praise for picking Brady when he and the entire NFL had passed on him 5 or more times, but luck it was as no one but no one expected him to have success he has had). NE got fleeced by the Bledsoe deal because they were forced by the dumb lifetime deal and Brady's play to trade him and the resulting accelerated cap hit is a big part of why they missed the playoffs that year and bookened it with SB wins.

 

I stupidly see the Bledsoe deal as good on the football side and great on the business side (as we still are likely to sell out most home games even with him at QB) even though I acknowledge it as a wash overall because the benefits gained from his first year play were matched by his ineffectiveness in his second year.

 

Even counting this acqusition as a wash, I would say the actual TD candidate for dumb football move of the millenia was not quitting while we're even and letting Bledsoe go instead of resigning him. This mistake was amplified by the braintrust having so much faith in their ability to pull off a Parcells/BB with a rookie coach and revive his career, we never made what probably would have been only a little stretch in terms of cash outlay to get a credible #2 (which Travis Brown was not even before his injury) which we never did.

 

It simply strikes me as revisionist history to claim the Bledsoe trade was a debace from the start:

 

1. He delivered for us his first year on the field and certainly off.

2. NE did the right thing by keeping him and trading Bledsoe but absorbing the first Bledsoe contract was a killer for them.

3. Bledsoe production sucked his second year as opponents got enough tape on him and Killdrive refused to adjust at all and BB provided a template for how to nullify him (though even the two guranteed losses againt NE were a small trade-off for us getting to 8-8 and meant nothing for NE as they missed the playoffs that year despite the two guarnateed victories.

4. The big mistake was resigning him when he was likely done as an effective player for us and banking so heavily on MM/TC reviving him we never got a credible back-up for him.

 

However, please put mwe on your list of idiots who do not see the Bledsoe trade as the worst in history.

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

I think more should be expected out of trading away a 1st round pick. The Bills received about 8 games of quality production off the bat from Bledsoe, and then just a mere handful of decent games in the last 32 or so.

[Movinon]

I am not a Drew apologist but it would be interesting to go back to when Bledsoe was first acquired - the fans were reenergized. He did provide us some exciting football – sadly his best days are well past him but to call this the worst trade in the history of football is fuggn asinine, paricularly when our history of first round selections have left a lot to be desired.

[PromoTheRobot]

I am not a Drew apologist but it would be interesting to go back to when Bledsoe was first acquired - the fans were reenergized.  He did provide us some exciting football – sadly his best days are well past him but to call this the worst trade in the history of football is fuggn asinine, paricularly when our history of first round selections have left a lot to be desired.

120327[/snapback]

I have to agree that the fans were energized by DB's arrival (remember the rally?) and he did look like the real deal for about 8 games. That might be enough to rank it slightly less worse than the RJ trade. But bad nonetheless.

 

PTR

[jad1]

I have to agree that the fans were energized by DB's arrival (remember the rally?) and he did look like the real deal for about 8 games.  That might be enough to rank it slightly less worse than the RJ trade.  But bad nonetheless.

 

PTR

120364[/snapback]

 

He did set the franchise record for passing yards and threw 24 TDs in 2002. The defense was so bad that year, that without the offense covering for them, the Bills would have been lucky to win 2 games.

 

This trade comes nowhere near the Johnson trade in terms of sucking.

[San-O]

C'mon the Rob Johnson trade is 100x worse than the Bledsoe trade.  Rob Johnson for Fred Taylor....       Bledsoe is done, but at the time he was a good pick up, helped sell tickets and get people excited about the team again. Saying the Bledsoe trade was worse than the Rob Johnson trade or the Hershel Walker trade is a stretch.

120257[/snapback]

 

 

I recall GETTING to the playoffs with Johnson, so I don't see how that trade

was worse. Really both were bad trades.

 

But as we can see, TD really got over on New England.

[jad1]

I recall GETTING to the playoffs with Johnson, so I don't see how that trade

was worse.  Really both were bad trades.

 

But as we can see,  TD really got over on New England.

120390[/snapback]

 

Johnson played in the playoffs, he didn't get the team there. Huge difference.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

The bad thing about the Johnson deal was not what the Bills gave up for him as a 1st and a 4th were about right for a starter QB who had never been designated the #1 QB by Jax, but who had stepped into the role after Jax lost Brunell and their back-up to injury.

 

The dumb thing was re-signing him to a deal with a huge bonus before he had shown that he was up to being an NFL player. The Bills made it really fatal because in order to get Flutie here they had agreed to a bonus laden contract in which any bonuses he achieved were rolled into his base salary the next year.

 

The irony is what happened as Flutie performed exactly like we hoped he would when he stepped in for an injured RJ. Thus our cap hit for 2000 at QB was:

 

$5 million plus for RJ (mostly in distributed bonus and a small salary).

$3 million for Flutie from bonus obtained in 99 which were not allocated to the cap

$3 million for Flutie in base salary now augmented by his achieved bonuses

 

In the face of this enormous cap hit which we could not pay without cutting some core players, we re-signed Flutie to a longterm deal which got rid of the base salary and distributed it as bonus over the life of a contract he would never conclude.

 

Its not the trade, its the contract that kills you.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

I think more should be expected out of trading away a 1st round pick.  The Bills received about 8 games of quality production off the bat from Bledsoe, and then just a mere handful of decent games in the last 32 or so.

120326[/snapback]

 

 

TD estimates and it is a number which I have not sjown to be false by any stats I've seen about 50 percemt do not meet expectations and a healthy number of them turn out to be Ryan Leaf like busts who do not give you even 8 quality games. Someone showed the outcomes for the first round picks near the level of the traded for Drew and a few were starters. a few were second stringers and a couple were out of the league already.

 

Bledsoe obviosuly disappointed in terms of his production for out expectations, but in addition to the fact he sucked last year, it says a lot about fan expectations of 1st rounders being fairly umrealistic.

[a player to be named later]

Billy Jo Holbert trade was also horrible. 2nd to Oakland.

 

Drew trade wasnt that bad. Remember the 8-8 season.

 

The Rob Johnson trade was just horrible.

 

OUT

[HtownBillsFan]

sorry if I missed it, but who did NE get for that #1 pick?