C.Biscuit97 Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 TD was maybe the worst GM in my lifetime because he was the "football guy" who was a flashy hire. Ralph gave him total power and he just made awful choices. A running back with a blown out knee in the 1st. An undersized WR/ PR with your top pick in another draft. Gregg Williams. Losman, who wasn't really even good in Conference USA. He was terrible and it's not a coincidence he's not in the NFL anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave mcbride Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 I'm gonna repeat: his first coaching choice was Gregg Freaking Williams. Bad move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDD Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 He played fantasy football in actual NFL. He traded Aaron Rodgers for JP Lossman. If he didn't make that stupid trade, Aaron Rodgers might be the QB of the Bills today. Just think about that for a minute. If that is even remotely possible than he is the worst GM ever for any team in any sport in all of history. And he knew one year earlier Aaron Rodgers would be the top QB prospect in next year's draft and plummet to GB near the end of the first round when 20+ other teams also passed on him. Hindsight is always 20/20. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjt328 Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Tom Donahoe started out great. His first draft was exceptional (Nate Clements, Aaron Schobel, Travis Henry, Jonas Jennings). His trade for Drew Bledsoe was bold and aggressive. He was great at snatching up top free agents (Takeo Spikes, London Fletcher, Sam Adams, Troy Vincent, Lawyer Milloy). He definitely built the most talented teams we've had during this 15 year playoff drought. Unfortunately, once the core nucleus of the team was built - his drafts spiraled completely out of control. Instead of filling in missing pieces, he decided to waste selections on luxury players. We badly needed another pass rusher to complement Schobel. He takes an injured Willis McGahee. We badly needed an offensive line to protect an immobile Bledsoe. He takes (bust) Mike Williams, then completely ignores the position for 3 years. He creates a huge hole by letting Pat Williams walk in free agency, then uses our first draft pick on Roscoe Parrish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Biscuit97 Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Tom Donahoe started out great. His first draft was exceptional (Nate Clements, Aaron Schobel, Travis Henry, Jonas Jennings). His trade for Drew Bledsoe was bold and aggressive. He was great at snatching up top free agents (Takeo Spikes, London Fletcher, Sam Adams, Troy Vincent, Lawyer Milloy). He definitely built the most talented teams we've had during this 15 year playoff drought. Unfortunately, once the core nucleus of the team was built - his drafts spiraled completely out of control. Instead of filling in missing pieces, he decided to waste selections on luxury players. We badly needed another pass rusher to complement Schobel. He takes an injured Willis McGahee. We badly needed an offensive line to protect an immobile Bledsoe. He takes (bust) Mike Williams, then completely ignores the position for 3 years. He creates a huge hole by letting Pat Williams walk in free agency, then uses our first draft pick on Roscoe Parrish. Good post. I will give him a pass on Mike Williams because he was a great OT in college. He just didn't love football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Day 10 Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Mike Williams and McKinney were neck and neck. People were split, experts and fans alike. The thing with McKinney was his attitude appeared to stink. The Bills chose poorly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave mcbride Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Good post. I will give him a pass on Mike Williams because he was a great OT in college. He just didn't love football. Modrak said afterward that he regretted his high grade on Williams not because of his attitude, but because "dancing bears" (Modrak's term) were not as good as thinner, more mobile tackles in the increasingly pass-heavy NFL. The game had passed him by, essentially. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Biscuit97 Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Mike Williams and McKinney were neck and neck. People were split, experts and fans alike. The thing with McKinney was his attitude appeared to stink. The Bills chose poorly Mckinnie has been better than Williams boviously, but he's hardly been a star. Plus, he's a complete idiot. I give TD a pass for that even though I don't like TD. I think the real killer is that the Bills supposedly wanted Big Ben and Pitt took him right before we picked. Near misses. Modrak said afterward that he regretted his high grade on Williams not because of his attitude, but because "dancing bears" (Modrak's term) were not as good as thinner, more mobile tackles in the increasingly pass-heavy NFL. The game had passed him by, essentially. Ah, good stuff. Williams did have some moments where he looked good right or any I not remembering correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigK14094 Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Donahoe gets too much hate, but the guy was a jerk and asked for it, along with Ralph obviously hating that situation. His drafts were decent overall, and that 2004 team was really unlucky to not make the playoffs. But, he made the fatal flaw with Losman. Actually, Greg Williams hiring was also a big one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1B4IDie Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 (edited) And he knew one year earlier Aaron Rodgers would be the top QB prospect in next year's draft and plummet to GB near the end of the first round when 20+ other teams also passed on him. Hindsight is always 20/20. Its not Hindisght, its Foresight. JP LOSSman played for Tulane in Conference USA and was not a good QB. TD decided to trade multiple picks including a future 1st round pick to draft a QB that was clearly garbage in the first round. Then, the part that everyone seems to be caught up with as hindsight, the pick that the Bills traded to the Cowboys could have been used to draft Aaron Rodgers. OUch. So Factually, actually and in reality TD traded a pick that could have been used to draft Aaron Rodgers for the opportunity to draft JP LOSSman. This actually happened. Clearly TD couldn't have known that Aaron Rodgers would have been available with the future 1st. However, a "football guy" should be able to look at JP LOSSman and see that he can't successfully play football in the NFL let alone be a first round, franchise QB. JP LOSSman was supplanted by a 3rd round pick ~1000 days after being drafted. Drafting a horrible QB in the first round prior to the rookie salary pool will get GMs fired 99/100 times, and today it's probably 90/100 times. (Good Luck Whaley) Edited December 12, 2013 by Why So Serious? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 TD was maybe the worst GM in my lifetime because he was the "football guy" who was a flashy hire. Ralph gave him total power and he just made awful choices. A running back with a blown out knee in the 1st. An undersized WR/ PR with your top pick in another draft. Gregg Williams. Losman, who wasn't really even good in Conference USA. He was terrible and it's not a coincidence he's not in the NFL anymore. Buddy Nix was a "football guy"... On a team that desperately needed a QB, in 3 years he never drafted one other than Levi Brown. (2013 was Whaley's draft, no question). On a team that desperately needed WRs, he picked Easley and Graham. The Graham pick is particularly unforgivable because we needed both a QB and a top WR and we got neither---and passed on R Wilson (who would have cost only 3 million for 4 years!) in the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rico Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 It would not surprise me one bit if the trade for Brain Dead Drew and the drafting of McGahee were both mandates from Ralph, "Get It Done". TD's HC choices were influenced by Ralph, who won't open his checkbook for them. Puddinhead Williams over McKinnie, that's on TD. Losman is on TD as well, though at least he tried to correct the situation. I still say his biggest mistake was extending Drew after the 2003 season. If Bledsoe doesn't sh## the bed against the Steelers, the Bills make the playoffs in 2004, and the last 10 years would've been radically different for the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsVet Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 (edited) The Losman trade feels all too similar to the Bills reaching for Manuel... trading up instead of down, but the reach that they must get a QB that year. And the Bills were strength of schedule or one meaningless win away from likely drafting Ben that year, I always remember that. Sigh. When you make decisions out of necessity, it usually doesn't bode well. The last 2 QB's taken by Buffalo in round 1 fit into that category, with one busting and the other demonstrating signs he's not adapting to the NFL. The point made in another thread with regard to Seattle's pursuit of their QB was the right method applies here. . Modrak said afterward that he regretted his high grade on Williams not because of his attitude, but because "dancing bears" (Modrak's term) were not as good as thinner, more mobile tackles in the increasingly pass-heavy NFL. The game had passed him by, essentially. And for some reason, Modrak was retained through the Levy, Brandon, and part of the Nix GM years. It defies logic that a personnel guy could survive, but then again OBD defies logic on many subjects. Edited December 12, 2013 by BillsVet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitro Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Looking at his drafts and the premium rounds his results were mixed. 2001 draft Nate Clements, Aaron Schobel, Travis Henry, Ron Edwards and Jonas Jennings. 2002 Mike Williams, Josh Reed, Ryan Denny and Coy Wire. 2003 Willis McGahee, Chris Kelsay and Angelo Crowell. 2004 Lee Evans JP Losman and Tim Anderson. 2005 Roscoe Parrish and Kevin Everett. Too many misses in this group, only half made significant contributions to the Bills. He had football pedigre but a was a average judge of talent. Not all picks are home runs but but you have to have solid selections in order to build a good team. i'd give him a grade of C as a President/GM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris heff Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 (edited) After losing a power struggle to Cower, Donahoe was never going to let that happen again. That is why the two head coaches he hired were on no one else's radar. How about the press conference where he blamed the fans for having to fire Williams? Always a good idea to blame the customer. Edited December 12, 2013 by chris heff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Over 29 years of fanhood Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 He played fantasy football in actual NFL. He traded Aaron Rodgers for JP Lossman. If he didn't make that stupid trade, Aaron Rodgers might be the QB of the Bills today. Just think about that for a minute. If that is even remotely possible than he is the worst GM ever for any team in any sport in all of history. Wonder what would have happened if Rodgers was thrown to the wolves and JP got to ride pine behind Favre for a while. After losing a power struggle to Cower, Donahoe was never going to let that happen again. That is why the two head coaches he hired were on no one else's radar. How about the press conference where he blamed the fans for having to fire Williams? Always a good idea to blame the customer. As it turns out Williams dismissal was probably a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewildrabbit Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 After losing a power struggle to Cower, Donahoe was never going to let that happen again. That is why the two head coaches he hired were on no one else's radar. How about the press conference where he blamed the fans for having to fire Williams? Always a good idea to blame the customer. Nobody else brought this up, and a very valid point. The sole reason as to why Donahoe was even available to hired was because he was let go by the Steelers as he did lose a power struggle to head coach Bill Cowher. This owner might have thought he was hiring another Bill Polian clone after firing then GM John Butler or perhaps it was simply to help get the team out of cap hell. Either way it really made no sense to hire a man who just fired as the GM of the Pittsburgh Steelers because he had fought with the head coach and lost. But then, this owner has a history of some really questionable hires for GM's & HC's in the history of the team. On a side note I do think that this owner really did want to hire Bill Cowher after he fired Jauron. I just happen to think they couldn't come to an mutual agreement. Man 0 man would this team be so different now if that had happened Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1B4IDie Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Wonder what would have happened if Rodgers was thrown to the wolves and JP got to ride pine behind Favre for a while. As it turns out Williams dismissal was probably a good thing. JP would have sucked. Maybe Aaron too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1B4IDie Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Wonder what would have happened if Rodgers was thrown to the wolves and JP got to ride pine behind Favre for a while. As it turns out Williams dismissal was probably a good thing. JP would have sucked. Maybe Aaron too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBrownBear Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 I don't think he's as bad as people have made him out to be. Like every other failure in the last 14 years, you can trace his (and his coaches') demise(s) to the lack of above-average QB play. Stock those 2003-2005 teams with a capable QB and you'd have a some playoff runs in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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