Draft "misses" by Buffalo

[davefan66]

We tried hard to move up for Big Ben, couldn’t make it happen.

 

As far as misses?  Every team has missed on great players, that’s how he draft works.  My question is, what makes anyone think great players on other teams would still be great on the Bills?  

 

Where would Jerry Hughes be today without the trade to the Bills?  Could have died on the vine with the Colts and out of the league forever.  Scheme,  coaches and rosters have a big part in a lot of players being great.  Some just are the best, some need help getting there.

[Artem Lipatov]

1) When I see succes of Mahomes and remember that Chiefs traded up with Buffalo for him, I feel some regret that he coud be our guy. But I am not sure he would be the same succes in Bills. And I still hope Allen will develop to the franchise QB. But Mahomes is already leader in passing among all elite star QBs

2) I am sick of draft where we spent 2 1st rounds on Sammy Watkins. When Bills traded up I thought it's about Mack. WR OBJ was in that draft also.

3) the draft in which we had #3 overall and took Dareus ((   Carolina and Denver who had #1 and #2 were in Super Bowl 2-3 years later. Cam was MVP of season. Von was MVP of SB. Dareus was bust. #4 was AJ Green. #9 was JJ Watt.  

[IgotBILLStopay]

11 hours ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

 

See now this would be an interesting topic. Why isn’t Hughes Elite? He’s so darn close. There is just something missing I can’t quite peg it. His motor is relentless, he flashes elite playmaking, his size isn’t far off from Mack... he certainly has a edge to him. What’s missing 

Hughes outside speed and moves are elite. Only issues as far as I can see is that the Olineman can push Hughes so wide that the QB gets rid of the ball before Hughes gets there. I have always believed Hughes should do an inside move just to keep the Olineman honest but he just does not do it often.

[BillyWhiteShows]

11 hours ago, BuffaloBill said:

This is a tired subject.  You can’t change the past no matter how much you whine about it.

 

Yep....if you wanna play “coulda, woulda, shoulda” we’d have 100+ pages

[gjv001]

12 hours ago, The Real Buffalo Joe said:

You always hear about the players the Bills have passed on in recent (20) years. But how many of them would have even had success in the team that we had at the time? Biggest names we hear are

 

• Brady (Who was a diamond in the rough that every other team passed on 6 times)
• Gronk
• Could have traded up for Big Ben
• Russell Wilson 

Just to name a few. 

Talk about beating a dead horse.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

Can I get my money back for my ‘Earthquake Enyart’ jersey?  

[Pbomb]

12 hours ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

There are alot of them..we are one of the worst drafting teams in the league by a large margin with the amount of drafted players currently on the roster... but let’s hope we finally got our act together with this being the first full year with Beanes scouts in place 

The last 2 drafts look pretty good for the bills so far, hopefully with prolonged stability they can keep it going

[billsfan_34]

12 hours ago, Buffalo30 said:

It's not as simple as we missed on player X. Team/scheme fit and opportunity are overlooked factors for certain players.  What happens to Brady's career if Bledsoe doesn't get hurt?

Teams that stick to BPA and tailor around those players tend to succeed in todays NFL. When teams reach for players to fulfill a position of need more times than not it implodes on them.

[Thriftygamer83]

Doug Whaley and Buddy Nix were abysmal failures as general managers.  Including as advisors as well to the Pegula’s Watson over Mack was one of the absolute failures of having an over promoted Whaley and a “genius” for Nix in his advisory capacity.  Watson is an average receivers who shows flashes otherwise completely replaceable in any system.  

11 minutes ago, Pbomb said:

The last 2 drafts look pretty good for the bills so far, hopefully with prolonged stability they can keep it going

Best players don’t come during the draft for us.  Filling in the holes and gaps it’s a fair assessment we’ve added to our roster and made out like bandits on cast offs and undrafted free agents.  Which means with confidence in that respect; loyalty for remaining and staying knowing McDermott will get what’s best our od them.  

[Steptide]

When we got Sammy Watkins, nobody in media thought he'd be a bust. Everyone said he was the best reciever in the draft. Local media criticized giving up a 1st rounder for him, but at the end of the day, everyone thought drafting Watkins was a great choice. Then, he ends up not being worth what it cost to get him. He was never that great and still isn't. My point is, you just don't know who's gonna be great and who's not. Yes the bills have had some really bad picks (Maybin) and I put that on the front office at the time, but Imo beane and McDermott have done pretty well with the draft and free agents in their time here 

[MrEpsYtown]

24 minutes ago, Steptide said:

When we got Sammy Watkins, nobody in media thought he'd be a bust. Everyone said he was the best reciever in the draft. Local media criticized giving up a 1st rounder for him, but at the end of the day, everyone thought drafting Watkins was a great choice. Then, he ends up not being worth what it cost to get him. He was never that great and still isn't. My point is, you just don't know who's gonna be great and who's not. Yes the bills have had some really bad picks (Maybin) and I put that on the front office at the time, but Imo beane and McDermott have done pretty well with the draft and free agents in their time here 

 

Yeah I think the issue Sammy thing is the idea of the trade up in a really good wide reciever draft class. They made a mistake on the player, but, as you said, that happens. I think the issue is more the thought process of making the move.  

 

Same with JP Losman. They reached on the 4th best quarterback in the draft and they forced the pick when they just could have waited a bit, or waited a year. Like I said, teh player did not work out, but the thought process on the trade up is the problem. 

 

Trading up for Zay Jones when Cooper Kupp, JuJu, Curtis Samuel, Dede Westbrook and Chris Godwin are still on the board. Forcing a move and a reach to get TJ Graham. Forcing the move up for Reggie Ragland when you could have gotten Nick Vigil, Blake Martinez or Joe Schobert later.Those are the issues to me. 

[wppete]

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

24 minutes ago, wppete said:

They say he sounds like Kermit, but that headband makes him look like Beaker...

[skibum]

Hindsight is always 20/20. I think it's only fair to judge bad picks if they also looked bad the day they were made; 'reaches' that didn't pan out.  Even the infamous Mike WIlliams pick seemed like a good decision on draft day.

 

The most egregious examples I can think of in recent Bills history were Aaron Maybin, Donte Whitner, CJ Spiller, Leodis McKelvin, and Sammy Watkins. None of these passed the smell test on draft day. And to be fair, only one of them (Maybin) was a complete and total bust - meaning he never provided anything of value to the team whatsoever. The rest were certainly over-drafted, but they at least contributed something on the field, and/or brought something back to the team in a trade later on. 

 

 

[DasNootz]

In recent memory - these are the 1st round picks that had me screaming at the TV.

 

Whitner of Ngata
Maybin over Orakpo
CJ Spiller

Moving up for Watkins in a WR deep draft

[Ramza86]

Drafts are a little more complex than that. Some of these players that succeed or fail....could be because of the team that drafted them. 

 

Would gronk be the same gronk on another roster? what if the team in question has a scheme that only uses their TEs to block?

 

I mean...nobody is going to draft a guy with a 6th round grade in the 1st round because they believe he is transcendent.

 

[Captain Hindsight]

14 hours ago, OldTimeAFLGuy said:

 

 

 

...shoulda...coulda...woulda.....a/k/a hindsight is a beautiful thing, right bud?...............even before we indict clubs/their GM's, how about the highly paid "draft experts" first?.....1994 Kiper vs Tobin over the Albert vs Dilfer pick to which Tobin replied, "who the hell is Mel Kiper?"......or Kiper's drool about Tony Mandarich......"a behemoth....man among boyz...can't miss future HOF'er..."........the list goes on......

Aw thanks man

[ROCBillsBeliever]

9 hours ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

 

How has this obvious elaborate conspiracy eluded the press for so long?  

 

I cant belive no one has come forward on this league wide conspiracy...

Nobody... not even the NFL that put one particular ref (who wasn't calling holds against Hughes) on administrative leave... that didn't happen...

 

oh wait... 

 

https://amp.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000996246/article/ref-accused-by-jerry-hughes-placed-on-admin-leave?networkId=4595&site=.news&zone=story&zoneUrl=url%3Dstory&zoneKeys=s1%3Dstory&env&pageKeyValues=prtnr%3Daround-the-league%3Bteam%3Dbuf%3Bconf%3Dafc%3Bdvsn%3Dace%3Bplyr%3Djerry_hughes%3Bplyr%3Dtrenton_williams&p.ct=Around the NFL&p.adsm=false&p.tcm=%23fff&p.bgc1m=%230964bf&p.bgc2m=%23053a74&sr=amp

 

Looks like the NFL doesn't admit it, outright, but when egregious behavior and blatant non-calls occur, even the NFL sometimes takes actions. If you believe that a ref calling a player the B word will consistently fairly judge their play... well... you must be a wonderful judge of character. 

 

[Buffalo03]

15 hours ago, The Real Buffalo Joe said:

You always hear about the players the Bills have passed on in recent (20) years. But how many of them would have even had success in the team that we had at the time? Biggest names we hear are

 

• Brady (Who was a diamond in the rough that every other team passed on 6 times)
• Gronk
• Could have traded up for Big Ben
• Russell Wilson 

Just to name a few. 

We did try to trade up for Big Ben. We called the Jags who were really high on Reggie Williams and were told by the Jags that if a "particular" player was there that they were taking them. If he wasn't they would make the deal. Williams was there, the Jags made the pick and we lost Big Ben for a major first round bust WR

[The Now Moment]

1 hour ago, billsfan_34 said:

Teams that stick to BPA and tailor around those players tend to succeed in todays NFL. When teams reach for players to fulfill a position of need more times than not it implodes on them.

I agree with that.  A lot of fans look at the needs and want to fill them all in the draft, doesn't work that way.  Unless you are looking for a QB, always go BPA.  Free agency is there to fill in the gaps.  Plus, a team can always trade to fill in other needs.