What are Some of the Biggest Head Scratchers Made by Bills Ownership/FO in Bills History ?

[T master]

Okay all of us that have been Bills fans for most of our lives have seen a lot of head scratchers during our time as fans of the Bills but there are some that really stand out & were brought to my attention while jumping around Two Bills drive & the reading of one article in particular .

 

Seeing as Ralph owned the team from it's inception up till the time that the Pegs bought the team there are probably a lot more moves to choose from during his time as the owner but there are a few to me that really stick out !

 

The one article i read while surfing around this board was the one of Pollian announcing his own firing ? here is the man that put together the trade for Cornelius Bennett, drafted Kelly, brought in Marv Levy & built the team that went to 4 consecutive SB's something that may never happen again, talk about a head scratcher !!

 

Then there is the firing of Wade Phillips who took over for Marv & was the last coach to take the Bills to the play offs twice until McD . I think the big thing that got him fired though was part of this head scratcher was probably his behind the scenes disagreement to start Johnson over Flutie, which some unmentioned haters here still rejoice over that decision because it took Flutie off the 53 . But the nail in his Bills career was when he said no to firing the ST's coach Ronnie Jones.

 

Then there is letting Thurman, Bruce & Andre walk out the door, not really sure exactly what happened with all of that (you all can enlighten me) but you would think they would have had some show of respect for what these guys had done for the team & kept at least one of them around to bridge the gap & be the veteran in their respective rooms .

 

What about the Rex Ryan hire or Hank Bullough those could quite possibly rank up there as far as some of the biggest head scratchers, are any of these your choice or can you think of any to add to this list that were worse ?

 

Not sure if this has been talked about recently or in the not to distant past if so my apologies, being the off season & not really a lot to talk about while jumping back a few pages here i read the article that started me thinking about this subject . Again if it has been posted my apologies ...

Edited February 9, 2020 by T master

[frostbitmic]

Drafting Donte Hitner over Haloti Ngata and then trading back into the 1st and taking John McCargo over Nick Mangold in the same draft.

 

Giving up a 1st for surfer boy Robb Johnson after 1 good game in Jacksonville.

 

Giving up a 1st for the statue of Bledsoe

 

Making Russ Brandon GM

 

Hiring Rex Ryan as HC.

[Don Otreply]

This invites the saga ? of DF vs RJ, although this pales compared to the many decades of futility, as posted above, 

 

Why do we do this to ourselves, why rehash the agony????

 

Go Bills!!!

[Mr. WEO]

4 minutes ago, frostbitmic said:

Drafting Donte Hitner over Haloti Ngata and then trading back into the 1st and taking John McCargo over Nick Mangold in the same draft.

 

Giving up a 1st for surfer boy Robb Johnson after 1 good game in Jacksonville.

 

Giving up a 1st for the statue of Bledsoe

 

Making Russ Brandon GM

 

Hiring Rex Ryan as HC.

 

/thread right here...

[HOUSE]

Not drafting Patrick Mahomes

 

 

G

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by HOUSE

[BuffaloBillyG]

Ralph hiring Buddy Nix as GM because of the list of possible GM candidates his name was the only one he knew. 

 

Then years later Buddy Nix announcing to the world he was drafting a QB when the top 3 coming out that year were (arguably) Geno, EJ and Barkley. 

 

 

[Albany,n.y.]

Polian had nothing to do with drafting Jim Kelly.  

[Maybe Someday]

For some reason drafting Willis Mcgahee was the 1st thing that popped into my mind. 

 

Hiring Rex was the 2nd thing. 

[row_33]

Marv’s return was a cynical and pitiful move that cost the franchise a lot of years in punishment

[Phil The Thrill]

I’m sorry but Ralph was a terrible owner toward the final decade of his ownership.  He hurt the team....period.

 

To his credit, when he fired Butler, he did try to get a big name to run the Bills.  Ralph did something uncharacteristic....he opened up his wallet (I’m sure some moths fluttered out of the billfold) and have Tom Donahoe a big money deal and a lot of power.  He named him President which was shocking.  Donahoe was given credit for the Steelers resurgence in the mid to late 90’s and he was a hot candidate.  In the end, Donahoe wouldn’t hire a coach who threatened to usurp his power (like Bill Cowher did).  He could do much better than 9-7 plus everyone hates him at OBD.

 

It was a swing and a miss.  It didn’t work so Ralph fired him - I admire the effort.
 

 The worst decision was replacing him with Marv Levy as GM.  Levy had no GM experience and was about 80 at the time.  It was clear that he was just a figurehead to sell tickets.

 

So rather than hiring a real GM to actually win...Ralph hired someone he was comfortable with because...he’s the owner and he wanted to dammit!

 

Of course, Marv was terrible and hired bad coaches.  Eventually he faded into the background and Ralph refused to hire a “real GM.”  He then hired Buddy Nix because he felt comfortable with him.  
 

Ralph screwed those team so bad during these years.  

[Billy Claude]

Extending dick neuron after half of a good season.

[row_33]

Just now, Phil The Thrill said:

I’m sorry but Ralph was a terrible owner toward the final decade of his ownership.  He hurt the team....period.

 

To his credit, when he fired Butler, he did try to get a big name to run the Bills.  Ralph did something uncharacteristic....he opened up his wallet (I’m sure some moths fluttered out of the billfold) and have Tom Donahoe a big money deal and a lot of power.  He named him President which was shocking.  Donahoe was given credit for the Steelers resurgence in the mid to late 90’s and he was a hot candidate.  In the end, Donahoe wouldn’t hire a coach who threatened to usurp his power (like Bill Cowher did).  He could do much better than 9-7 plus everyone hates him at OBD.

 

It was a swing and a miss.  It didn’t work so Ralph fired him - I admire the effort.
 

 The worst decision was replacing him with Marv Levy as GM.  Levy had no GM experience and was about 80 at the time.  It was clear that he was just a figurehead to sell tickets.

 

So rather than hiring a real GM to actually win...Ralph hired someone he was comfortable with because...he’s the owner and he wanted to dammit!

 

Of course, Marv was terrible and hired bad coaches.  Eventually he faded into the background and Ralph refused to hire a “real GM.”  He then hired Buddy Nix because he felt comfortable with him.  
 

Ralph screwed those team so bad during these years.  

last years were horrible 

 

grateful he kept the team in town and season tickets very very affordable

 

[BADOLBILZ]

58 minutes ago, HOUSE said:

Should have drafted Patrick Mahomes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know you aren't allowed to mention moves by present management.  

 

For chrissake they are 25-25 with a -123 point differential over three seasons............ingrates!

[Bad Things]

The Toronto games were quite stupid.

[Albany,n.y.]

In this century the Bills have been bad when trading 1st round picks, up or down.

2002- Traded 2003 1st rounder for Bledsoe

2004-Traded back into the 1st round for JP Losman giving 2005 #1 to Dallas as part of the deal.

2013-Traded down & used the lower 1st rounder on EJ Manuel

2014-Traded up trading their 2014 & 2015 1st rounder in the Sammy Watkins trade

2017-Traded down giving KC the best young QB in the NFL

2018-The jury is out but it may be that Beane has stopped the bad 1st round trades of the 2000s.  We'll be able to better evaluate those trade ups when Allen & Edmunds go for their 2nd contracts.  

 

[BADOLBILZ]

3 minutes ago, row_33 said:

 

grateful he kept the team in town and season tickets very very affordable

 

 

 

Yep.

 

Actual worst move ever was putting Disney style parking in Lot 1.............it was Hammer's Lot x 20 and really helped keep people coming to games when we were being treated to classics like Browns 6 Bills 3.

[leonbus23]

Biggest front office blunder was allowing Chris Hogan to go to the Pats*. 

 

The topic was like 100 pages on the old BBMB.

Edited February 9, 2020 by leonbus23

[Bferra13]

EJ, the Jauronimo bay, CJ Spiller what else do I have to say... We didnt start the fire. Make your own verse.

Edited February 9, 2020 by Bferra13

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

1 hour ago, T master said:

Okay all of us that have been Bills fans for most of our lives have seen a lot of head scratchers during our time as fans of the Bills but there are some that really stand out & were brought to my attention while jumping around Two Bills drive & the reading of one article in particular .

 

Seeing as Ralph owned the team from it's inception up till the time that the Pegs bought the team there are probably a lot more moves to choose from during his time as the owner but there are a few to me that really stick out !

 

The one article i read while surfing around this board was the one of Pollian announcing his own firing ? here is the man that put together the trade for Cornelius Bennett, drafted Kelly, brought in Marv Levy & built the team that went to 4 consecutive SB's something that may never happen again, talk about a head scratcher !!

 

Then there is the firing of Wade Phillips who took over for Marv & was the last coach to take the Bills to the play offs twice until McD . I think the big thing that got him fired though was part of this head scratcher was probably his behind the scenes disagreement to start Johnson over Flutie, which some unmentioned haters here still rejoice over that decision because it took Flutie off the 53 . But the nail in his Bills career was when he said no to firing the ST's coach Ronnie Jones.

 

Then there is letting Thurman, Bruce & Andre walk out the door, not really sure exactly what happened with all of that (you all can enlighten me) but you would think they would have had some show of respect for what these guys had done for the team & kept at least one of them around to bridge the gap & be the veteran in their respective rooms .

 

What about the Rex Ryan hire or Hank Bullough those could quite possibly rank up there as far as some of the biggest head scratchers, are any of these your choice or can you think of any to add to this list that were worse ?

 

Not sure if this has been talked about recently or in the not to distant past if so my apologies, being the off season & not really a lot to talk about while jumping back a few pages here i read the article that started me thinking about this subject . Again if it has been posted my apologies ...

 

Looking at your list the only one I'd really cal la head scratcher at all was  hiring Rex.  While fans may have hated it, his reasons for firing Polian and getting rid of Thomas, Reed, and Smith were pretty valid.   Even firing Wade wasn't really a shocker considering what lead up to it.

 

38 minutes ago, Albany,n.y. said:

Polian had nothing to do with drafting Jim Kelly.  

 

I know he wasn't the GM at the time of drafting Kelly, but thought he was here in some front office scouting position prior?

[Mickey]

Hiring Rex Ryan