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

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

8 minutes ago, Ennjay said:

What a pleasure it is to fill my Monday morning with this topic.  Thank you for giving my week the sunshine-and-roses start it deserves.  Maybe it will snow, too!

Possibly later today.  Good chance on Wednesday, says WIVB.

[Big Turk]

3 hours ago, Bill from NYC said:

The Levy/Jauron draft in 2006 set this team back 5 years. It was SO bad that most posters on this board knew how much it would hurt the team (although, a few actually defended it).

 They entered the draft with the #8 in rounds 1 & 2, and 2 top ten picks in round 3. 4 early picks in the first 3 rounds!!! The net result?  DB Whitner (mediocre and cost 36 million in real cap dollars), McCargo (DL who completely sucked), and DB Ashton Youboty (just awful).  Oh, and the draft was stacked with good players.

 

Not painful enough? They grabbed another horrible DB, Ko Simpson in round 4.

 

Levy and Jauron were two clowns, at the sub-basement level of Rich Kotite. 

 

PS: I don't care that they drafted Kyle Williams in the 5th in that draft. That was pure luck. Nobody else thought that he was any good. I would have been more impressed if they took him early.

 

Not as bad as John Butler's last draft here in 2000 which I am convinced he did to screw this team over knowing he was on the outs after the season. I mean the best of the bunch was Sammy Morris in round 5 who had 727 yards rushing for New England as the high water mark in his career in 2008.  There was not one viable starter and the only real decent backup outside of Morris was Polk who played 4 seasons for the Bills and 3 for the Texans.

 

Whitner was a legit starter in this league for a long time, the 2000 draft didn't produce anything close to Whitner as bad as most people want to remember him as. Whitner might have been worth as much as the entire 2000 draft combined if not more.

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by matter2003

[row_33]

2 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

 

Not as bad as John Butler's last draft here in 2000 which I am convinced he did to screw this team over knowing he was on the outs after the season. I mean the best of the bunch was Sammy Morris in round 5 who had 727 yards rushing for New England as the high water mark in his career in 2008.  There was not one viable starter and the only real decent backup outside of Morris was Polk who played 4 seasons for the Bills and 3 for the Texans.

 

 

Butler's success was attached to Doug Flutie's comings and goings for the Bills and Chargers

 

sort of like Cliff Fletcher riding Doug Gilmour's coattails, but Doug G was a HOF and led teams to great playoff accomplishmenets

 

 

[RyanC883]

19 hours ago, No Place To Hyde said:

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. 

 

 

 

well, we ended up with 2 of them eventually! 

 

drafting Aaron Maybin.  

 

Drafting Konjouo (OL) who had arthritic knees with a high pick.  

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by RyanC883

[row_33]

5 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

 

well, we ended up with 2 of them eventually! 

 

drafting Aaron Maybin.  

 

Drafting Konjouo (OL) who had arthritic knees with a high pick.  

 

 

how even the most useless interviewer of Maybin wasn't able to discern after 2 questions that his heart and head wasn't into it is an epic mystery

 

 

[Albany,n.y.]

15 hours ago, formerlyofCtown said:

Got no problem with the Bledsoe trade.  If we don’t draft an immature OT high in the draft, let Ruben Brown, Jennings and kept Peerless Price I think we would have actually done something.

 

Wilson’s refusal to pay players was the futility of this franchise.  We traded one of the best if not the best LT in the game for peanuts because Ralph didn’t want to pay.  We traded a HOF RB for peanuts because Ralph didn’t want to pay and wouldn’t let the man be who he is.

It was the joke of a duo of Nix/Gailey who traded Lynch, not because Ralph didn't want to pay him, but because the duo didn't like his off the field stuff.  So, instead of building his trade value up, they tore it down by drafting another RB in the 1st round, then demoralizing Lynch making him unwelcome & taking snaps away from him.  So after that Lynch was glad to get away from a team that (yes, through Ralph's "contribution") had become a place where nobody wanted to come to and had no chance of winning for the foreseeable future.  That's how we got Gailey in the 1st place since the situation was so bad, Nix had to hire a coach whose last NFL stop was getting fired as an OC in preseason because no self respecting coach would come here.  I still don't get the love Gailey gets around here-he sucked as a HC, exemplified by the time he lost a game by punting from his opponent's 34 yard line because he didn't trust his kicker to try a 51 yard FG or trust his offense to get a 1st down.  

[Rico]

Extending Bledsoe after 2003. 

 

#1 on the list by far though was hiring Marv as GM in 2006. The ultimate clown show move by Ralph.

[row_33]

10 minutes ago, Rico said:

Extending Bledsoe after 2003. 

 

#1 on the list by far though was hiring Marv as GM in 2006. The ultimate clown show move by Ralph.

 

Ralph didn't discern that Marv never won a game he shouldn't have, and lost a lot the Bills had no business losing

 

 

[Gugny]

10 minutes ago, Rico said:

#1 on the list by far though was hiring Marv as GM in 2006. The ultimate clown show move by Ralph.

 

This and hiring Rex are my top 2.

[Bill from NYC]

26 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

 

Not as bad as John Butler's last draft here in 2000 which I am convinced he did to screw this team over knowing he was on the outs after the season. I mean the best of the bunch was Sammy Morris in round 5 who had 727 yards rushing for New England as the high water mark in his career in 2008.  There was not one viable starter and the only real decent backup outside of Morris was Polk who played 4 seasons for the Bills and 3 for the Texans.

 

Whitner was a legit starter in this league for a long time, the 2000 draft didn't produce anything close to Whitner as bad as most people want to remember him as. Whitner might have been worth as much as the entire 2000 draft combined if not more.

 

The #8 in a draft that was loaded with talent needs to be more than a legit starter, which he barely was. Whitner was an undersized safety with mediocre speed.

 

I agree that the 2000 draft produced worse players for the Bills. Absolutely true but there were less good players to choose from.  In fact, it was probably one of the worst draft classes ever. I think that the first QB chosen was Chad Pennington.  

 

In 2006, Levy passed on excellent players and turned down at least 2 offers to trade down, one of which included multiple picks. I heard him say this during a post draft interview and he was actually bragging about drafting Whitner.

[Big Turk]

23 minutes ago, row_33 said:

 

Ralph didn't discern that Marv never won a game he shouldn't have, and lost a lot the Bills had no business losing

 

 

 

Like the first Super Bowl?

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

I’m guessing most if not all will be on the Brandon/Whaley timeline. What a horrible time to be a Bills fan. I knew both these guys were cabbage/muff/trash after the second year of their tenure. Thank god they are both gone.

[Formerly Allan in MD]

18 hours ago, I'm Spartacus said:

The Bills dealt QB Daryle Lamonica, end Glenn Bass, and 2 draft picks (3rd & 5th rounds), to the Raiders for:

QB Tom Flores (yuk), and end Art Powell (huh??). 

Flores still appeared to have something left in the tank when the deal was made but Powell, who had been dynamite, had nothing but fizzle left in his tank.

[LabattBlue]

After Ralph passed, it became a "cool kid" thing to talk about Ralph glowingly.  I'm glad to see in this thread, he is taking it on the chin.  For the most part, he SUCKED as the owner of the Buffalo Bills.

[row_33]

48 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

 

Like the first Super Bowl?

 

no excuse in a million years for the Bills not taking that with a cakewalk win achieving garbagetime by the half.

 

 

i give more props to coaches who squeeze out upsets, like the elements on the Giants that day

 

[Ray Finkel]

Letting Ahmad Rashad go

Troupe instead of Gronk

8 hours ago, Bleedbuffaloblue said:

Back in the day when Chuck Knox was coach, don’t remember who the GM was they drafted Gary Anderson, kicker out of Syracuse and cut him after the preseason when he missed a couple near 50 yard FG’s and kept the incumbent Nick Mickameyer (sp?). The Steelers immediately grabbed him up and Anderson went on to be a perennial All-Pro and one of the best place kickers of all time.

Don’t know why that boneheaded move sticks in my head after all these years, but it does.

He missed on purpose because he didn’t want to play here

[Bulldog]

Ahh - there are so many wonderful head scratchers everyone has posted in this thread. While most all of them are worthy of anyone scratching his head - it seems that most people have that one special moment that stands out above all the others.  I've been a fan since 1970 - so not too well versed on the Bill's 1960's blunders. My most skin crawling moments as a Bills fan occurred every time I heard/saw Buddy Nix doing a press conference (we chose that guy to be our GM??!!). Show me the baby - oh boy!. For me - those days were my darkest as a Bills fan - so bleak - there seemed to be no hope on the horizon. Thinking back to that time makes me appreciate the current regime.

[Rico]

1 hour ago, Bill from NYC said:

The #8 in a draft that was loaded with talent needs to be more than a legit starter, which he barely was. Whitner was an undersized safety with mediocre speed.

 

I agree that the 2000 draft produced worse players for the Bills. Absolutely true but there were less good players to choose from.  In fact, it was probably one of the worst draft classes ever. I think that the first QB chosen was Chad Pennington.  

 

In 2006, Levy passed on excellent players and turned down at least 2 offers to trade down, one of which included multiple picks. I heard him say this during a post draft interview and he was actually bragging about drafting Whitner.

I remember the hype about Lil Donte after he was drafted: you could play him at any DB position because he had the speed and most importantly the talent to get the job done.

 

Not as bad as Mike “Puddinhead” Williams legendary mean streak coming out of Texas, but bad enough.

[Bill from NYC]

2 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

That hiring was exasperating.    I'm generally bemused by the Bills being Billsy but I was so angry that I kicked a wastebasket that I'm pretty sure would have been good from 50.

 

What people forget is that so many fans loved all the close games that Jauron Ball created and the fanbase really bought into Jauron for 3 years because of it......................the same way they loved Jauron Ball 2.0 in 2017 with McDermott.    The spirit of the game isn't to not make any sudden moves and just hope that your opponent makes enough errors that you can squeak out a win..........that kind of football just bastardizes the sport.

 

 

I clearly remember your outburst when he was hired. I was puzzled too because as I recall, Jauron had a decent record in Chicago, or; am I wrong?

 

It became clear that Levy hired him because he was a young, under control image of himself. Both of these men seriously believed that no position on the field was more important than cornerback and/or safety. Not QB, LT, Pass rushing DE.....nothing, and this was before the rule changes. These were brilliant men yet they knew less about football than an average high school coach.

 

Unbelievable. Truly mind boggling how Mr. Wilson paid these men to destroy his team.

[Bill from NYC]

1 minute ago, Rico said:

I remember the hype about Lil Donte after he was drafted: you could play him at any DB position because he had the speed and most importantly the talent to get the job done.

 

Not as bad as Mike “Puddinhead” Williams legendary mean streak coming out of Texas, but bad enough.

Mike Williams was an overweight RT coming out of college with a chronic ankle injury, a pretty bad scenario for a 360 pound person.

 

Once again, a draft bust isn't only about who you select, it's also about who you pass on. Donahoe passed on LEFT TACKLE Bryant McKinnie who had a career just a shade below Hall of Fame level.

 

A 12 year old with a copy of the old Pro Football Weekly could have read Joel Buchsbaum's ratings and drafted better than us. I'm not joking.