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

[mannc]

1 hour ago, row_33 said:

 

Lynch would have been an amazing keeper for his prime years, would 100% have raised the team's strength

 

but it wasn't just Lynch, it was also McGahee for this era, and Henry was totally disaffected before leaving town

 

Bills were a great farm team to get some experience before letting them run off to greener pastures

He might have gotten them to 8-8.  BFD

[Max Fischer]

That the same owners that hired Rex Ryan were able to hire Sean McDermott. Gives me hope in humanity that someone could admit they were wrong and try a different strategy. 

[row_33]

11 minutes ago, mannc said:

He might have gotten them to 8-8.  BFD

 

keep shining with that winning attitude in life

 

[Wheels Not So Golden Now]

Besides the already mentioned Harvey Johnson, whose qualification for coaching was seemingly a shared love of horse racing with his boss Ralph Wilson, and the John Rauch fiasco with his questionable use of O.J.’s talents, I want to touch on these three other old time head scratchers.

The first is the trade that didn’t happen.   According to Joe DeLamielleure’s biography during the 1976 training camp O.J. was AWOL for much of the camp and wanted to be traded to a west coast team.  Word around training camp was that a trade was in place where the Bills would get Jack Youngblood (future hall of fame defensive end), Jim Youngblood (a middle linebacker), Jack Snow (a wide receiver), and Lawrence McCutcheon (a Pro Bowl running back) for O.J.  Wilson nixed the trade and paid O.J. more than $700,000 which was the richest contract in the NFL.  O.J. rushed for 1,503 yards that season but it was the last time he passed the 1,000 yard mark.

When the Bills did trade Simpson in 1979 the Bills received the 49ers No. 1 draft choice in 1979 (Tom Cousineau; 2nd round draft choice in 1978 (Scott Hutchinson) and 3rd round draft choice in 1978 (Danny Fulton) and 2nd round draft choice in 1980 (Joe Cribbs) and 4th round draft choice (Ken Johnson) in 1980.  The handling of the Cousineau contract was another head scratcher as they let him sign with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.  Incredible!  But at least that one turned out alright for the Bills.  Cousineau never signed with Buffalo and they traded him to Cleveland for a 1st round draft choice in 1983 (Jim Kelly), a 3rd round draft choice in 1984 (Rodney Bellinger) and a 5th round draft choice in 1985 (Matt Darwin).

My last head scratcher is letting Pete Gogolak get away.  Gogolak was the first soccer style kicker in professional football.  He had two very successful years as the Bills placekicker but after the 1965 season he became a free agent and signed with the New York Giants which helped contribute to the AFL-NFL merger.  Gogolak went on to become the Giant’s all-time leading scorer and the Bills were saddled with the likes of Booth Lusteg, Grant Guthrie, Bruce Alford and I have to stop now because it’s getting too painful.

[PolishPrince]

1 hour ago, RichRiderBills said:

 

Ill give you Gilmore, he wanted top CB money and had been solid, not great. Def seemed a me first guy. Most of us had a blah opinion of him leaving. But turns out he was great. Best CB in the league, best Defensive Player in the league...thats a biting loss....whatever our feelings or justifications were.

 

Woods was a team guy and I never recall this attitude you mention. I remember most bemoaning that you do not let team guys with his ethic walk, and few wanted him gone. The top 3 notion is inherently false, as the Bills could have transition tagged him for top 10.  He was productive and steady, but nobody could predict the blow up of that Rams O. We had to draft WRs to replace his loss and give up the farm. We've needed that consistant tough WR for years and neither Watkins or Zay could cut the mustard. As it is now, that 8 million per year was peanuts.

I recall a bunch of games his final year of him throwing his hands up in frustration and making faces because qb’s weren’t seeing him. 
 

i like  woods a lot, but just because he was quiet and a willing blocker doesn’t mean he was only “about the team.” The years he was here we had EJ and Tyrod who barely threw to our WR’s. 

[Sherlock Holmes]

Troupe over Gronk and Zay over Kupp...Dareus over JJ Watt.

 

Not trading up for Kuechly and McCaffrey... or TJ Watt

[Speedy Beebe]

On 2/10/2020 at 8:51 AM, Seasons1992 said:

 

It worked out just fine.

It did but who knows what have happened had Buffalo drafted Marino

[RichRiderBills]

3 hours ago, Sherlock Holmes said:

Troupe over Gronk and Zay over Kupp...Dareus over JJ Watt.

 

Not trading up for Kuechly and McCaffrey... or TJ Watt

 

Oh jesus forgot about Troupe over Gronk.

[BuffaloBills1998]

Giving Fitzpatrick that stupid contract

 

Hiring Rex Ryan

 

Hiring Greg Williams

 

drafting OT Mike Williams

 

Drafting Aaron Maybin

 

Trading up for JP Losman in the 1st round over Ben Rothlesberger 

 

hiring Marv Levy as GM

 

giving guys like Donahoe and Brandon full control of football operations. 
 

giving a stupid bloated contract to Rob Johnson

 

the way we let go of Reed, Thomas and Smith. I personally thought it was a punk move the way the front office at that time handled that. 
 

firing Wade Philips

 

drafting Trent Edwards etc, too much has happened lol

8 hours ago, row_33 said:

 

Lynch had checked out well before the last game he wore a Bills jersey, was very public about it, sorry you missed it.

 

 

He didn’t want to be drafted by us. I remember he was openly pissed at the raiders for not drafting him since that was his team growing up and him being from Oakland 

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

8 hours ago, Dflow23 said:

1. Trading away Marshawn Lynch but keeping Fred Jackson... could never understand that move.

that was absolutely the right move, even in hindsight. Jackson was a productive downhill runner. Lynch was just a dancer. He just danced side to side and never hit the hole. He obviously improved dramatically when he got to Seattle and got some good coaching or improved his work ethic. But that wasn’t going to happen in Buffalo. 

[Motorin']

10 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Not even.........the Bills traded more picks to move up and select both Edmunds and Dawkins.

 

 

The two 1st round picks and one 3rd round pick became Tre White, Edmunds and Dawkins. Sure they traded up a little extra to make two of the selects, basically a 3rd to get Edmunds and a 5th to get Dawk.

 

But no other team got value for passing up on Mahomes. We turned the choice to pass on him into three blue Chip players. No other team that passed on him can say that, and the Bears gave up value to pass on Mahomes and took Trubisky instead...

 

You can say you'd rather have Mahomes than an all pro CB, a pro bowl MLB and a starting LT, but to say it was the worst choice in team history is rediculous. Hindsight is 20/20, but at least the Bills made out on their end. 

 

It's not like they stayed at 10 and took a CB that busted. 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Motorin'

[GreggTX]

Letting Lamonica walk. Drafting Booker Moore, Aaron Maybin and Erik Flowers in round 1. Not drafting Mahomes.

 

Biggest disappointment was the 1964 draft. We did get Butch Byrd who was great. Unfortunately, we also drafted 2 HOF'ers that we never signed. Back then, the NFL and AFL held separate drafts and the teams had to get into bidding wars to sign their picks. Carl Eller (DE) opted to sign with the Vikings instead of Buffalo and was part of the legendary 'Purple People Eaters'. Paul Warfield was also drafted by Cleveland and later played for Miami.

Edited February 12, 2020 by GreggTX

[Rico]

18 hours ago, Sherlock Holmes said:

Troupe over Gronk and Zay over Kupp...Dareus over JJ Watt.

 

Not trading up for Kuechly and McCaffrey... or TJ Watt

Cutting Sills V.

[BillsPride12]

Anything that happened between 2000-2017 is basically fair game.  Those years were a constant nightmare that I sometimes wondered if it would ever come to an end.  Really is remarkable for the all wrong reasons when you think about it 

[Sherlock Holmes]

6 hours ago, Rico said:

Cutting Sills V.

Obviously, that was an atrocity, I was trying to mention the more subtle mistakes

[Buffalo03]

I'm only 33 so I can't really name anything before I was born as far as what the worst things this franchise did were but one of the things that sticks out to me since I've been a fan whch has been since I was 6 (the year we went to the 3rd Super Bowl against Dallas) was the hiring of Dick Jauron as head coach. That was something I never understood. As bad as the Rex Ryan hire was, Dick Jauron for me was ridiculously stupid. 

 

Keeping and starting Rob Johnson over Flutie is another thing that I think was the worst. 

 

I also will never understand the trade up for Sammy Watkins either when we could have had Khalil Mack who was right in our own back yard. 

[frostbitmic]

On 2/9/2020 at 6:44 PM, AlCowlingsTaxiService said:

Don’t you dare bring up missed draft opportunities .... that will lead to more “We coulda had mahomes”

Welllllll, we coulda, though that year I wanted Watson.

 

The best goalie in the league plus Allen plus Edmunds I believe will equal out.

[LB48]

I think it started in the very FIRST SEASON.  They hired the very incompetent Buster Ramsey to be Head Coach (he lasted 2 years) and made Richie Lucas of Penn State their #1 pick in the draft.  He was a total flop at QB, running back and in a desperation move at DB.  It set the tone for the franchise!

[BADOLBILZ]

20 hours ago, LB48 said:

I think it started in the very FIRST SEASON.  They hired the very incompetent Buster Ramsey to be Head Coach (he lasted 2 years) and made Richie Lucas of Penn State their #1 pick in the draft.  He was a total flop at QB, running back and in a desperation move at DB.  It set the tone for the franchise!

 

 

That was the last QB that Ralph ever selected with his first pick in round one...............must have spooked him.

[holla83]

On 2/9/2020 at 9:51 PM, Nihilarian said:

Most of this is correct. However, here's the thing. Ralph might have spent a few bucks to hire Tom Donahoe and promoted him to team president while Wilson left that job to supposedly retire. Ralph Wilson was so very "hands on" as an owner that he simply couldn't step away for very long IMO. 

 

To give you an idea of how hands on this owner was, he was in the draft room advising selections on who to draft over the years. Hence all the RB's and DB's and few QB's and O linemen. Wilson was also noted to be on the phone from Detroit with HC Dick Jauron a few hours a day during the season. Buffalo had difficulty in finding a decent head coach because most knew how cantankerous and frugal he was. Even then when Buddy Nix wanted to hire Marty Schottenheimer as HC before he hired Chan Gailey, Wilson said no. 

 

Ralph Wilson was very frugal with the Buffalo Bills because he wasn't a billionaire like some are today and he came very close to being forced to sell part or all of "his" team on several occasions . His team needed to make a profit each and every season as this forced his hands with a lot of issues. 

 

On the contrary of being a "hot candidate", Donahoe was the "director of football operations" for the Pittsburgh Steelers and subsequently fired by the Steelers after he lost a power struggle with then HC Bill Cowher. 

Now, most owners who hire an outside team president to run their team usually will rehire a new president instead of taking over control of the team again, not this owner. 

 

As for Marv, Levy returned to the Buffalo Bills in thinking that he would be their head coach again. Only after he was hired and settled in Ralph Wilson made it clear that his new duties were to be GM only. Levy made the choice for hiring Dick Jauron and helped him pick his staff. They hired the St Louis Rams OC in Steve Fairchild who didn't call the plays for the Rams as HC Mike Martz did that job.

 

The Tampa two defense was a hot commodity at that time in the league and about the only reasoning I can think of as to why Levy chose Jauron as HC. He made it clear it came down to Jauron and ex Packer HC Mike Sherman for the Bills HCing job.  Levy mentioned in the media that Sherman "knocked his socks off" in his interview. Puzzling outcome to be sure. 

 

When it came to the draft, Levy knew he was in over his head as a talent evaluator so he went with a consensus of himself, Jauron and the scouting staff. It looked like Jauron made the calls after all, Aaron Maybin... There are reasons as to why the Bills drafted OG Andy Levitre and OC Eric Wood as Jauron watched in horror as the Bills O line attempted to triple team Jets NT Kris Jenkins and he still got to the QB. 

 

As for Donte Whitner, the Bills were desperate for a safety as Levy had just gotten rid of a player who he deemed as low in character in SS Lawyer Milloy. They drafted for a need and with nobody in the FO knowing what they were doing they also traded up to draft DT John McCargo. For some unknown reason Levy stated he thought McCargo was a big reason as to why Mario Williams was so good at NC state. 

 

As bad as the decision to hire ex Bills HC Marv Levy was I think it was far a worse decision to replace him with pseudo GM Russ Brandon and even worse was when Brandon took over as team president.

 

2000-2017...woof

 

 

On another note, Ralph Wilson fired Wade Phillips because Wade refused to fire special teams coach who had allowed the music city miracle play. Wilson also never paid Phillips what he was the remainder due on his contract either.  

 

Bruce DeHaven was the special teams coach for the Music City Miracle. Wade fired him over it and hired Ronnie Jones. The Bills ST unit in 2000 was so god awful that Ralph wanted Jones gone and Wade refused. Ultimately I think Wade sued over the remainder of his contract and won.