Buffalo Bills worst draft choices.

[skibum]

I think it's important to distinguish between a 'bad pick' and a 'bust'. A bad pick is when the FO executes a dumb strategy or reaches for a player when there are glaringly awesome players on the board. For example, I wouldn't call Mike Williams a bad pick - it seemed like a sure thing on draft day, and then he became a bust. Now Aaron Maybin, that was a BAD pick!

[JMF2006]

I would have to go with McCargo as the absolute worst 1st rounder but they struck gold in the 5th with Meatball

 

I told my GF during training camp that if they cut Kyle I would burn my season tickets(we actually got ticket sheets then)

 

He was out playing McCargo during training camp and should have been starting from day one.

[Steve O]

25 minutes ago, First Round Bust said:

warning this may induce vomiting:

 

 

 

90s super bowl misfit

 

Darryl Williams (and his flame ######ant jersey)

 

 

Focusing strictly on the 90's, from 92-96 the Bills had 7 second round picks (3 in 94 because of compensatory picks.) Every one was a bust, Friggin' Lonnie was the best of the bunch. Parella did have a decent career for the San Diego but was a bust for the Bills. Bucky Brooks has had a decent career as an NFL analyst. 

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

Trent Edwards was a third-round pick. You can't really put him on this list.

[Bulldog]

27 minutes ago, First Round Bust said:

warning this may induce vomiting:

 

Walt Patulski - first pick of entire draft - at least he got traded for a #2 which turned out to be Joe Delvin who played well for us for years

 

more 70s misses

 

Phil Dokes -

the Nebraska twins (LBs Rudd and Nelson)

Tom Cousineau - never signed - went to CFL and Browns after crapping big-time on Buffalo

Rueben Gant - as in can't - TE

 

80s whiffs

Booker Moore - Guillen barre disease

Tony Hunter - TE from ND taken before Jim Kelly

Perry Tuttle - beware WRs from Clemson

 

90s super bowl misfit

 

Darryl Williams (and his flame ######ant jersey)

 

20th century busts

Erik Flowers - John Butler reach

Aaron Maybin

JP Losman - not just a number 1 but we traded more pick

Leo McKelvin (first cb taken in the entire draft)

Torrell Troupe (2nd rounder taken right before Gronk)

 

 

Tom Cousineau was indeed the first overall pick in 1979 - and he never played for us - chose to play in Canada instead. While this was an incredibly bad pick in the short term (wasting the 1st overall pick - how is that even possible!). In the longer term - we maintained his NFL rights and when he wanted to leave Canada & finally play in the NFL - we then traded him to the Cleveland Browns for what was the 14th overall pick in the 1st round. That pick turned out to be Jim Kelly - so I guess in the big picture the pick was actually a good one.

[SoCal Deek]

1 hour ago, BuffaloBills1998 said:

Funny enough i had never even heard of JP Losman until he got drafted, was completely clueless as I didn’t know his college background or anything. My first reaction was Who the ***** is this guy?

I had the exact same reaction to that pick. I still have no idea what the heck they were thinking. 

[White Linen]

Choosing the wrong Josh. 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

1 hour ago, 1ManRaid said:

Is there a point to just creating a list of bad draft choices?  Do you have some intention for this thread?

He beat Phil the Thrill to it, therefore, no tortured Journalism Blogger / Radio Talk Show / Cub Reporter development.

*
And as for the subject matter, Earthquake Enyart.

Edited April 7, 2020 by Ridgewaycynic2013

[SoTier]

1 hour ago, BuffaloBills1998 said:

With the draft coming up I wanted to know some of  your guys lists on the worst players we ever drafted here.

 

mine starts off with Aaron Maybin, Mike Williams, Willis McGahee, CJ spiller, JP Losman, Trent Edwards, Dante Whitner, Erik Flowers, James Hardy, and John McCargo, EJ Manuel etc

 

Both Willis McGahee and Donte Whitner were both good players, both for the Bills and for other teams during their NFL careers, including Pro Bowl selections, so they hardly qualify for a list of "the worst players we ever drafted".  CJ Spiller also had a decent NFL career, so he doesn't belong on your list, either.  Moreover, Trent Edwards was a third round pick who wasn't even the worst third round QB the Bills ever drafted -- see Gary Marangi (1974) -- and even among the third rounders drafted since 1999/2000, there were some outright busts who never even saw the field.   

 

You need to have some valid criteria beside your personal dislike of a particular player.

[Matt_In_NH]

I think for the worst draft choices you can't just go by if they worked out or not and consider the information at the time of the choice.  For that reason Maybin jumps out to me, he was known to have a small body and a poor choice when the Bills selected him.  The Bills were fooled by some where he weighed 20 pounds more than he ever did before or since.  People called it out right away as a poor choice mainly due to his size and all that became true.  JP Losman was not a bad choice when the Bills selected him.  Trent Edwards in the 3rd round, not a bad choice, he had a lengthy NFL career.  Those guys did not become "franchise QB's" but at the time they were selected they were not bad choices.

[Beast]

18 minutes ago, skibum said:

I think it's important to distinguish between a 'bad pick' and a 'bust'. A bad pick is when the FO executes a dumb strategy or reaches for a player when there are glaringly awesome players on the board. For example, I wouldn't call Mike Williams a bad pick - it seemed like a sure thing on draft day, and then he became a bust. Now Aaron Maybin, that was a BAD pick!

 

Right.

 

20/20

 

At the time the Bills would have been ridiculed for not picking Williams....by fans and media alike.

 

But he was a huge bust.

[Nuncha]

1 hour ago, Doc Brown said:

You pretty much listed all of them since the turn of the century.  I'll add Torrell Troup and Cyrus Kouandjio.  McGahee and Watkins are in the same boat.  They had okay careers (mostly outside of Buffalo) but definitely weren't worth giving up a 1st rounder for.

Two first round picks for Samantha.

[Amaru523]

For me its McCargo and Maybin that mostly stick out as moves that were major facepalm moments when they happened.  When they traded back into the first round in 06 I got really excited, but when they announced McCargo as the pick I started looking around for Ashton Kutcher.

 

The Maybin pick infuriated me because I was really hoping for Brian Orakpo and I didn't stop shaking my head on that one for a very long time because I just couldn't understand how they could pass on Orakpo for Maybin, a guy that I knew little about except that he was generally slated for the late 1st early 2nd while Orakpo was a definite early 1st.

Edited April 7, 2020 by Amaru523

[BarleyNY]

6 minutes ago, SoTier said:

 

Both Willis McGahee and Donte Whitner were both good players, both for the Bills and for other teams during their NFL careers, including Pro Bowl selections, so they hardly qualify for a list of "the worst players we ever drafted".  CJ Spiller also had a decent NFL career, so he doesn't belong on your list, either.  Moreover, Trent Edwards was a third round pick who wasn't even the worst third round QB the Bills ever drafted -- see Gary Marangi (1974) -- and even among the third rounders drafted since 1999/2000, there were some outright busts who never even saw the field.   

 

You need to have some valid criteria beside your personal dislike of a particular player.

I’ve been a lifelong Buckeye fan, but in 2006 I was not yet a Bills fan.  I had watched a lot of Whitner, every game.  Good player, but I still remember my reaction when the Bills took him.  I literally snapped my head toward the TV and said basically this “Whitner, EIGHTH?!?!  I have no idea what the Bills are thinking.  None.  Good player, but not at eight.  They way over drafted him and left a lot of talent on the table.  Wow, I can’t believe they just did that.”

 

That was also the draft where the Browns handed Haloti Ngata to the Ravens.  I was at a draft day party in Cleveland and the whole place was celebrating Ngata still being there for the taking then went dead silent when the trade was announced.  For a sixth round pick. It still angers me.  Everyone at that draft day party would’ve drafted better than Savage that day. 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

7 minutes ago, Amaru523 said:

For me its McCargo and Maybin that mostly stick out as moves that were major facepalm moments when they happened.  When they traded back into the first round in 06 I got really excited, but when they announced McCargo as the pick I started looking around for Ashton Kutcher.

 

The Maybin pick infuriated me because I was really hoping for Brian Orakpo and I didn't stop shaking my head on that one for a very long time because I just couldn't understand how they could pass on Orakpo for Maybin, a guy that I knew little about except that he was generally slated for the late 1st early 2nd while Orakpo was a definite early 1st.

 

The McCargo pick wasn't like a luxury.  It was straight up dumb - we took whitner over ngata - then moved up for this guy.  That we somehow stumbled into Kyle Williams in the 5th is stunning.  I also remember that year thinking - i'd be fine with cutler.  JP doesn't have "it".

[SoTier]

22 minutes ago, skibum said:

I think it's important to distinguish between a 'bad pick' and a 'bust'. A bad pick is when the FO executes a dumb strategy or reaches for a player when there are glaringly awesome players on the board. For example, I wouldn't call Mike Williams a bad pick - it seemed like a sure thing on draft day, and then he became a bust. Now Aaron Maybin, that was a BAD pick!

 

Exactly right.  McGahee, Whitner, and Spiller weren't busts.  They got bad raps among Buffalo fans because the Bills drafted them instead of other players still on the board who had better careers.   Watkins wouldn't have been a bad pick if the Bills hadn't given up so much to get him.   In the case of Maybin, though, he was both a bad pick and a bust.  His physical shortcomings to be a modern NFL edge rusher were apparent well before the draft -- he was a "one trick pony" who depended on a clear line to the QB and speed for sacks -- which Dick Jauron and Russ Brandon ignored because they saw him bulked up at the Combine.

 

[SoTier]

5 minutes ago, BarleyNY said:

I’ve been a lifelong Buckeye fan, but in 2006 I was not yet a Bills fan.  I had watched a lot of Whitner, every game.  Good player, but I still remember my reaction when the Bills took him.  I literally snapped my head toward the TV and said basically this “Whitner, EIGHTH?!?!  I have no idea what the Bills are thinking.  None.  Good player, but not at eight.  They way over drafted him and left a lot of talent on the table.  Wow, I can’t believe they just did that.”

 

That was also the draft where the Browns handed Haloti Ngata to the Ravens.  I was at a draft day party in Cleveland and the whole place was celebrating Ngata still being there for the taking then went dead silent when the trade was announced.  For a sixth round pick. It still angers me.  Everyone at that draft day party would’ve drafted better than Savage that day. 

 

Whitner was hated by many Bills fans simply because of where he was drafted.  That's on  FO stupidity not on the player.  He doesn't have any choice of which team drafts him. 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

1 minute ago, SoTier said:

 

Exactly right.  McGahee, Whitner, and Spiller weren't busts.  They got bad raps among Buffalo fans because the Bills drafted them instead of other players still on the board who had better careers.   Watkins wouldn't have been a bad pick if the Bills hadn't given up so much to get him.   In the case of Maybin, though, he was both a bad pick and a bust.  His physical shortcomings to be a modern NFL edge rusher were apparent well before the draft -- he was a "one trick pony" who depended on a clear line to the QB and speed for sacks -- which Dick Jauron and Russ Brandon ignored because they saw him bulked up at the Combine.

 

 

Ehhh i think Spiller is a bust.  Injury prone, had 1 good season, and washed out quickly.  Ryan Mathews got the injury-prone tag, was drafted after, and had a much more productive career.  

[SoTier]

8 minutes ago, dneveu said:

 

The McCargo pick wasn't like a luxury.  It was straight up dumb - we took whitner over ngata - then moved up for this guy.  That we somehow stumbled into Kyle Williams in the 5th is stunning.  I also remember that year thinking - i'd be fine with cutler.  JP doesn't have "it".

 

McCargo had an injury (knee?) that he never recovered from.  Why in the world would any team trade up to take a player coming off a serious injury?   However, taking players with injury histories seems to have been a common thread during the years when Russ Brandon ran the show: Troupe and Koujandijo also had injury histories which likely compromised their NFL careers even before they were drafted.

[mjt328]

It's interesting to see the responses, and what qualifies in people's minds as a "bad" selection.

 

There are several players I've seen mentioned who were actually very productive NFL players.  CJ Spiller, Donte Whitner, Willis McGahee, Sammy Watkins, etc.

But Bills fans still consider them terrible picks because they were selected too early OR because we passed on someone really good to take them.

 

Personally, I would go with player(s) who were ALL of the above.... drafted way too early, with much better players sitting on the board, and who ended up having terrible NFL careers.  With all of that in consideration, it's really hard not to go with someone like Aaron Maybin, Erik Flowers or Torrell Troup.