machine gun kelly Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 15 minutes ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said: I'm not so sure about that as even with Wilson they likely would have had a hard time surrounding him with talent. Could see Wilson too once his rookie contract was up saying, nice knowing you guys and bolting. Yes we could have franchised him, but only so long before it got too costly, or some other team made a big trade offer for him. Not sure that would have happened either as with a weak team around him Wilson may not have looked as good as he has to attract any big offers. Bottom line IMO, as you said with Nix and Whaley making the choices, we still may have had an overall mess, maybe a little better, repeated 8-8 seasons which could sneak into playoff some years, but also would have been strong enough to not get as good draft picks either. Fair points Ed. I’m not a computer so I looked up some of the players and since 2012 when Wilson was drafted, at different years there several overlaps that with the right QB, we could have been better. Spiller, Fredex, Eric Wood, Stevie J., etc. On defense Mario Williams, Hughes, Kyle, Gilmore, and so on. I even liked to a degree P. Brown, and Ragland. Aaron Williams, and can keep going. You’re right, we probably would make some wildcard games, maybe nothing deep, but we wouldn’t have been a laughing stock compared to the Browns and Lions for 17 years. It might have only been 12 or 13. I still maintain this administration and coaching staff and players chosen from said group makes it much more palatable.
Phil The Thrill Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 It should be noted that Buddy was also rumored to be very interested in drafting Tim Tebow in the 2nd or 3rd round and was “crushed” when Denver grabbed him in around 1 1
Ridgewaycynic2013 Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 Just now, NewEra said: Zzzzzz Because of the subject matter? Or because Buddy Nix is involved? ? 2
Ed_Formerly_of_Roch Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 1 minute ago, machine gun kelly said: Fair points Ed. I’m not a computer so I looked up some of the players and since 2012 when Wilson was drafted, at different years there several overlaps that with the right QB, we could have been better. Spiller, Fredex, Eric Wood, Stevie J., etc. On defense Mario Williams, Hughes, Kyle, Gilmore, and so on. I even liked to a degree P. Brown, and Ragland. Aaron Williams, and can keep going. You’re right, we probably would make some wildcard games, maybe nothing deep, but we wouldn’t have been a laughing stock compared to the Browns and Lions for 17 years. It might have only been 12 or 13. I still maintain this administration and coaching staff and players chosen from said group makes it much more palatable. It could be 100% of the issue was QB and with Wilson everyone else would have looked better. I've always said more often front offices and coaches look good because they got lucky and drafted/signed the right QB. For the same reasons if Josh Allen does end up a failure, I wouldn't even think if getting rid of Beane or McD as getting the right QB is more luck than anything. 32 teams passed on Wilson twice and maybe half a 3rd time including the greatest of all time BB, teams passed5 times on Brady. Just seems for all the scouting done, there's still a large amount they get all wrong. 2
Kirby Jackson Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 (edited) 41 minutes ago, Phil The Thrill said: Yes and it’s a lot of revisionist history for Lee and Nix here. Of course, Buddy wanted Russell Wilson! “I promise we really liked Brady in that draft too. We were set on picking him but the Pats snatched him up right before us.” This is so ridiculous. Wilson and Dak went in the 3rd and 4th rounds. The Bills saying that they liked them after passing on them multiple times is annoying. Just own it and admit you missed. Edited July 22, 2020 by Kirby Jackson 2
Mark Vader Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 20 minutes ago, Phil The Thrill said: A lot of revisionist history here from Buddy Nix. If he loved Russel Wilson as much as he said he did, why wouldn’t he take him before the 4th round? Why would he take TJ “FN” Graham ahead of him? It’s because he didn’t value Russ as much as he wants you to believe back then. Also Doug Whaley taking Cardale Jones over Dak Prescott. TERRIBLE. Yet there are so many stans in this group that will say Nix and Whaley were good GM’s. They were horrible and screwed this franchise Prescott was drafted before we took Jones. I get what you mean though. I wanted the Bills to draft Prescott, but apparently the Cowboys wanted him more.
Phil The Thrill Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 12 minutes ago, Mark Vader said: Prescott was drafted before we took Jones. I get what you mean though. I wanted the Bills to draft Prescott, but apparently the Cowboys wanted him more. sorry if you read the article, it said that Lee tried to convince Whaley to take Prescott but his heart was set on Cardale Jones. That’s what I was referring to 1
mjt328 Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 31 minutes ago, Phil The Thrill said: A lot of revisionist history here from Buddy Nix. If he loved Russel Wilson as much as he said he did, why wouldn’t he take him before the 4th round? Why would he take TJ “FN” Graham ahead of him? It’s because he didn’t value Russ as much as he wants you to believe back then. Yep. Total revisionist history. It's not about "liking/loving" a player. It's about properly valuing that player, and then actually utilizing your resources to draft them. If Buddy Nix truly thought Russell Wilson was going to be a franchise QB, he wouldn't have given him a 4th Round grade. Reminds me of Bill Polian now claiming he had a 1st Round grade on Tom Brady. Now I love Polian and what he did for the Bills. But that is total B.S. He may have seen potential in Brady. But he clearly saw more potential in all the other guys he drafted first.
Coach Tuesday Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 Report: people who got fired deserved it. 1 1
GunnerBill Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 I remember at the time thinking the Bills really liked Wilson. They met him numerous times and he was a consensus 3rd/4th rounder. Selecting a deep threat wide receiver before a guy you think could be your quarterback is rank stupidity. The story on Dak is different. The Bills had one coach who liked him, they did not as an organisation love Dak. Prescott went before we picked and I remember people saying at the time "do you think we'd have taken him?" I always suspected the answer was "no they'd have taken Jones" and this pretty much confirms it. 23 minutes ago, mjt328 said: Yep. Total revisionist history. It's not about "liking/loving" a player. It's about properly valuing that player, and then actually utilizing your resources to draft them. If Buddy Nix truly thought Russell Wilson was going to be a franchise QB, he wouldn't have given him a 4th Round grade. Reminds me of Bill Polian now claiming he had a 1st Round grade on Tom Brady. Now I love Polian and what he did for the Bills. But that is total B.S. He may have seen potential in Brady. But he clearly saw more potential in all the other guys he drafted first. I don't think it is revisionist history. All the signs at the time pointed to the Bills really liking Wilson. What it was then, is now and forever will be is just a complete organisational process failure to leave a Quarterback you really like on the board in round 3 to take a receiver who wasn't even an every down player. That doesn't just tell you it was a man making a terrible decision... it tells you it was an organisation that had clearly failed to identify what it takes to succeed which resulted in a catalogue of bad decision making that started with passing on Russell Wilson and went through releasing Fitz, signing Kolb, drafting EJ and signing Orton out of retirement. 2
PromoTheRobot Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 (edited) Well I feel better knowing this. Don't you? Edited July 22, 2020 by PromoTheRobot 1
Bill from NYC Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 I believe every word of this. I even wanted the Bills to draft Dak after seeing him play against Alabama. It was obvious that he was a good QB. He had a DWI not long before the draft and all reports said that that this was out of character. What is hard to believe is that there are still Bills Fans who defend Whaley. 2
BillsFan4 Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 They passed on both player, what? 3 times? It’s like saying that you were going to draft Brady in the 7th. Nobody gives a ****! ?
GunnerBill Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 3 minutes ago, Bill from NYC said: I believe every word of this. I even wanted the Bills to draft Dak after seeing him play against Alabama. It was obvious that he was a good QB. He had a DWI not long before the draft and all reports said that that this was out of character. What is hard to believe is that there are still Bills Fans who defend Whaley. Dak was criminally underrated coming out. I never understood why people were so low on him. He still is by most of this board today FWIW.
Bangarang Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 “I wanted to draft a great QB but chose a garbage WR instead.” It doesn’t matter what you wanted to do. Your reputation is based on what you actually did.
MassHog Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 No they didnt, if they wanted to draft Wilson they would have drafted him. The guy fell to the 3rd round, and everyone knew how talented he was coming into the league
SoTier Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 1 hour ago, BringBackFergy said: Had we drafted Russ Wilson we would have missed out on the acrobatic catches of TJ Graham (the only WR I’ve ever seen jump three feet in the air to attempt catching a ball thrown at his shins). They even traded up to "grab" Graham before anybody was stupid enough to do so. Wilson was easily the second best QB prospect in the 2012 draft behind Andrew Luck, and the absolute only knock on him was that he wasn't 6'2" or more. He wasn't well known at NC State but he played well enough there to merit a first round slot but at Wisconsin, he absolutely lit up the Big Ten, including leading the Badgers to a Rose Bowl win. Thinking he'd last past the third round was absolutely stupid. 1
Rochesterfan Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 I just do not think we would have gotten any where near the player Wilson became - even if we drafted him rather than Graham. That was the last year of the Gailey/Fitzpatrick duo. There was no way that Gailey would have let Wilson even sniff the field. His “complicated” timing offense was supposed to get better with experience in the system and Fitz had experience and brains. Therefore - instead of having a shot at competing like in Seattle - he would of been relegated to back-up year 1. Then the team changed direction and with a new Head Coach and de facto GM - drafted their QB of the future. Now here is where maybe Wilson beats out EJ, but does Marrone and Whaley still push EJ over people and therefore Wilson gets pushed down. Who knows, but I am not sure that Wilson becomes a big difference maker with that staff and that team or that he ever gets freedom to become the Wilson we see today. I truly believe for many of these players the situation is just as (or more important) than talent. You need someone that trusts and lets you develop fully and that would never have been here at that time. Now Dak would have been interesting. That would have made so much more sense than Jones, but the chances that either excelled n this environment at that time was slim. I liked Dak for exactly what he brings to Dallas and would have loved some of that here, but it didn’t happen.
Fan in Chicago Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 2 hours ago, BillsMafi$ said: https://billswire.usatoday.com/2020/07/22/buffalo-bills-david-lee-claims-wanted-draft-russell-wilson-dak-prescott/ interesting if true If he is so smart evaluating QBs, why didn't he provide his opinion of Josh Allen? Or will he wait till Allen retires?
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