Son of Satan, Drinker of Babies' Blood not Pleased with Philly Pick - Front Office Rift

[Royale with Cheese]

On 5/3/2021 at 12:36 PM, YoloinOhio said:

How was this found out? Fascinating 

I remember this!  A mod told me so I can vouch for it.

[essential]

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2021/5/4/22419045/philadelphia-eagles-detroit-lions-sniped-pick-alim-mcneill-nfl-draft

 

Eagles confirm Alim McNeill was a target before Detroit Lions snagged him
Alim McNeill was very nearly a Philadelphia Eagle, but Philly took a costly risk.

[DrDawkinstein]

On 5/3/2021 at 3:14 PM, dave mcbride said:

His cardinal sin was his coaching hire. Williams was terrible. 

 

On 5/3/2021 at 3:18 PM, Rico said:

Not good, but I would say extending Bledsoe after 2003 was THE major blunder. In both moves, his hands were probably tied by Ralph.

 

23 hours ago, Arm of Harm said:

 

On the one hand, I agree with you that a GM's incompetence does not necessarily imply a family relationship with Satan. On the other hand, Donahoe's incompetence is about far more than just one draft pick:

 

1) In 2001, TD could have drafted Drew Brees. Instead of which, he traded down for Nate Clements, CB. Clements went first contract + one year and out.

 

2) Prior to the 2002 season, TD traded away his first round pick in 2003 for Drew Bledsoe. Bledsoe spent 3 years as the Bills' starting QB before getting released.

 

3) In the 2002 draft Donahoe used the 4th overall pick to take Mike Williams, RT. Williams was among the biggest busts in franchise history. Donahoe gained pretty much nothing from the 2002 draft. 

 

4) In 2003, Donahoe used a first round pick to take Willis McGahee, RB. McGahee failed to provide a significant upgrade over Travis Henry, whom Donahoe had drafted in the 2nd round of 2001.

 

5) In the 2004 draft, Donahoe chose not to trade up for Ben Roethlisberger, because he thought the price too expensive. Instead he stayed at 13th overall and took Lee Evans (a decent speed WR). He then traded back into the first for Losman, using his 2nd round pick from 2004 and his first round pick from 2005.

 

6) Had the Losman trade not occurred, the Bills could have drafted Aaron Rodgers in 2005. But the Losman acquisition meant that they were unable (no first rounder in 2005) and unwilling to do so. 

 

7) As for Losman himself, there was nothing to suggest he'd be a good QB beyond his good physical tools. A QB like that is a prototype of a first round bust. 

 

8 ) Somewhere along the way, Donahoe chose to end contract negotiations with Antoine Winfield, CB. Winfield was a first round pick and a multiple Pro Bowl player who had a 14 year career. Only the first five of those years were spent in Buffalo, due to first-contract-and-out. The money Donahoe saved by not extending Winfield he used to overpay aging players such as Troy Vincent and Lawyer Milloy. 

 

9) Donahoe made two bad head coaching hires: Gregg Williams and (later) Mike Mularkey. The Williams hire was especially boneheaded, because the Bills had an outstanding defensive scheme in place when Donahoe took over. He should have hired an offensively oriented head coach while keeping that defensive scheme. The defensive scheme Williams installed was significantly worse than the one it replaced. 

 

23 hours ago, Billy Claude said:

 

 

Don't forget getting rid of Ted Washington because Gregg Williams didn't like fat guys and essentially wrecking a top of the league defense.

 

 

 

 

23 hours ago, ExWNYer said:

 

He was also responsible for that abomination of a uniform...the dark navy with silver and mismatching light blue piping and the white with the Titans-style square blue shoulders. He should have been flogged for that decision alone.

 

 

 

 

 

Man this is a great (horrible?) list.

 

I'll play too!

 

Letting Pat Williams walk to the Vikings over LESS THAN $1M difference in contract.

[Billy Claude]

1 hour ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man this is a great (horrible?) list.

 

I'll play too!

 

Letting Pat Williams walk to the Vikings over LESS THAN $1M difference in contract.

 

 

Was Ted Washington and Pat Williams both Tom Donahue?  Which one was it who supposedly went to Donahue's office and begged to stay with the Bills.

 

 

 

[DrDawkinstein]

2 hours ago, Billy Claude said:

 

 

Was Ted Washington and Pat Williams both Tom Donahue?  Which one was it who supposedly went to Donahue's office and begged to stay with the Bills.

 

 

 

 

Washington was allowed to walk in the offseason Donahoe took over, so they are both on him one way or another.

 

Pat was the one who went to his office and begged for them to match the Vikings offer so he could stay in Buffalo. The difference was about $750,000 iirc. Tom said no, Pat left for Minn and teamed up with Kevin Williams to become one the NFL's most formidable interior DLs. Meanwhile, ol Whitey decided to pair up Sam Adams with.. *checks notes* Tim.. Anderson...

 

[turftoe]

I can just hear Donahoe. "OK you little weasel...how bout I fist bump your face! I should be in charge here! I was making draft picks when you were still nursing on your momma's lap!"

[BigDingus]

On 5/3/2021 at 12:19 PM, frostbitmic said:

I'm pretty sure that was Beast ... It was one of the funniest threads on either board.

 

That couldn't have been Beast... as much as Beast posted (and as long as many of his posts were), he'd have no time to run an NFL team.

Unless... that explains why he wasn't able to run an NFL team. He spent all his time on the official Bills message board lol

[BigDingus]

On 5/3/2021 at 4:02 PM, Arm of Harm said:

 

On the one hand, I agree with you that a GM's incompetence does not necessarily imply a family relationship with Satan. On the other hand, Donahoe's incompetence is about far more than just one draft pick:

 

1) In 2001, TD could have drafted Drew Brees. Instead of which, he traded down for Nate Clements, CB. Clements went first contract + one year and out.

 

 

Tbf, Clements was pretty good. We could've taken a QB the following years like you said, just never ended up doing it. It's pretty much what McDermott & Whaley did with Mahomes. Traded down instead, took a CB, & opted to get a QB in a later draft. Only this time the moved worked.

But yeah, I hated how we were a farm team for decent DB's. Anytime a rookie panned out, we never resigned them. Drafting McGahee when having a Pro Bowl RB already was complete crap, as just a few years later we'd use yet another 1st round pick on another RB with Marshawn Lynch...followed by a couple years & ANOTHER RB in the 1st with CJ Spiller.

That was infuriating.

[machine gun kelly]

On 5/3/2021 at 12:09 PM, Jauronimo said:

https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2021/4/30/22413462/eagles-howie-roseman-tom-donahoe-nfl-draft-2021-philadelphia-milton-williams-defensive-tackle-dt

 

Tom Donahoe visibly frustrated with Howie Roseman who is too pleased with himself to notice.  The Iggles off-season has been mired with rumors of a total disconnect between owner Lurie and GM Roseman and the rest of the front office and coaching staff.  This will only add more fuel to the fire.  

 

https://theathletic.com/2506187/2021/04/12/paranoia-mismanagement-and-office-politics-inside-the-eagles-downfall-under-jeffrey-lurie-howie-roseman/

 

J, you ate you’re wheatties in this title.  I just saw it and laughed my arms off.

 

Cant Donahue just go away to some cave like Vincent Price in the Brady Bunch Hawaii episode.  I hate that cocky tool.

 

The Eagles are starting to give the Texans a run for their $ on their utter dysfunction.

[Lv-Bills]

Yes, and while something like this seems to be somewhat insignificant, it was just more of an arrogant SOB coming in here and disrespecting the culture of the Bills.  The color scheme alone on the uniforms was pretty much non-Bills like.  Add to it that the uniforms were awful.  Even more, his head coach came in touting himself as having a great defense, better than Buffalo's at the time (which it really wasn't, the Titans were able to beat up on bad QB's for a while), all the way to confiscating signs at the stadium.

 

Donahoe came in arrogant, and never connected with the fans or city here.  He was a miserable failure, even though there was a team or two of his that wasn't nearly as bad as a lot of our drought teams.  He did even spend some money.  But it didn't matter.  My god, I hated that era of Bills football, and he was the main person that sucked the life right out of this franchise for a while.

 

I can't believe he's still in the league.    

Edited May 5, 2021 by Lv-Bills

[Mark Vader]

I opened this thread because I was trying to figure out what Bill Bellichick has to do with the Eagles.

[TheFunPolice]

Donahoe's tenure was so ugly... 

 

I remember it being said that people in the building were rooting for him to fail because they hated him so much by the end. Just an awful environment. 

 

I think what did him in was tangling with Mr. Wilson. Ralph ran the show and when he said something it got done or you were done. 

[Buftex]

On 5/3/2021 at 1:15 PM, bills_fan said:

He wrecked the Bills entire culture that was built in the 90sby Marv and Bill.  All that success was flushed by Donohoe and Williams. The organization became dysfunctional and, in the end, Donohoe became Captain Queeg with the strawberries.  It was awful to watch and sit through.  Knowing the team you give heart and soul to is just going down the drain and there is nothing you can do to stop it.   

Unpopular opinion:  The Bills were much more watchable when TD was at the helm.  Marv, as much as I love him, was the real disaster of a GM.  Donohoe was good at maneuvering the salary cap, and brought some good talent to Buffalo... I would say the same for Whaley, though he wasn't as good at the cap stuff.  But, if either men could have found a QB (and if Whaley was ever allowed to hire his own coach), they might be remembered much more fondly.  As the great Dick Jauron (Marv's disaster of a HC), "winning is hard".  For the last 25 years, this league has been extremely QB dependent  

Edited May 5, 2021 by Buftex

[Rico]

11 minutes ago, Buftex said:

Unpopular opinion:  The Bills were much more watchable when TD was at the helm.  Marv, as much as I love him, was the real disaster of a GM.  Donohoe was good at maneuvering the salary cap, and brought some good talent to Buffalo... I would say the same for Whaley, though he wasn't as good at the cap stuff.  But, if either men could have found a QB (and if Whaley was ever allowed to hire his own coach), they might be remembered much more fondly.  As the great Dick Jauron (Marv's disaster of a HC), "winning is hard".  For the last 25 years, this league has been extremely QB dependent  

I hear you, but to me, 2003 after the 1st 2 games was still by far the most unwatchable season for me.

TD was a good football guy ruined by Ralph.

[TheFunPolice]

Donohoe found out first hand that Mr. Wilson ran his businesses with an iron fist. Total gentleman outside of business, but when it came to doing deals he didn't lose many. 

 

Just ask the Toronto people, who thought they were taking advantage of a guy in his 80's to eventually get his team. 

 

Instead, Mr. Wilson got 120 million of their dollars and they got basically nothing in return except a flop of a series that nobody in Toronto cared about. 

 

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by TheFunPolice

[DrDawkinstein]

The other classic Donahoe moment is the "Save your postage" response that my buddies and I still quote to each other...

 

https://buffalonews.com/news/donahoe-gives-bills-a-vote-of-confidence/article_17b3956a-7603-51f1-8488-1d3382b8b97f.html

Quote

Buffalo Bills President and General Manager Tom Donahoe was not aware there's a fan petition floating around the Internet that supports the firing of head coach Gregg Williams.

 

What would he say to the petitioners who would mail a copy to One Bills Drive?

 

"Tell them to save the postage," Donahoe said.

 

 

[Arm of Harm]

7 hours ago, BigDingus said:

 

Tbf, Clements was pretty good. We could've taken a QB the following years like you said, just never ended up doing it. It's pretty much what McDermott & Whaley did with Mahomes. Traded down instead, took a CB, & opted to get a QB in a later draft. Only this time the moved worked.

But yeah, I hated how we were a farm team for decent DB's. Anytime a rookie panned out, we never resigned them. Drafting McGahee when having a Pro Bowl RB already was complete crap, as just a few years later we'd use yet another 1st round pick on another RB with Marshawn Lynch...followed by a couple years & ANOTHER RB in the 1st with CJ Spiller.

That was infuriating.

After Clements’ rookie deal was over, then GM Marv said that he’d negotiate an extension for Clements, except that Clements “wouldn’t like” the extension the Bills offered. So instead Marv slapped the franchise tag on him, to give Clements the chance to prove himself. Clements played very well during that franchise tag year. Once that franchise tag year was over he then signed a massive contract with the 49ers. A contract he never came close to living up to. 

[teef]

25 minutes ago, Arm of Harm said:

After Clements’ rookie deal was over, then GM Marv said that he’d negotiate an extension for Clements, except that Clements “wouldn’t like” the extension the Bills offered. So instead Marv slapped the franchise tag on him, to give Clements the chance to prove himself. Clements played very well during that franchise tag year. Once that franchise tag year was over he then signed a massive contract with the 49ers. A contract he never came close to living up to. 

At that time, wasn’t it the biggest contract for a defensive player, or maybe a defensive back?

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

48 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

What would he say to the petitioners who would mail a copy to One Bills Drive?

 

"Tell them to save the postage," Donahoe said.

 

 

He was afraid Ralph might get ahold of it.

[DrDawkinstein]

31 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

 

He was afraid Ralph might get ahold of it.

 

So he could steam off the stamps and re-use them. Ralph is cheap!