Oh Sammy...I don't miss you. Pathetic effort here.

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

4 minutes ago, Captain Hindsight said:

Oh of course. The trade was the wrong move, saying that Sammy wasn't a first round talent is ridiculous tho. He would have been a top 10 pick regardless

 

Yeah.  Julio worked out... fairly well?  But i don't think I'm trading multiple firsts for a non-QB.  I know LA and Seattle did it for like, established all-pro players coming off rookie deals.  But still, you're giving up a ton of value to then pay someone a ton. 

[Captain Hindsight]

Just now, dneveu said:

 

Yeah.  Julio worked out... fairly well?  But i don't think I'm trading multiple firsts for a non-QB.  I know LA and Seattle did it for like, established all-pro players coming off rookie deals.  But still, you're giving up a ton of value to then pay someone a ton. 

Julio worked out because they had Matt Ryan. If they Bills made that trade with Josh Allen instead of EJ, it might have worked. But it was doubling down on a bad pick and its why Whaley isn't working in the NFL anymore

[Doc]

It still pisses me off that they traded-away picks to trade up and get this guy.  When there were better receivers they passed-up.

[ColoradoBills]

5 minutes ago, Doc said:

It still pisses me off that they traded-away picks to trade up and get this guy.  When there were better receivers they passed-up.

 

Bills used 2 1st round and 1 4th round picks to draft him.

I would put his total worth as the one 4th rounder.

[Fan in Chicago]

1 hour ago, dave mcbride said:

Nearly impossible to predict injury. He was healthy in college and one of the best college receivers I've ever seen. He didn't pan out, but he was 100 percent a surefire first round talent. He has flashed it at times too, but he has so had so many nagging injuries -- hamstrings, thigh, ribs, ankle, etc. -- over the years that it doesn't show up in the stats.  

Only point I agree with is the injuries but I doubt they are all because he is inherently injury-prone. Some of it has to be fitness and in general how he takes care of his body (see Brady for opposite end). 

And the scrap heap is littered with 1st round picks who had lot of talent and showed it in college. One job of talent evaluators must be judging of the intangibles that can translate these into actual production in the NFL. I blame the (then) Bills FO for drafting him and Watkins for then not committing himself to his craft. 

I correct my earlier post - he is a bust

[BRH]

Keep workin' y'all little job, Sammy.

[BuffaloBill]

I know it an impossible debate but the trade up for Watkins is in my mind the worst draft move the Bills have ever made. The guy was never anything close to a game breaker talent.

[buffalostu2]

12 hours ago, Augie said:

 

He didn’t alligator arm it for fear of getting hit. There was no danger involved.  He just lost the ball. It happens. 

Didn't he also fumble away the game?

[Sugar High JA17]

12 hours ago, Augie said:

 

He didn’t alligator arm it for fear of getting hit. There was no danger involved.  He just lost the ball. It happens. 

There was no danger involved? i Question that!

The setup seems incredibly dangerous at Hard Rock stadium The wall is so close to the end zone.

sprinting towards a deep ball in the back of the end zone (which in the NFL can mean upwards of 20 mph) it's inevitable they will collide with the barrier at a high speed. Has to be on the mind of Watkins in this case...With all his past injuries

[SirAndrew]

52 minutes ago, Sugar High JA17 said:

There was no danger involved? i Question that!

The setup seems incredibly dangerous at Hard Rock stadium The wall is so close to the end zone.

sprinting towards a deep ball in the back of the end zone (which in the NFL can mean upwards of 20 mph) it's inevitable they will collide with the barrier at a high speed. Has to be on the mind of Watkins in this case...With all his past injuries

Watkins played an awful game, I don’t have any excuses for him, but that setup is crazy. The league is all about player safety, yet they extend seating that close to the end zone. There’s absolutely no need for that trashy looking seating add on. You can clearly see where the original seating is located, but they just had to sell high end tickets under the premise of giving fans field level views. 

[benderbender]

13 hours ago, JohnNord said:

I love how people will defend Sammy by saying “he got a ring.”  So did UB’s Demone Harris.  Doesn’t mean he’s a great player 

I meant it by saying that his motivation is gone. He's made a good amount of money. He's got a ring. Aside from personal/professional pride, which he didn't seem to have in Buffalo, it appears to me like he's got nothing to play for besides a check. He's injured more than he's healthy s and still manages to get paid so he's found the formula that works for him. Good for him I guess.

Edited November 12, 2021 by benderbender

[JohnNord]

19 minutes ago, benderbender said:

I meant it by saying that his motivation is gone. He's made a good amount of money. He's got a ring. Aside from personal/professional pride, which he didn't seem to have in Buffalo, it appears to me like he's got nothing to play for besides a check. He's injured more than he's healthy s and still manages to get paid so he's found the formula that works for him. Good for him I guess.

Gotcha… some people will try to use the fact that he won a ring as proof that he was a great player.  For me, he was one of the most disappointing draft picks of the past 20 years.  Taking Sammy was so I’ll advised and really set the franchise back for a few years until Beane and McDermott could clean up the mess

2 hours ago, BuffaloBill said:

I know it an impossible debate but the trade up for Watkins is in my mind the worst draft move the Bills have ever made. The guy was never anything close to a game breaker talent.

I don’t know how you can argue otherwise, though some Bills fans will feed you a million excuses.  I feel that Sammy was sold to the fan base as a J’Marr Chase type WR, and his impact was no where close.  He’s underwhelmed with every team he’s played for.  

[thronethinker]

2 hours ago, Sugar High JA17 said:

There was no danger involved? i Question that!

The setup seems incredibly dangerous at Hard Rock stadium The wall is so close to the end zone.

sprinting towards a deep ball in the back of the end zone (which in the NFL can mean upwards of 20 mph) it's inevitable they will collide with the barrier at a high speed. Has to be on the mind of Watkins in this case...With all his past injuries

But there are clearly yellow warning stripes 1 foot away from the wall, this is good enough warning in my mind. 

[JohnNord]

3 hours ago, Captain Hindsight said:

Julio worked out because they had Matt Ryan. If they Bills made that trade with Josh Allen instead of EJ, it might have worked. But it was doubling down on a bad pick and its why Whaley isn't working in the NFL anymore

QB was a factor for sure.  But so was Sammy’s effort and mindset.  He admitted to “partying” every night and came to practice hung over.  While very talented, I think there’s something about lack of dedication and work ethic that has prevented him achieving more.  
 

Take a look at his career stats - they are pretty bad

[cwater10]

I so loved the Watkins pick and the trade that set the table for it.  

 

I was so wrong.  Wow...  It"s comical (sort of?) to look back back now at how heavily invested they were in this pick.   One would assume that they scouted and vetted Sammy at length, and either didn't pick up on or maybe just didn't care about the reality that Sammy was a young man so deeply and so clearly troubled, that he was only a couple of years away from conversations with lizard people and spending time outside of his body...  Geez...  

 

Nothing personal lizard people, but I will never publicly acknowledge you...  OK?

[Captain Hindsight]

13 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

QB was a factor for sure.  But so was Sammy’s effort and mindset.  He admitted to “partying” every night and came to practice hung over.  While very talented, I think there’s something about lack of dedication and work ethic that has prevented him achieving more.  
 

Take a look at his career stats - they are pretty bad

All fair points. To say he wasnt a 1st round talent is ridiculous tho. If the Bills didn't take him somebody would have and very high

[Doc]

8 minutes ago, Captain Hindsight said:

All fair points. To say he wasnt a 1st round talent is ridiculous tho. If the Bills didn't take him somebody would have and very high

 

Probably, but that would just mean he would have still been a 1st round pick.  He still wouldn't have been a 1st round talent.

[Solomon Grundy]

3 hours ago, BuffaloBill said:

I know it an impossible debate but the trade up for Watkins is in my mind the worst draft move the Bills have ever made. The guy was never anything close to a game breaker talent.

I’m gonna say Erik Flowers or Mike Williams 

[cwater10]

3 hours ago, BuffaloBill said:

I know it an impossible debate but the trade up for Watkins is in my mind the worst draft move the Bills have ever made. The guy was never anything close to a game breaker talent.

Impossible debate?  Possibly so, but definitely fertile ground for some nostalgic palms to the forehead.  We have a few beauties to choose from.  How do we dismiss Maybin, Patulski, Flowers, M. Williams, and even Willis McGahee for a curious move?  But for pure boneheadedness, given the big picture, yeah...  the Watkins trade/pick looks sufficiently horrible in the rear view mirror to merit the top of the hit list.

 

Still, my personal favorite and close runner up blew up in their face immediately...  To have the #1 overall, pick a linebacker (Tom Cousineau), refuse to pay him, and then run him out of town, (even out of the country) before he ever plays a down...  that will live in infamy in my Bills psyche as the worst of all Bills draft moments or memories...   At least they somehow came out of that same draft with Jerry Butler, Fred Smerlas, Jim Haslett, Jeff Nixon and Rod Kush.  So typically Billsy Charles Dickens of them!

Edited November 12, 2021 by cwater10

[Malazan]

4 hours ago, dneveu said:

 

Yeah.  Julio worked out... fairly well?  But i don't think I'm trading multiple firsts for a non-QB.  I know LA and Seattle did it for like, established all-pro players coming off rookie deals.  But still, you're giving up a ton of value to then pay someone a ton. 

 

..and Seattle is regretting that trade hard. On top of it, giving up those 1sts meant they had to pay him as one of the top at his position instead of just letting him walk and he's a very limited player who has to be schemed into success. It's about as bad of a trade as it could be for them. 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Malazan