Biggest Bills Bust Post 1980

[Milanos Milano]

I’m going to go with “modern” times NFL simply because prior to 1980, talent was fairly sporadic and a little more “forgiving” . Nowadays it’s fairly inexcusable to miss horribly on a 1st round pick. So who gets your vote as worse draft pick? 

Maybin was incredibly brutal to watch, but Williams and Flowers were ultra bad as well. 

 

 

[Milanos Milano]

Just now, chongli said:

What, no Mike Williams??

Williams is there. #4 option 

[chongli]

Just now, IronMaidenBills said:

Williams is there. #4 option 

 

Oh duh!I I must learn to read. lol!

[Milanos Milano]

1 minute ago, chongli said:

 

Oh duh!I I must learn to read. lol!

Lol it’s all good. Not sure how anyone could possibly forget him lol, he is my close second. For whatever reason, I will always consider Maybin the worst, it was just embarrassing watching him run around. 

[chongli]

Yep, Maybin was bad. I can't disagree with your pick, but Mikey gets my vote. Total waste of a prime no. 4 pick. Ugh.

[Charles Romes]

Maybin (Penn State) was picked when Russ Brandon actually had the title of GM, and I really think Brandon himself made the pick to market the team to northern PA, just like he was marketing the team to Rochester with the training camp and to the Golden Horseshoe with the Toronto series. 

[Motorin']

JP Losman, especially considering it cost us the next year's 1st round pick while Aaron Rodgers was still available.

[Milanos Milano]

10 minutes ago, Motorin' said:

JP Losman, especially considering it cost us the next year's 1st round pick while Aaron Rodgers was still available.

While I think Losman was bad, I don’t feel like he was talentless. I feel like he was ruined to some extent. He had a mean long ball, but sadly he couldn’t piece it together. Those Evans TDs were beautiful. 

Edited April 25, 2022 by IronMaidenBills

[RyanC883]

3 minutes ago, Motorin' said:

JP Losman, especially considering it cost us the next year's 1st round pick while Aaron Rodgers was still available.

 

in isolation I’d say Maybin, but given the context here it’s hard to argue against Lousman, although the Bills were so dysfunctional then who knows how Rodgers would have done?

@Motorin'  who are u thinking of with the “other” vote??!!

Edited April 25, 2022 by RyanC883

[BillsShredder83]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_NFL_Draft

I guess the best saving grace of the Maybin pick was it being a pretty terrible draft class anyways.

 

Dareus draft we picked what 3rd? And it's littered with hall of famers

Edited April 25, 2022 by BillsShredder83

[Mark Vader]

15 minutes ago, BillsShredder83 said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_NFL_Draft

I guess the best saving grace of the Maybin pick was it being a pretty terrible draft class anyways.

 

Dareus draft we picked what 3rd? And it's littered with hall of famers

We did get Eric Wood that year

[Peace Frog]

I'm going with Mike Williams only because the expectation for him was so high based on his college tape.  Maybin sucked but he was a one year wonder at Penn so I'm not surprised he face-planted in the NFL but Williams was expected to be a fixture on the O-line for 10+ years.

[John from Riverside]

It’s absolutely maybin Williams actually was able to start

[Dan Darragh]

Maybin, because the Bills became the laughingstock of 31 NFL front offices. I doubt anyone else had him ranked above a 3rd rounder.

 

By this token Manuel deserves a mention, although I remember the panic about getting a QB in a draft that had no legitimate starter candidates. At least if we'd taken Geno we'd have taken a guy who stayed around the league a long time.  But I think EJ was a stand-up guy and he took the criticism like a man.

[BillsfaninChicago]

Based on what we gave up to get him and who we could have gotten if DonaDOH! Had just been patient after the move up for Rothlishburger fell through I actually say Losman. The 3 picks lost including a 2nd and a 1st that we could used to get Rodgers would most certainly have ended drought much sooner than 2017.

[unbillievable]

Is it really a "bust" if everyone expected him to do nothing?

 

 

[SoTier]

4 hours ago, Charles Romes said:

Maybin (Penn State) was picked when Russ Brandon actually had the title of GM, and I really think Brandon himself made the pick to market the team to northern PA, just like he was marketing the team to Rochester with the training camp and to the Golden Horseshoe with the Toronto series. 

 

I voted for Maybin, too.  I never thought of the Penn State angle, but it's definitely a possibility.  I just thought that Brandon let Dick Jauron be his talent evaluator and Jauron loved undersized defenders, so a tweener DE who was too small to knock OLers out of his way and too slow to loop around them was just up Jauron''s alley.  

 

Certainly, Manuel was drafted in 2013 solely to put butts in the seats, so he is my second choice.  He was a classic "reach": a third or fourth round talent taken in the first round because the team "needed" a player at that position.  Every time I hear one of these draftniks on TV advocating for Detroit or Carolina to take a QB because they might not be drafting this high again, I cringe.  Drafting a QB with the #2 or #6 pick just because you need a QB even though he's not a top 5 or top 10 quality prospect is sheer stupidity.  Drafting a second or third round talent high in the first round isn't going to make him better.  

 

Mike Williams is third on my list, mostly because I think Williams was totally mismanaged by the Bills.  Williams played RT in college, and he was built like a prototypical pro RT at the time: a massive man who opened holes for inside runners.   The Bills tried to turn him into a LT, a position for which he wasn't physically suited, because that's what they needed.   I think he played well on the right side as a rookie, but his play tailed off when he was put at left tackle because he simply wasn't quick or agile enough to play there.  In fact, he probably would have had a decent career if he'd been drafted later specifically to play guard.  At the end of his career with Washington, Williams did switch to guard but his career was cut short by a medical issue IIRC.

[BillsFanForever19]

The thing with Aaron Maybin is that he was always looked at as a "boom or bust" prospect when we took him with the 11th pick. He was a one year wonder and only played two years of College.

 

Mike Williams was considered a "can't miss" prospect with All Pro potential and we took him 4th overall.

 

Maybin's running away with it and to me, it's obviously Mike Williams and it's not even close. 

Edited April 26, 2022 by BillsFanForever19

[SoTier]

1 hour ago, BillsfaninChicago said:

Based on what we gave up to get him and who we could have gotten if DonaDOH! Had just been patient after the move up for Rothlishburger fell through I actually say Losman. The 3 picks lost including a 2nd and a 1st that we could used to get Rodgers would most certainly have ended drought much sooner than 2017.

 

What makes you think that Aaron Rodgers would have been anything but a mediocre QB on the Bills in the 2005-2009 period?  Mularkey couldn't get much out of Pro Bowler Drew Bledsoe in 2004-2005 and Jauron seemed to have a pathological dislike for talented players who didn't toe his play-not-to-lose-by-too-much line.  Captain Checkdown Trent Edwards was Juaron's style QB.  He banished Beast Mode Marshawn Lynch to his "doghouse" in 2009 when Lynch was the only offense the Bills had.  Rodgers would have clashed with Jauron instantly simply because he wanted to win football games not play not to lose them by too much.

[No_Matter_What]

Cmon I know that Duke Williams wasn't exactly a star here, but listing him as a potential all-time bust? That's not fair!