Biggest Bills Bust Post 1980

[chris heff]

2 hours ago, Motorin' said:

 

That's exactly what I said. The move up to get Losman in 04' cost us our 1st round pick in 05' (pick 20) when Rodgers slid all the way to pick 24.

 

Little known fact, 2005 was the last year the Bills would pick as late as 20th in the draft until 2020, when we traded our 1st round pick for Stefan Diggs. 

 

You’re right that is what you said, I misread it.

[Rico]

2 hours ago, TC in St. Louis said:

Booker had Guillian Barre syndrome, which left him paralyzed for a while.  Not a whiff.  Just horrible luck.  

 

The worst pick for me was taking Torrell Troupe the pick before the Pats took Gronk.  Slight advantage Gronk.  

Horrible luck, but also a horrible pick in the 1st round.

[Gugny]

I normally limit busts to first round picks, but James Hardy (RIP) was selected 41st overall by the Bills.  Ended up catching 10 passes for 96 yards in his two years.

[djp14150]

no OJ….
 

Williams because if the consensus expectations by all experts

 

maybin was a reach/ boom- bust type 

 

[Captain Hindsight]

12 hours ago, IronMaidenBills said:

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. 

Agreed. I always thought with better coaching, JP had a chance to be a good player. He was very talented, just wasn't consistent enough

[Captain Hindsight]

9 hours ago, unbillievable said:

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

 

 

Wow Mayock really nailed that. 

 

cant play the run, too small, but fast first step. One down player

 

 

What a whiff

[Captain Caveman]

I went to the draft the year we got Mike Williams and remember being SO excited.  He gets my vote simply for being drafted so high.

[MJS]

I mean, Sammy Watkins should probably be on there. We traded away a first round pick to move up to get him. He had a few good games in Buffalo, but was hampered by injuries a lot of the time, then traded away and has been just a role player on other teams since then.

[skibum]

Williams was by far the biggest BUST, because he looked every bit like a no-brainer pick, and he tanked. 

 

Maybin was the worst PICK, because it looked bad on draft day, and stayed bad. I don't even consider Maybin a bust, because it was pretty obvious he was not an NFL lineman. 

 

Of the rest, Flowers was pretty busty, but the rest of those guys were just reaches that didn't pan out. 

[bigduke6]

id like to say Maybin,  but tbh i didnt expect much out of him.   he was a reach pick and everybody knew it.    Williams was supposed to be a sure fire Pro Bowl type guy.   then theres Donte Whitner.   while not being a bust so to speak,  the use of a prime pick on a safety puts him in the conversation for me.   not his fault where he got drafted,  but i feel like hes another guy that wasnt worth that pick spot.

 

my pick is Williams.

[Nextmanup]

I voted Maybin, but Sammy Watkins deserves consideration.

 

He wasn't a "bust" per se, but when you evaluate what we gave up to get him, where we took him in the draft, and what he contributed to the team in his career as a Bill, he was one of the biggest "draft miscalculations" in modern Bills history.

 

 

[billybrew1]

Mike Williams clearly was the BIGGEST bust out of that list….

Both figuratively and literally….He was drafted really high! #1?
Something like that….

[2003Contenders]

6 hours ago, SoTier said:

 

That wasn't Nix.  He might have been on the Bills staff at that time, but it was Brandon and Jauron running the draft in 2009.   Jauron loved smurfs on defense because they were supposed to be faster (I still remember watching Bills LBs regularly being dragging downfield by RBs).  IIRC, Maybin had straight line speed even at 240 lbs (which was like 30+ lbs more than his playing weight at PSU) but he didn't have much agility so he couldn't develop the kinds of moves that lighter edge rushers use to get to QBs.

 

They really pigeon-holed themselves that year because Jauron was pounding the table for an edge rusher. IIRC, the real culprit was the late Tom Modrak, who had a disdain for Texas players and passed on Orakpo in favor of Maybin.

 

I voted for Maybin because he was absolutely worthless from day one -- and was a major holdout in training camp. Maybin, in fact, should be a poster child for why the NFL was smart to slot (and cap) rookie salaries 2 years later. 

 

It doesn't even take hindsight to say that everyone should have known better -- he was not especially productive at Penn State, was under-sized AND slow. So it is hard to argue that he was drafted for either on-field evidence or upside potential. He had a nice looking burst coming out of his stance -- but recorded something like a 4.9 forty at the combine.

[hondo in seattle]

9 hours ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

The thing with Aaron Maybin is that he was always looked at as a "boom or bust" like 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. 

 

I don't watch college ball.  I get caught up on draft prospects before the draft by watching some highlight film and reading what the gurus say.  

 

What I remember about Maybin is that everyone talked about how quick his first step was.  It seemed to be his only attribute.  And while he was productive for one season, he didn't look worthy of a first round draft pick in his highlight reel.  

I admit, I did buy into the Mike Williams hype.  And I thought JP Losman would be a serviceable starter.  In other words, my methodology of evaluating picks has been terribly flawed.  But even I had to question Maybin.  Everything I read and saw said he wasn't a first-rounder.  I could never understand why we drafted him.

[thurst44]

13 hours ago, Dan Darragh said:

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

This is not meant as a defense of Maybin by any means (I voted for Mike Williams b/c of higher pick but thought about choosing Maybin for a second); however, I'm not a fan of revisionist history for exaggeration. It's possible what you say is true, and of course reporters' mocks and front office opinions aren't always the same, but Maybin was a 1st round pick in pretty much every mock draft at that point. He had boom-or-bust potential, but had he dropped to the 3rd that would have been huge news. 

[Big Turk]

Erik Flowers and Aaron Maybin need to be high on the list.

[Milanos Milano]

Maybin absolutely demolishing the polls. 

[gonzo1105]

What’s worse about Losman, who isn’t the biggest bust, is like 3 fold. The Bills were trying to trade up from # 13 to 9 with the Jaguars to take Roethlisberger who was dropping down the board but Jacksonville refused because they had to have Reggie Williams who turned out to be a huge bust. 
 

2nd , Losman was an early 2nd round projection and the Bills traded up with the Cowboys surrendering their 1st the next year after missing out on all 3 QBs and settling for the 4th which was a reach 

 

3rd, next year Aaron Rodgers fell in the draft and the Bills could have nabbed him if they didn’t reach for Losman the year before 

[BobbyC81]

On 4/24/2022 at 11:59 PM, Dan Darragh said:

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.

Sounds like this year.  Good luck to Pittsburgh, Carolina, Atlanta, etc
 

[BobbyC81]

12 hours ago, Big Turk said:

Erik Flowers and Aaron Maybin need to be high on the list.

Flowers was taken too high.  He was projected much lower but Wade Phillips fell in love with him at the Combine I believe.