Beane's biggest blunder?

[BillsFanSD]

On 5/27/2023 at 2:56 AM, Freddie's Dead said:

Wyatt Teller, and it ain't close for 2nd place.

Yeah, this is the first one that comes to mind.  

 

The Cody Ford pick was bad, obviously, but lots of scouts had him going in the first round.  It looked like a great pick at the time, and I chalk that one up to just showing that the draft is always a bit of a crapshoot.  But we could have easily kept Teller, and our coaches saw him in the building every day, so there's really no excuse for letting an all-pro just walk out the door for next to nothing.  That was the equivalent of Indianapolis giving us Jerry Hughes for some guy whose name I always have to Google. 

Edited May 28, 2023 by BillsFanSD

[CookieG]

21 hours ago, Nihilarian said:

It's clearly not widely accepted!

 

Not attempting to be mean here. What you fail to comprehend is that Polian was the director of player personnel for the Chicago Blitz in 1985. So he couldn't possibly have been a part of drafting QB Jim Kelly who was drafted in the 1983 NFL draft. 

 

While an employee with the Buffalo Bills when Smith and Reed were drafted in 1985, he was new to the team and wasn't the Buffalo Bills General Manager as Terry Bledsoe was the GM.  

 

As I stated, I think Bill Polian was a great GM. Different times though as free agency was different and allowed teams to keep their best players. 

 

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, as am I. 

Terry Bledsoe suffered a heart attack in Feb of 1985.  Polian took over draft duties that year, and was named officially as GM later in the year when Bledsoe couldn't return. Some of us old timers remember this.

 

He had his problems in the draft.  First, Ralph wanted to use the no. 1 pick on Doug Flutie. They had to talk him into Bruce Smith.  Secondly, the USFL was still around and Bruce threatened to go there if they didn't offer him a decent contract.  Considering they had 2 first round picks refuse to sign with Buffalo in recent years (Cousineau and Kelly), that would have been devastating for the franchise.

 

 

 

 

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

14 hours ago, Saint Doug said:

I’m not going to play the “he should’ve drafted xxxx instead of yyyy”. Those are all hindsight’s 20/20 arguments and can be applied to any other GM, including the one who could’ve picked the guy a round earlier. Pivoting away from this “argument”, I would say him trading Wyatt Teller. We sure could’ve used him last year. 

 

For me, the missed evaluation on Wyatt Teller is also a 20/20 hindsight argument. It was a bad move, but one that GM's make all the time and you can see why. 

 

That is why I rank the overvaluation of RB's in three of the last four drafts as his biggest blunder. There's really no data that suggests teams should be using that many high draft picks on the position. Beane tried to be a contrarian and it came back to bite him. Missed opportunity to address the o-line. 

[Manther]

13 hours ago, JohnNord said:

No on here is talking about free agencyxm, where Beane has made a few BIG blunders.

 

His biggest miss was signing Star Lotuleli.  Beane’s scouted and drafted Star in Carolina where he flashed but never lived up to his potential.  He decided to overpay for Star BIGLY and the return was 1 average season and 3 other years of below average play.  The Bills couldn’t get out of his contract which was a big opportunity cost. 
 

Of course, whenever I make this point there are people in here that try to pretend Star was better than he was.  But he wasn’t.  He was a massive, expensive, underwhelming BUST 

There’s something that has to be said about the picks at DE.  Epinesa sucked as a rookie, so they drafted Rosseau and Basham who also sucked.  So they had to overpay for a veteran Von Miller.  Von wasn’t a bad signing but had 1 of those 3 picks hit, they wouldn’t need to sign him

I can't argue this with the exception of Groot can possibly good to very good.  Either way it was a good pick at the end of the 1st round.  But, I agree with both of your overall points.

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

18 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

I'd say not being more aggressive about addressing WR in both the 2021 and 2022 offseasons is #1.     There was a point early in 2020 where they had a GREAT WR corps and the impact that had was immense.    That should have inspired them to never let that decline.   John Brown got hurt part way thru the season and they have never been close to that good again.

 

This did end up being a mistake. Like Beane, I overvalued the production that I though Davis and Lil Dummy as you call him would contribute. There was good reason to believe both would step up as starters and I think Beane saw it the same way. Obviously, we were both wrong. Blown evaluation. Just like missing the evaluation on Teller.

 

But I think the thought process was correct which is why I rank it just below the use of all those picks on RB's. 

 

 

[Jerboski]

Teller 

boogie 

AJ 

 

 

[Gen2]

Nobody has brought up Kelvin Benjamin yet???

[JohnNord]

2 hours ago, Manther said:

I can't argue this with the exception of Groot can possibly good to very good.  Either way it was a good pick at the end of the 1st round.  But, I agree with both of your overall points.

Yeah sometimes I feel that he shouldn’t get lumped in with Boogie or AJ because he has consistently been better and has proven at worst he’s a capable starter at DE

[Nihilarian]

3 hours ago, CookieG said:

Terry Bledsoe suffered a heart attack in Feb of 1985.  Polian took over draft duties that year, and was named officially as GM later in the year when Bledsoe couldn't return. Some of us old timers remember this.

 

He had his problems in the draft.  First, Ralph wanted to use the no. 1 pick on Doug Flutie. They had to talk him into Bruce Smith.  Secondly, the USFL was still around and Bruce threatened to go there if they didn't offer him a decent contract.  Considering they had 2 first round picks refuse to sign with Buffalo in recent years (Cousineau and Kelly), that would have been devastating for the franchise.

While I agree with that about Bledsoe. I also know that the guy who recommended Polian for the Job as pro personnel director was Buffalo Bills chief scout Norm Pollom.

 

It was Pollom, who with Polian helped negotiate the draft and contract talks. They made a trade with Cleveland that allowed the Browns to draft Bernie Kosar which also gave them the ability to draft Andre Reed and Frank Riech. 

 

Norm Pollom doesn't get much recognition around here as the man had tremendous influence in the building of that franchise into a Superbowl contender.

 

AFAIK, Beane doesn't have that superstar chief scout working for him, nor does he have the free agency period that NFL was like back then. That free agency allowed teams to keep their star players.

 

As I stated, I think Polian was a great Buffalo Bills GM. Just at different times with different situations. My take is it was much more difficult for Beane nowadays simply because the team didn't hit rock bottom which enabled him to get a first-overall round draft pick like Bruce Smith. Back-to-back 2-14 seasons with the next year 4-12.

 

Beane has had 6-10, 10-6, 13-3, 11-6, 13-3. Because of today's free agency along with the NFL salary cap Buffalo has already lost a 2018 #1 pick in Tremaine Edmunds

[BillMafia716ix]

Beane biggest draft blunder was Cody Ford. We still trying to find that interior guy on the offensive line. Hopefully we got it right this time with O’Cyrus Torrence and the guy we signed from the Cowboys 

[BADOLBILZ]

7 hours ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

 

This did end up being a mistake. Like Beane, I overvalued the production that I though Davis and Lil Dummy as you call him would contribute. There was good reason to believe both would step up as starters and I think Beane saw it the same way. Obviously, we were both wrong. Blown evaluation. Just like missing the evaluation on Teller.

 

But I think the thought process was correct which is why I rank it just below the use of all those picks on RB's. 

 

 

 

 

No the thought process was definitely wrong.   They weren't worse than they had been in the past.   They were the same.    You don't base expectations off of one game.........which was what Beane and many did with regard to Davis(Chiefs) and McKenzie(Patriots).    The Bills had struggled with Davis during the 2021 regular season........he had a horrible game changing drop in Jacksonville in a game that underscored the lack of explosiveness in their short passing game and he had a staggeringly bad 3 catches on 14 targets against the league worst Jets defense at the end of the season...........he was PROVEN inconsistent.   And McKenzie had shown A TON of reasons not to trust him in his Bills career.    He didn't become a bonehead.......he was always one.   They were the same players last season that they had always been........they just got asked to fill bigger roles which magnified their limitations.   

[Solomon Grundy]

Maybe giving that $ to Knox?

[Warriorspikes51]

21 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

Maybe giving that $ to Knox?

interesting. I suppose you could make that case. 
 

he does have 15 TDs over the last 2 years + 5 career playoff TDs though

[Dr. Who]

If Hopkins ends up in KC, I nominate that.

[Warriorspikes51]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Who said:

If Hopkins ends up in KC, I nominate that.

let’s pray that never has to be discussed

[Breakout Squad]

10 hours ago, CookieG said:

Terry Bledsoe suffered a heart attack in Feb of 1985.  Polian took over draft duties that year, and was named officially as GM later in the year when Bledsoe couldn't return. Some of us old timers remember this.

 

He had his problems in the draft.  First, Ralph wanted to use the no. 1 pick on Doug Flutie. They had to talk him into Bruce Smith.  Secondly, the USFL was still around and Bruce threatened to go there if they didn't offer him a decent contract.  Considering they had 2 first round picks refuse to sign with Buffalo in recent years (Cousineau and Kelly), that would have been devastating for the franchise.

 

 

 

 

Ralph wanted Flutie over Bruce?!  That’s embarrassing 

7 hours ago, Gen2 said:

Nobody has brought up Kelvin Benjamin yet???

He caught a big TD in the snow game vs the Colts. Never liked him much but we didn’t give up too much for him and even if was minuscule, he helped break the drought. 

[Nihilarian]

On 5/27/2023 at 5:59 PM, Bill from NYC said:

How much blame for these bad decisions should we place upon the shoulders of Mr. Process?

My thoughts are McD has had a huge amount of input into the defensive players drafted since he became HC. Just like trading back for Tre White.

 

What Bills fans need to realize is that the GM doesn't do anything all by himself without consulting scouts, or team coaches. Yes, the buck stops with him as it does with all NFL GMs.

 

Now, look back at all the assistant coaches that have been replaced for one reason or another. OC Rick Dennison, O line coach/run game coordinator Jaun Castillio, QB coach David Cully, WR coach Terry Robiskie, and I'm sure I missed on others. Didn't the Bills change their defensive line coach? 

 

Think about an offensive line coach and the GM asks who is expendable...they tell him the wrong guy? Any assistant coach, in any situation at all, is held responsible for helping field the best players at their positions. Assistant coaches matter, as I can't tell you how little I thought of Jaun Castillio who used to be a D-line coach on previous teams.

 

Brandon Beane doesn't screw around and gets rid of the duds. 

[Nihilarian]

11 minutes ago, Breakout Squad said:

Ralph wanted Flutie over Bruce?!  That’s embarrassing 

 

It's a good thing that Bill Polain was a firey redhead as he had to fight toe to toe with more than a few to draft the right guys. The late Bills owner was in the draft room trying to get his picks in and fights ensued. Ask Bill about the RBs, and DBs. 

 

I do believe the owner's daughter was a scout for the team and ole Bill had his run-ins with her too. 

[RunTheBall]

I love Beane. That being said, the inability to put a friggin dependable wall in front of your franchise (and soon to be greatest in franchise history) QB has been disappointing. Last year was disgusting watching Saffold act like a turnstile with his “o’ley!” Blocks, and Spencer get torched repeatedly by speed to his outside. Josh has been asked to do too much and has made this garbage line look better than it is, and it looked like crap.

 

[ganesh]

3 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

No the thought process was definitely wrong.   They weren't worse than they had been in the past.   They were the same.    You don't base expectations off of one game.........which was what Beane and many did with regard to Davis(Chiefs) and McKenzie(Patriots).    The Bills had struggled with Davis during the 2021 regular season........he had a horrible game changing drop in Jacksonville in a game that underscored the lack of explosiveness in their short passing game and he had a staggeringly bad 3 catches on 14 targets against the league worst Jets defense at the end of the season...........he was PROVEN inconsistent.   And McKenzie had shown A TON of reasons not to trust him in his Bills career.    He didn't become a bonehead.......he was always one.   They were the same players last season that they had always been........they just got asked to fill bigger roles which magnified their limitations.   

Loss of Crowder also had something to putting McKenzie in the slot ?