Why was Sammy Watkins a bust?

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

Got fat, was lazy, had a bad attitude 

[Nihilarian]

First, Sammy gained most of his yards in screens in college. The GM at the time just watched the "highlights" film and didn't bother to look deeper at the player. 

 

What I got a kick out of is that right after that draft Doug Whaley stated that the team was still looking for a big, tall red zone threat at WR. 

 

Just to give an idea of what an idiot that GM was...traded up to the #4 spot for Watkins and passed on LB Khalil Mack, OT Jake Matthews, WR Mike Evans, LB Anthony Barr, TE Eric Ebron, OT Taylor Lewan, WR Odell Beckham Jr, DT Arron Donald, CB Kyle Fuller, LB Ryan Shazier, OG Zack Martin, LB CJ Mosley, CB Ha Ha Clinton Dix, DE Dee Ford, CB Jason Verrett. 

 

Who also all went in the first round that year. 

 

WRs Devante Adams, Allen Robenson, and Jarvis Landry were all drafted in the second round that draft. 

[GunnerBill]

Sammy was indicative of the Doug Whaley approach. He was a good talent spotter and Sammy was a very talented boy. But Whaley really looked no deeper than talent. He didn't ever build a team because he never appreciated what it takes to build a team. You need talent. But you need application, you need cohesion, you need a collective sense of purpose. 

 

Sammy had the injuries too and that hurt him. But his personality into a locker room that didn't have any of the culture you need to succeed was ultimately a poor fit. If the Bills drafted Sammy Watkins now into this culture (and he had better injury luck) who knows how it would have gone? But I think he'd have had a better chance of succeeding. 

[machine gun kelly]

Don’t forget on top of the foot injury, he self admitted he was a drunk at that time.  Per his words, he cleaned himself up.  Good for him as anyone who can admit flaws, and then correct should be commended.  

[Bill from NYC]

14 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Watkins was one in a long line or talented 20 year olds drafted onto the rudderless ship that was the drought Bills.

 

They developed bad habits in a losing culture.   

 

Some went on to more success elsewhere and looked back on their Bills tenure as a real wtf experience.   

 

Watkins was not one of those who had more individual success elsewhere because he tore his body up training hard instead of smart.   

 

Similar thing has been going on with the Sabres for the past decade.

I hated that pick and that entire draft, although Preston Brown was a decent pick.

 

Sammy's QB was EJ Manuel and it was already fairly clear that he was a bust. After Sammy they drafted Kouandjio in round two.. He played at Alabama and I said after the draft that he was the 4th or 5th best blocker on that team, AND he was injured. Then they drafted two other stiffs for the OL.

 

I thought at the time that Whaley (what a surprise) overpaid to trade up and still think so. We gave up all that to bring Sammy to a rudderless ship. Not only that, we could have stayed at #9 and taken one of several  excellent wide receivers or blockers instead of giving up the store for Watkins. Most here probably won't remember but Whaley could have remained at #9 and drafted Aaron Donald (who you were calling for before that draft). He went at #14. 

 

Some will say that this is hindsight and maybe it is to some degree, but I repeat; you posted BEFORE the draft that you wanted the Bills to select Donald.

 

What really freaks me out is that this was 10 years ago. It seemed to go by in an instant.

 

https://www.drafthistory.com/index.php/years/2014

 

 

 

[NoSaint]

Injuries were impactful

 

if I recall he was a single digit wonderlic guy, which indicates totally not caring, or having some sort of learning disability and/or generally being illiterate (literacy comment not said to mock - his score was in line with straight guessing)

 

He apparently was partying too much 

 

and frankly the lizard people stuff that he talked about obviously indicates something wasn’t going well upstairs. 
 

very talented guy but you take injuries and roll them with what I think was more than just a motivation challenge but genuine mental health concerns and it makes some sense. 

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

Sammy was indicative of the Doug Whaley approach. He was a good talent spotter and Sammy was a very talented boy. But Whaley really looked no deeper than talent. He didn't ever build a team because he never appreciated what it takes to build a team. You need talent. But you need application, you need cohesion, you need a collective sense of purpose. 

 

Sammy had the injuries too and that hurt him. But his personality into a locker room that didn't have any of the culture you need to succeed was ultimately a poor fit. If the Bills drafted Sammy Watkins now into this culture (and he had better injury luck) who knows how it would have gone? But I think he'd have had a better chance of succeeding. 

how do you build culture without being able to pick the coach? Or any continuity between skills and schemes? 
 

not saying Whaley was a star but will say the overall situation was disastrous and I think much harder to pin fully on him. 

[Orlando Buffalo]

There are three components of this to me in order of importance:

1) he was injured often and never learned how to fight through them.

2) people had absurd expectations of what he would do, he had two good seasons and has had a meh career, but he is not a bust to me just less than expected. 

3) the Bills offense was not built to let him succeed, we had QBs who could not sling it, which would have allowed him to show his ability, by the time he got that QB reason #1 was dominant

[BuffaloBill]

17 hours ago, mushypeaches said:

Let us vow to never ever again trade a future 1st round pick just to move up and draft a WR

 

 

Amen to this ….

[BillsfaninChicago]

Sammy should have played him in films…

 

[GunnerBill]

58 minutes ago, NoSaint said:

how do you build culture without being able to pick the coach? Or any continuity between skills and schemes? 
 

not saying Whaley was a star but will say the overall situation was disastrous and I think much harder to pin fully on him. 

 

Oh I agree. He was dealt a bad hand. Landed with Marrone by Buddy, then involved in two coaching searches where they hired against his advice. But he was someone who fell in love a bit with skillset absentia of some of the more fundamental building blocks of a successful roster.

[TheBeaneBandit]

Because he was a lizard. Whoever thought a lizard could play football should be fired😂😆🤣

[mjt328]

Quite a bit has already been said.

But it's really hard for any WR to succeed with a chronic foot injury, and below-average QB play.

[Gugny]

Yes. 
 

Two good seasons before getting lazy. 
 

Horrible teammate and total ass.hole. 

[TBBills Fan]

2 hours ago, NoSaint said:

Injuries were impactful

 

if I recall he was a single digit wonderlic guy, which indicates totally not caring, or having some sort of learning disability and/or generally being illiterate (literacy comment not said to mock - his score was in line with straight guessing)

 

He apparently was partying too much 

 

and frankly the lizard people stuff that he talked about obviously indicates something wasn’t going well upstairs. 
 

very talented guy but you take injuries and roll them with what I think was more than just a motivation challenge but genuine mental health concerns and it makes some sense. 

how do you build culture without being able to pick the coach? Or any continuity between skills and schemes? 
 

not saying Whaley was a star but will say the overall situation was disastrous and I think much harder to pin fully on him. 

 

 

You could build a culture if you dont pick the coach by spending time with the coach, developing a plan and acting on it

 

Or

 

You could just do your own things like our coach and GM did

[NoSaint]

1 minute ago, TBBills Fan said:

 

 

You could build a culture if you dont pick the coach by spending time with the coach, developing a plan and acting on it

 

Or

 

You could just do your own things like our coach and GM did

and then when that coach is fired and a polar opposite is brought in? 
 

just like acquiring talent for 34 vs 43 
 

If he had stability - even between coaching changes that held some common threads underpinning then - building a team and not just having a mish mash of mismatched pieces would have been much easier. 
 

im not saying he would’ve, but in the situation the organization created - it wasn’t ideal even if we had a star GM

[TBBills Fan]

1 minute ago, NoSaint said:

and then when that coach is fired and a polar opposite is brought in? 
 

just like acquiring talent for 34 vs 43 
 

If he had stability - even between coaching changes that held some common threads underpinning then - building a team and not just having a mish mash of mismatched pieces would have been much easier. 
 

im not saying he would’ve, but in the situation the organization created - it wasn’t ideal even if we had a star GM

Sure, it was a very odd time with Ralph being the owner, but also not. I'm sure Doug did the best he could.  

 

I think Doug also got in his own way as well as working for, at that time, an organization that was really focused on preparing for transition

[skibum]

Bust this: Sammy Watkins has more Super Bowl rings than Stefon Diggs, Andre Reed, and Eric Moulds combined. And probably more money than at least the latter two.

 

 

[GaryPinC]

19 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Watkins was one in a long line or talented 20 year olds drafted onto the rudderless ship that was the drought Bills.

 

They developed bad habits in a losing culture.   

 

Some went on to more success elsewhere and looked back on their Bills tenure as a real wtf experience.   

 

Watkins was not one of those who had more individual success elsewhere because he tore his body up training hard instead of smart.   

 

Similar thing has been going on with the Sabres for the past decade.

Certainly the losing culture in the locker room was no help, but it's clear from Dunne's article that Sammy was struggling with expectations, pressures from home, and horrors of his life growing up.  It's clear as day in that article he was suffering from stress and depression and mired in self destructive behavior that he feels played a large role in injuries and tearing up his body.  Over time he compounded it with self-isolation. 

 

It's questionable that a winning culture would have mattered.  To his credit, he recognizes and admits it, family pressures were bigger for him than football.

 

But I feel like blaming the poor Bills culture at the time is mostly off the mark and diminishes from the internal struggle he was trying to come to terms with.

 

 

[BADOLBILZ]

7 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

That was the game I realized Rex shouldn't be allowed to be the head coach a pee wee football team.  He blamed not challening a clear incompletion because they didn't show it on the big screen in the stadium.  There were a few more wtf challeng and non challenges in that game if I recall.  The lack of detail with him in almost every facet of being an NFL head coach was astounding. 

 

 

His challenge notification guy was the team's reverend, as I recall.

 

What a clown show that was.  

 

They had like 54 coaches and 53 players because Rex wanted to make sure he didn't have to do anything but show up on game day. 

[DapperCam]

If he never had foot injuries he probably doesn’t bust. He was drinking and partying instead of taking his injury rehab seriously.

 

Also trash QBs didn’t help.