Sammy Watkins/Mike Evans Saga

[Alphadawg7]

On 1/10/2025 at 4:19 AM, GunnerBill said:

 

There are some picks that yo can legitimately at the time question for the strategic thinking behind them. There are others where hindsight simply demonstrates you took the wrong player.

 

I don't profess to be an expert in what the view of Dareus was at the time I was still in 2011 just someone who tuned in to day 1 of the draft as a spectator rather than a draft nerd but my memory is he was seen as an absolute blue chip prospect and until the train really got rolling with Cam Newton later in the year there was even some talk he could be the 1st overall pick. So I don't think strategically that was a mistake that you can call the team out on. Whether they ought to have known more about Dareus's personality at the time is a fair question, definitely a fair question before Whaley extended him, but leaving that aside and focussing just on the prospect talent level, in terms of taking him ahead of JJ Watt etc... sure hindsight proves that was wrong but I think most teams at that spot would have done the same thing. 

 

Yeah you are right about him.  Dareus was a cream of the crop level prospect that draft, so yeah, no team was going to take Watt over Dareus that year who was never going to get out of the top 5.  

But thats the draft...there are guys who are blue chip prospects, even "generational talents" that go bust, or maybe don't bust but never reach their potential and have underwhelming careers all the time.  

 

 

[BufBills83]

I hate when people bring up past drafts and mention who we could have drafted at our spot instead of drafting whatever player we did that ended up being bad.  Its in the past, and its something you have no control over.  What's done is done.  Being upset about past bad draft picks does nothing productive at all.  The only thing you can do is learn from it and move on.  But just bringing it up and saying "what if" just makes no sense to me.

[djp14150]

On 1/8/2025 at 7:20 AM, BobbyC81 said:

Yes, this is hindsight and discussed ad nauseum, but here we are, 11 seasons later and that decision continues to linger.

 

They traded up to draft Watkins when they could’ve stayed where they were and taken Evans.  Sammy has been out of the league for 2 seasons now while Evans continues to put up 1,000 yard seasons with double digit touchdowns.

 

What could’ve been!

Evans was picked before where buffalos original paickl sitting and taking Evans coukd not be done.

 

with Evans he’s been mostly a good deep outside the numbers receiver

 

watkins was viewed as a more complete receiver.

 

injuries and not having Josh hurt Watkins 

Edited January 13 by djp14150

[BobbyC81]

10 hours ago, djp14150 said:

Evans was picked before where buffalos original paickl sitting and taking Evans coukd not be done.

 

with Evans he’s been mostly a good deep outside the numbers receiver

 

watkins was viewed as a more complete receiver.

 

injuries and not having Josh hurt Watkins 

They could’ve should’ve taken Evans at pick 4!

[SirAndrew]

On 1/8/2025 at 7:53 PM, EasternOHBillsFan said:

 

Are you familiar with the quarterbacks we started from 2014-2017?

 

2014    Kyle Orton (12) / EJ Manuel (4)
2015    Tyrod Taylor (13) / EJ Manuel (2) / Matt Cassel (1)
2016    Tyrod Taylor (15) / EJ Manuel (1)
2017    Tyrod Taylor (14) / Nathan Peterman (2)

 

In what universe would a receiver thrive having them as QBs??? He would have signed somewhere else for sure.

This is true, but I think Evans would have put up pretty good numbers with Taylor. He wasn’t a complete QB, but knew how to find his playmakers at times. Sammy’s numbers were good in 2014 with no real QB. His career long injury problems derailed the other seasons more than Tyrod Taylor. 

[SirAndrew]

17 hours ago, BobbyC81 said:

The pick of CJ Spiller was dumb, as was deciding to pick a QB (EJ Manuel) in the draft with arguably the worst QB class of this Millenium.  

Honestly, most of our drought era draft picks were dumb, and I’m surprised there isn’t a greater agreement on that truth. We all know the NFL draft is a crapshoot, but we made some really strange choices. There were too many reaches, and guys that were luxury picks.