What is your favorite serendipitous draft story?

[FireChans]

We all know that draft picks have far reaching complications, either good or ill depending on who is involved.  Some stories you hear about, like the Bills loving Mark Barron and failing to get up to him, instead took Gilmore. 
 

Another non-Bills related, is that when the Broncos jumped the Chiefs to take Paxton Lynch (who the Chiefs were targeting), they traded back to draft Chris Jones.

 

And of course, the ultimate Bills connection from that trade is that Elway was scared off from taking Allen in 2018 because of Lynch being a bust, and allowing us to get him at 7.

 

so what do we got? 

[Captain Hindsight]

Elways passing on Allen becuase he has missed on Lynch and just signed Case Keenum is an all time bad move. Elway should get credit for helping build two SB teams with Peyton, but that was an all time blunder

[BarleyNY]

Jets jumping in front of Pittsburgh to grab Pitt CB Darrelle Revis was a rare, savvy move. 

[Albany,n.y.]

Remember, Elway would have traded pick 5 to the Bills if B. Chubb was off the board.  So not only was Elway not taking Allen, but he was going to trade the pick to the Bills so the Bills could draft Allen.  

 

One of the all time best stories involves Brett Favre.  Jets head of player personnel, Ron Wolf, loved Brett Favre, but the Jets didn't have a 1st round pick. Atlanta drafts Favre 1 pick before the Jets in the 2nd round.  A year later Wolf gets the GB GM job & trades for Favre who goes on to have a HOF career. 

Edited 9 hours ago by Albany,n.y.

[Steve O]

Passing on Brian Orakpo to draft Aaron Maybin. What a great first step he had!

[The Cincinnati Kid]

Dude, this is a football message board. You’re gonna have to define “serendipitous” or use words with fewer letters and sounds. GTFOH 😂 

[SoMAn]

1 minute ago, Captain Hindsight said:

Elways passing on Allen becuase he has missed on Lynch and just signed Case Keenum is an all time bad move. Elway should get credit for helping build two SB teams with Peyton, but that was an all time blunder

Hindsight is 20-20, right? 

A lot of 'experts' were split on Allen'. Some saw a very high ceiling, others saw a raw QB with accuracy issues and little D1 competition in his past. Elway went for what he thought to be a 'sure thing' with Chubb, rather than gamble the number 5 overall pick on a 'maybe'.

I still get a kick out of watching the draft day video on You tube in which the Bills chose Josh Allen, and a group of Bills fans attending the draft went apoplectic with cries of 'ohhhh noooo' when the team picked 'the wrong Josh'.  They did a fair impersonation of Jets fans every year at the draft.

I believe there were several TSW participants here who had similar feelings. 

I didn't know enough about Allen to develop an intelligent opinion, but my sense of Josh Rosen was that he was not a leader and seemed like kind of a dick.

Fortunately, Beane realized the leadership qualities and work ethic (along with obvious physical traits) that could turn the raw prospect Josh Allen into a superstar QB. 

We are so lucky that Beane found willing trade partners to move to 22 and 7. 

I can't imagine a better fit for Buffalo and the Bills than Josh Allen. 

[FireChans]

5 minutes ago, The Cincinnati Kid said:

Dude, this is a football message board. You’re gonna have to define “serendipitous” or use words with fewer letters and sounds. GTFOH 😂 

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=serendipitous

[Jauronimo]

Quote

Buccaneers Select the Wrong Person in 1982

Any time you're having a bad day just imagine if you'd turned in a card with the wrong name on it during the first-round of the NFL draft, likely costing your franchise the player it wanted. Because that's exactly what happened to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1982.

With the 17th pick in the 1982 draft, the Bucs selected Penn State guard Sean Farrell. Farrell was a perfectly fine player and projected to be a solid NFL lineman. There was just one problem: the Buccaneers meant to select Bethune-Cookman defensive end Booker Reese.

Yes a miscommunication in the draft room led to Farrell's name being turned in, while Reese remained on the board. It was a monumental screw up. Luckily for Tampa, Reese was still on the board when they selected in the second round and they grabbed him at No. 32. The irony here is that Farrell turned out to be a really good NFL player, while Reese is considered one of the worst picks in Buccaneers history.

 

https://www.thebiglead.com/posts/nfl-draft-history-crazy-moments-01gydgcm45ax

[strive_for_five_guy]

I always love the story about how Donahoe almost traded up so that we could get Big Ben, but we ended up with JP Losman instead.

[GunnerBill]

Matt Millen announcing to his entire staff the day before the 2005 draft that "if DeMarcus Ware is there we are sprinting in the card no matter what!" Only to then allow a national scout to talk him into wide receiver Mike Williams while he was on the clock..... meaning he had taken a receiver in the top 10 three years running. 

 

Fire Millen indeed.

[Mr. WEO]

40 minutes ago, Captain Hindsight said:

Elways passing on Allen becuase he has missed on Lynch and just signed Case Keenum is an all time bad move. Elway should get credit for helping build two SB teams with Peyton, but that was an all time blunder

 

of guys who played in multiple SB's, P Manning was one of the worst SB performers.  Broncos win against Carolina he was simply awful.  His 2 SB wins came against an equally terrible Cam Newton and Rex Grossman. 

19 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

 

https://www.thebiglead.com/posts/nfl-draft-history-crazy-moments-01gydgcm45ax

 

i read the same thing happened in 2022--Bills were set to pick George Karlaftis but someone wrote down.....

[JP51]

9 minutes ago, strive_for_five_guy said:

I always love the story about how Donahoe almost traded up so that we could get Big Ben, but we ended up with JP Losman instead.

This was my number 1 he didnt want to give up an extra 5th or something.  Then he traded up to get JP and ditched our next years 1st... day 2 of draft came out in a presser with JP introducing him as our 1 for that year despite being drafted the year before. 

 

[Logic]

I don't know about serendipity, but Minnesota letting the clock run out on their pick in 2003 always made me laugh.

Like...how does that HAPPEN?!

[T.E.]

The Bills trading away their 1988 first-rounder, which prevented them from taking any of the other RBs that were drafted ahead of Thurman Thomas.

 

(Gaston Green, John Stephens, Lorenzo White, Brad Muster, Craig Heyward, Ickey Woods, and Tony Jeffery)

[Logic]

Gotta be honest: Everyone but Bills fans probably looks at the 2017 Bills-Chiefs draft day trade as pretty serendipitous.

Bills trade the pick to the Chiefs that they use to take possible future GOAT Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes proceeds to win 3 championships and 3 Super Bowl MVPs before age 30 and singlehandedly prevents the Bills from advancing to multiple Super Bowls.

To add a little salt to the wound, in the 2024 the Bills trade their 1st round pick to the Chiefs AGAIN, who then take Xavier Worthy, who then makes a substantial offensive impact for the Chiefs in the AFCCG, where they beat the Bills, whose rookie WR does bupkis.

Serendipity.

 

[Jauronimo]

Isn't Serendipity the name the exotic dancer that Pac Man Jones pledged half of his signing bonus to on the night of the draft?

[Nineforty]

There was that one team who had an intern who discovered Bo Callahan’s teammates didn’t go to his birthday party.

 

[TBBills Fan]

I gave money to a dancer named serendipity once. 

 

Splendid time

[davefan66]

Love the Elway drama. As one of the first years I watched the draft, it helped make me more interested in the draft.  Also, the Manning/Rivers draft.

 

Not really draft, but related. Jim Kelly leaving Buffalo at the alter…

 

Jim Kelly in town to sign after the draft.  Bruce Allen of the USFL calls the Bills offices and the secretary gives the call to Kelly’s agent and tells him not to sign. Jim leaves and the rest is history.  I do believe his years in the USFL helped make him a better NFL QB, specially in the K Gun.