chinabox Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 The Bills used the 23rd pick in the 2003 draft on a guy coming off a catstrophic knee injury (that's still difficult to watch). For better or for worse, Willis is no longer with us -- although I wouldn't say that he's "gone to a better place" -- so what is the take-away lesson from all of this? I call the overall situation "The Willis Experiment" because the Bills seemed to go out of their way to take a chance on a guy who would almost certainly not -- and didn't -- play during the 2003 season. Simple: Don't draft severely injured talent, no matter how good he projects. I tend to think that Willis is misunderstood by the haters, but even more misunderstood by the Ravens, but one thing is true: the Bills lost a whole season of productivity from one of their first round draft picks. This is unacceptable, especially considering how things worked out. Of course, if Willis turned into pre-insanity OJ Simpson, I wouldn't be writing this. But the chances of that happening in today's NFL are not worth an entire season of missed action. Now, I'm not here to play the game of who was available when the Bills selected McGahee (Larry Johnson, Dallas Clark, Anquan Boldin, etc...), but I'm a little jilted at the way Mr. McGahee left. The Bills stuck their neck out for this kid in a time when no one was ringing his phone and he ended up taking the low road out of town. I'm not amused. Never again should the Bills take a risk like they did with McGahee. And that is the take-away lesson.
krazykat Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 The Bills used the 23rd pick in the 2003 draft on a guy coming off a catstrophic knee injury (that's still difficult to watch). For better or for worse, Willis is no longer with us -- although I wouldn't say that he's "gone to a better place" -- so what is the take-away lesson from all of this? I call the overall situation "The Willis Experiment" because the Bills seemed to go out of their way to take a chance on a guy who would almost certainly not -- and didn't -- play during the 2003 season. Simple: Don't draft severely injured talent, no matter how good he projects. I tend to think that Willis is misunderstood by the haters, but even more misunderstood by the Ravens, but one thing is true: the Bills lost a whole season of productivity from one of their first round draft picks. This is unacceptable, especially considering how things worked out. Of course, if Willis turned into pre-insanity OJ Simpson, I wouldn't be writing this. But the chances of that happening in today's NFL are not worth an entire season of missed action. Now, I'm not here to play the game of who was available when the Bills selected McGahee (Larry Johnson, Dallas Clark, Anquan Boldin, etc...), but I'm a little jilted at the way Mr. McGahee left. The Bills stuck their neck out for this kid in a time when no one was ringing his phone and he ended up taking the low road out of town. I'm not amused. Never again should the Bills take a risk like they did with McGahee. And that is the take-away lesson. The lesson is never trust management. Always base their value on what the reality of their decisions are, not on what they say. Of course that's very difficult for most of the homers around here who's lives revolve around football.
C.Biscuit97 Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 The Bills used the 23rd pick in the 2003 draft on a guy coming off a catstrophic knee injury (that's still difficult to watch). For better or for worse, Willis is no longer with us -- although I wouldn't say that he's "gone to a better place" -- so what is the take-away lesson from all of this? I call the overall situation "The Willis Experiment" because the Bills seemed to go out of their way to take a chance on a guy who would almost certainly not -- and didn't -- play during the 2003 season. Simple: Don't draft severely injured talent, no matter how good he projects. I tend to think that Willis is misunderstood by the haters, but even more misunderstood by the Ravens, but one thing is true: the Bills lost a whole season of productivity from one of their first round draft picks. This is unacceptable, especially considering how things worked out. Of course, if Willis turned into pre-insanity OJ Simpson, I wouldn't be writing this. But the chances of that happening in today's NFL are not worth an entire season of missed action. Now, I'm not here to play the game of who was available when the Bills selected McGahee (Larry Johnson, Dallas Clark, Anquan Boldin, etc...), but I'm a little jilted at the way Mr. McGahee left. The Bills stuck their neck out for this kid in a time when no one was ringing his phone and he ended up taking the low road out of town. I'm not amused. Never again should the Bills take a risk like they did with McGahee. And that is the take-away lesson. Don't draft a running back with a major knee injury that can't play for a full year when you have a pro bowl running back who's dream it was to play for the Bills.
timmyk12 Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 Don't draft a running back with a major knee injury that can't play for a full year when you have a pro bowl running back who's dream it was to play for the Bills. I personally liked the pick, because they were shooting for the moon. Unfortunatley, that shot didn't make it out of the backyard.
billybob Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 The lesson is Tommy D thought he was smarter than everybody else but he was just a putz
JAMIEBUF12 Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 the lesson is tom donahue was a jerkoff.there was no reason to waste a first round pick on a guy who had to sit the whole first year of the contract.maybe if you have a playoff deep team you can pull something like that off,but we had travis henry and our offensive and defensive lines were a joke.if you know toms adress maybe i could send him my mcgahee jersey(i didnt buy it,present from my brother).in marv we trust go bills in"07
Marv's Neighbor Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 Now that TD is gone there shouldn't be any more "experiments."
RuntheDamnBall Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 The Bills used the 23rd pick in the 2003 draft on a guy coming off a catstrophic knee injury (that's still difficult to watch). For better or for worse, Willis is no longer with us -- although I wouldn't say that he's "gone to a better place" -- so what is the take-away lesson from all of this? I call the overall situation "The Willis Experiment" because the Bills seemed to go out of their way to take a chance on a guy who would almost certainly not -- and didn't -- play during the 2003 season. Simple: Don't draft severely injured talent, no matter how good he projects. Yeah, you might end with a joker like this guy. Simple: don't make up dumb rules or look for trends in isolated situations. Willis is gone because of his lack of desire to be the best back he could be for the Buffalo Bills. Not because he had a knee injury in college.
OCinBuffalo Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 The lesson is thank God for Marv being here and Donahoe flipping burgers now.
Brandon Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 The lesson is to never, never, never draft a RB with a blown knee with the 23rd overall pick or with a 1400 yard back already on the roster.
Lurker Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 I personally liked the pick, because they were shooting for the moon. Funny, that exactly why I didn't like the pick (especially on a RB--the easiest position in football to replace). TD's "swing for the fences" boom-or-bust drafting and FA strategy had a very small margin of error. IMO, Marv's more conservative approach (in terms of where/how to allocate the payroll) won't get him talked about much on ESPN, but it has a higher probability of success.
Brandon Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 Yeah, you might end with a joker like this guy. Simple: don't make up dumb rules or look for trends in isolated situations. Willis is gone because of his lack of desire to be the best back he could be for the Buffalo Bills. Not because he had a knee injury in college. Yeah, but that other guy had actually played some football between the time of his injury and the time the Bills selected him. Huge difference. The Bills knew what they were getting. With McGahee, no one knew what kind of player he'd be after his recovery.
The Dean Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 I liked the pick at the time. He turned out to be a run-of-the-mill back and a bit of a douchebag. Certainly his performance was negatively impacted by the coaching and the O-line. But, he didn't help things with his questionable effort and work ethic. His stupidity seems to know no end, and for that reason, I'm glad he's gone. However, I couldn't care less about baby mommas and cars/jewelry or claims of being the best back in the league. Total non-issue, IMO. For what it's worth, I don't think Marv would have picked him.
BuffOrange Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 Lee Evans had some injury problems too. I'd say the lesson is don't spend a 1st rd pick on a relatively unimportant position when your defense stinks.... Seems like a lot of people still want to go RB next month though
Brandon Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 Lee Evans had some injury problems too. I'd say the lesson is don't spend a 1st rd pick on a relatively unimportant position when your defense stinks....Seems like a lot of people still want to go RB next month though Evans did have a knee injury in his past, but much like Thurman Thomas, he played another full season of football in college after the injury. The Bills had an entire senior year of game tapes to determine if Evans had recovered or not.
Tom Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 The lesson is, don't draft a$$holes. Especially ones fron the 'U'.
ThreeBillsDrive Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 the Bills lost a whole season of productivity from one of their first round draft picks. This is unacceptable, especially considering how things worked out. Of course, if Willis turned into pre-insanity OJ Simpson, I wouldn't be writing this. But the chances of that happening in today's NFL are not worth an entire season of missed action. It's painful to hear the name Larry Johnson. Oh the back we could have got for our football team. Tom D.: #%$&*@ off
cåblelady Posted March 10, 2007 Posted March 10, 2007 The lesson is, don't draft a$$holes. There IS an "ah" in McGahee.
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