Profootballtalk.com
DONAHOE ADMITS FAILURE
By releasing quarterback Drew Bledsoe, Bills G.M. Tom Donahoe has done that which few men of his position ever will do.
Admit failure.
How else can the three-season Bledsoe experiment be described? Serenaded by a marching band upon his arrival in Buffalo nearly three years ago, the guy for whom Donahoe would have given up even more than a 2003 first-round draft pick had a fast start to the 2002 season, and then reverted to the same mediocre-to-at-times-above-average form that prompted the Patriots to bank their future on a sixth-rounder who came off the bench when Bledsoe suffered a franchise-altering lung injury during the 2001 season.
The practical consequence of the impending Bledsoe release is that the Bills are the first team to not have anything to show for a 2003 first-rounder. Every other guy drafted in round one two years ago is still with the team that drafted him (even though there are some turds, such as Saints defensive tackle Jonathan Sullivan).
(Editor's Note: The other team holding a bag of air is the Dolphins, who gave up their 2003 first-rounder as part of the Ricky Williams trade. Although the Fins still have an $8.6 million judgment against Williams for his premature retirement, the practical value of that award is, roughly, a bag of air.)
As one league insider told us, other first-rounders of recent years who are still on their original teams "are being kept around to save face. At least Donahoe is admitting his mistake by releasing [bledsoe]. However, [Donahoe] should come out front and center, in the media, publicly, just like he did when he was selling the goods and say he screwed up. But he won't."
Even without a marching band to see Bledsoe out of town, the import of the move is clear. The Bills wasted a first-round pick on a guy who failed to come close to living up to the shameless hype that Donahoe engineered.