All Time Draft Busts (Updated Part III)

[Spiderweb]

Eric Flowers, John Parrella, Ronnie Harmon, Derrick burroughs, and Tony Hunter taken ahead of jim kelly

 

?????

 

Parella went on the play a number of very solid season with San Diego. Excellent against the run.

 

Derrick Burroughs was playing well and showing signs of being very good, until he was diagnosed with a neck defect that ended his career. Ronnie Harmon was a nut case, and the gut who dropped Kelly's perfectly thrown pass to him in the endzone that cost us a playoff win against the Browns (1989 season playoffs), but went on to be a very solid 3rd down back, also for San Diego. Eric Flowers and Tony Hunter were total wastes.

 

Ryan, seems you need to brush up a bit on your research.

 

Busts are guys like Eric Flowers, Perry Tuttle, etc....

[Enemarty]

Thanks for the abbreviated list. The Bills problem is that the list of flops is almost endless and the list of great players is very small.

 

Patulski is the clear winner.

 

I disagree that Patulski was the worst ever as he showed promise the first couple of seasons and, more importantly, his was the first player autograph I ever got.

 

But putting that aside, looking at the "pick" as it were, rather than the player, things get a little more complicated and, for me at least, temper somewhat the disappointment of Walt not becoming a 1970s "Bruuuce."

 

First, although Patulski didn't turn out to be Bruce, he wasn't that bad. He actually played ok for a few years and when we traded him in 1976, we used the draft pick to get Joe Devlin, one of the all-time great Bills, so combining Patulski's four years with Devlin's career, the pick gave the team real value, hardly a bust pick, even if the player might not have lived up to expectations.

 

Of course, another angle to that draft involves what we did on the d-line after trading Patulski, which was to acquire Sherman White from the Bengals. White had been drafted in the same 72 draft by the Bengals, right after Patulski at no. 2 and while Patulski had a career ending knee injury with the Cards in 76, White sticks around being fairly productive until 1983. That all sounds pretty good. Devlin's career and White giving good service on the d-line until 1983.

 

Unfortunately, getting White to beef up the Patulski-less d-line cost us our first round pick in 1977.

 

OK, so now the 1972 Patulski pick is looking a little more dodgy but for two things, Bills management and, oddly, the Fish.

 

First, if you look at what we did in the 1977 draft, you'll agree that these people couldn't be trusted with picks, even in a 12 round draft, because it took us 12 rounds to finally select a decent player, Charlie Romes. We took Phil Dokes in the first (pick came from a trade with Detroit), another favorite in this thread, but did end up getting a three-time pro bowler in the seventh, you know, Mike Nelms, who we cut before the season and who would go on to be a stand-out kick returner for the Redskins.

 

Second, in 1972, the Fish drafted Patulski's ND teammate Mike Kadish with the 25th pick. Kadish spent the year on the practice squad in Miami and was then traded to the Bills the next year for Irv Goode. Kadish gave us nine seasons on the d-line, while Goode, whom we had acquired the prior year from the Cards, but who didn't play because of injury, retired after only two more years with the Fish. Hey, we actually got one thing over on the Fish in the 70s.

 

Oh, and a little something about the Patulski trade ... according to web lore, Walt's last year with us wasn't that good, except for the game he had against the Cardinals, who gave up only a handful of sacks that year, two of which were to Patulski who dominated Dierdorf in that game. Of course, after such a performance, the Cards traded for him after the season and although he failed to solidify their d-line, we got Devlin who became the Dierdorf of our o-line.