List of whipping boys we should have kept

[dpberr]

Bill Polian and Wade Phillips.

 

Firing Bill Polian was one of the worst decisions in sports history.

 

Firing Wade Phillips, in my opinion, triggered the epic collapse that the team recovers from to this day.

[billsfreak]

I agree about Bledsoe. We should have kept him for another 2-3 years. Even though Bledsoe regressed, he was still better than any QB the Bills had this past decade.

I totally agree about Bledsoe. The only season we have been close to respectable over the past decade was with Bledsoe, and when it looked like the ship may have been righted with a 9-7 record, they dumped him?

[mike oxhurtz]

I totally agree about Bledsoe. The only season we have been close to respectable over the past decade was with Bledsoe, and when it looked like the ship may have been righted with a 9-7 record, they dumped him?

 

I agree. Donahoe was so pissed at Bledsoe for not choosing the side of the field that the coaches wanted him to take in the Pittsburgh game, that Donahoe gave the starting job to Losman and publicly bashed Bledsoe for his mistake.

[thewildrabbit]

Two players come to mind.

 

First, Pat Williams. He was an undrafted free agent and wanted to stay in Buffalo, the defense against the run hasn't been even close to the same as it was when he played here. Huge loss for Buffalo and huge gain for Minnesota.

 

Second, Antoine Winfireld. Another player who wanted to stay in Buffalo. How many CB's have the Bills gone thru since he left? Dick Jauron might not have wasted so many draft picks on DB's had the team kept him. One of the best CB's against the run and his presence has been missed almost as much as Pat Williams.

 

There are other players who have left the Bills and went on to have success with other teams but not like those two, both have played great for their new team. Williams 3x pro bowls 2006-07-08 Winfield 2x pro bowl 2008-09

 

 

I can see the Vikings getting to the SB this year and I'll be rooting for those two to get their rings.

[Malazan]

You can keep McGahee. He's not very good.

[plenzmd1]

In the spirit of the thread, Fat Pat, Winfield etc were all players we wanted the Bills to keep. To players we wanted gone

 

Fletcher Now, the common thought on Fletcher was that he was to small and was great at making tackles 6 yards down field. We wanted him gone..and he still is a tackling machine.

 

 

Reuben Brown. We all talked about how he only made Pro Bowl on rep, that he was good for at least one flase start every game, and that we could get younger and cheaper at that position.

 

Glenn Parker Enough said already

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

Exactly...

 

One of the most overlooked stupid moves...Did not need to happen at all...He may not be the Best HC out there but he was more than fine for Buffalo...Give him the horses and he's going to win more then he loses...In 8 Years as a HC he's finished 9-7 or better 6 times...Plus The Bills Defenses under Wade were always formidable, especially at Home...

 

Shoulda kept Ol' Wade...

 

 

Don't fall into the mediocrity trap being a Bills fan can predispose one to.

 

We should have done a better job replacing Wade Phillips.

 

He has underachieved in Dallas year after year, starting the year as NFC favorites, with up and downs makes it into the playoffs, best case, then chokes… 1-5 in post season play. He is the best coach we’ve had since Marv, Chan not yet included, but he had major issues too.

[Buftex]

In the spirit of the thread, Fat Pat, Winfield etc were all players we wanted the Bills to keep. To players we wanted gone

 

Fletcher Now, the common thought on Fletcher was that he was to small and was great at making tackles 6 yards down field. We wanted him gone..and he still is a tackling machine.

 

 

Reuben Brown. We all talked about how he only made Pro Bowl on rep, that he was good for at least one flase start every game, and that we could get younger and cheaper at that position.

 

Glenn Parker Enough said already

 

Not true on the Pat Williams front. There was a very vocal group of popular kids here on the Wall who had it out for Pat Williams...some still post here regularly, one hasn't been heard from in years...but the Pat Williams hatred was pretty strong. Most were of the variety who were trying to show their blind allegence to the Bills hiring of Gregg Williams, who was famously quoted, at that time as saying "I don't want any fat guys on my team." They started purusing the stats, and had decided that Willams playing time had been cut signiticantly, under Williams. They concluded that it was because Williams couldn't play anymore. It never dawned on them, Gregg Williams just couldn't coach...

 

I agree wholeheartedly on Glenn Parker and Reuben Brown. I might actually throw Trey Teauge in that pile too. There are so few fans here who really understand that complexity involved in playing football, offensive line in particular, their assesments are worthless.

[Matt in KC]

I agree wholeheartedly on Glenn Parker and Reuben Brown. I might actually throw Trey Teauge in that pile too. There are so few fans here who really understand that complexity involved in playing football, offensive line in particular, their assesments are worthless.

I agree, and will add even if someone is decent at understanding O-line play, it's very hard to tell what's going wrong from a fan's perspective: is it the player's bad habits, poor conditioning, a bad position coach, attitude etc..

 

It this vein, I'll add Mike Gandy to the list. I was one who thought he looked incurably weak, but he seems to be doing fine for the Cardinals.

[VADC Bills]

London Fletcher...our defense hasn't been worth a damn since he left.

[bbillyfootballcoach]

Keep -

 

Flutie 2 more years (no Bledsoe)

or...Bledsoe 2 more years (no Losman)

Sam Adams (no Mcargo)

Henry 3 more years (13 more bastards) no mcgahee

Leonard (no ko Simpson 'worth millions') at least we found Wilson due to this

Spikes (no Ellison)

 

the above would also have saved us how many 1st round picks?

 

I just realized why weve sucked for so long, this and Mauron, who i cringed at when I heard got the job. I still cringe now. Every bad decision above begat an even worse option.

 

I have to say to those that like Wade, Hes an offensive idiot, only does well with a superior QB at the helm, most teams do. He took over 2 well stocked teams and did marginal at best, how was he in Denver with that average QB? Wade blows, Ronnie jones continues to stand out as an example of how awful he was.

[stuckincincy]

Keep -

 

Flutie 2 more years (no Bledsoe)

or...Bledsoe 2 more years (no Losman)

Sam Adams (no Mcargo)

Henry 3 more years (13 more bastards) no mcgahee

Leonard (no ko Simpson 'worth millions') at least we found Wilson due to this

Spikes (no Ellison)

 

the above would also have saved us how many 1st round picks?

 

I just realized why weve sucked for so long, this and Mauron, who i cringed at when I heard got the job. I still cringe now. Every bad decision above begat an even worse option.

 

I have to say to those that like Wade, Hes an offensive idiot, only does well with a superior QB at the helm, most teams do. He took over 2 well stocked teams and did marginal at best, how was he in Denver with that average QB? Wade blows, Ronnie jones continues to stand out as an example of how awful he was.

 

Adams...his last season was with a podunk B'gals club. After he "rounded" into shape (something like 5 games into the season - ) he was still classic Sam - always double teamed, cat-quick off the snap.

 

I always like to relate what a poster said about him years ago: "A pass-rushing LB who just happens to be built like a rhino."

 

IIRC, he dabbled in the arena football market or some such after he left CIN - not sure. He was well-liked and was a perfect gentleman in his short stint here.

[Haven Moses]

Lamonica

Marlin Briscoe

[mike oxhurtz]

London Fletcher...our defense hasn't been worth a damn since he left.

 

I agree. My favorite play from Fletcher and Spikes was the opening drive of the 2006 season vs the Pats, Brady goes back to pass and gets blasted by Spikes, the ball pops out and Fletcher takes it to the endzone for a TD.

[Jerry Jabber]

If we're gonna go that route, then the biggest name of all that we should have kept is Bill Polian. Good job Ralph for screwing that one up

 

You're not kidding. Ralph has many blunders, but that has to be the absolute worst decision ever made in the history of the NFL. Fire your GM, who took you from 2-14 to multiple Superbowl games, how dumb can you be?!

[mcjeff215]

Daniel Briere and Chris Drury. Oh. Wait.

[Jerry Jabber]

Daniel Briere and Chris Drury. Oh. Wait.

 

+1

 

How does Darcy Regier still even have a job?

[GrudginglyPessimistic]

Definitely some interesting thoughts in this thread.

 

I had not thought about Fletch as he was not in the mold I was thinking, but in retrospect he does in many ways fit in that folks routinely seemed to complain about him hitting folks too deep in our backfield but actually the problem was this was what our D called for him to do (we really needed a runstopper in the DL) and he did what he was asked to do quite well (he led NFL LBs in INTs his last year here) and this came on top of him beating out Spielman to set the Bills tackle record.

 

Those who whined about him need to check the fact that he performed after leaving the Bills and that an analysis of his tackles which showed a high % of solo tackles indicated that when he got to someone he brought them down.

 

The Pat Williams mention actually does fit in my book someone who would have stayed if we had paid him $ that we had in the bank. TD nickled and dimed him and he left town.

 

Winfield does not from my view fit the type I was laying out. The Bills clearly did want him to stay to the extent they had set aside $ in a fairly tight budget to sign him to a good deal a year before he hit FA. The problem came though when Belicheat messed up negotiations for Milloy and the Bills used the money set aside for Winfield to sign Milloy. I cannot fault this move as the alternative would have been to start Coy Wire at SS after both our plan A and Plan B (Cota and Battle) came to Bills camp but then retired.

 

I also find fault with the post above which claims Winfield was only a good tackler and not a good cover guy. In fact Winfield was not a good INT guy but actually was a lockdown pass cover guy. When he hit the actual FA market he ended up with an extraordinary offer from MN which no one could match (they paid him a huge contract with all the $ upfront as they had a sudden windfall of cap money due to an arbiters decision and no one could match their offer.

 

In addition. it was Shayne Graham I was thinking of.

[VADC Bills]

I agree. My favorite play from Fletcher and Spikes was the opening drive of the 2006 season vs the Pats, Brady goes back to pass and gets blasted by Spikes, the ball pops out and Fletcher takes it to the endzone for a TD.

Our LB's were difference makers back then. Even Crowell played very well before his injury.

[Leonidas]

Glad to see McGahee go. He's done little for Baltimore and has even been replaced in the starting lineup. Drafting him was a huge mistake. Travis Henry was perfectly sufficient at RB and we could have filled in holes elsewhere.

 

Antoine Winfield was a liability in pass coverage and not worth the money he got in Minny. Same can be said for Clements, although they were obviously very different players.

 

Bledsoe was regressing at the time. I wasn't surprised to see him go, nor was I sad. He didn't want to be a backup and obviously couldn't hack it as a starter anymore.

 

Leonhard isn't any good. He's good for the Jets system (and the former Ravens system), but I'm not upset at losing him. I'll take the Senator over him.

 

Sam Adams, Pat Williams and London Fletcher were big mistakes that would have cost comparatively very little to keep.

 

I was also upset when we didn't re-sign Mike Hollis. He was a good kicker, but Donohoe was dead-set on getting this Lindell guy from Seattle. Lindell's been good the last few seasons, but he's also missed some huge kicks (Cleveland MNF, Pitt week 17 at home) and doesn't strike me as "clutch" by any means.