Orton's Arm Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 This is key. It's true during the Marv years but even more in the Brandon years - Jauron was the top football man in the organization then. Brandon was probably responsible for TO, but he wasn't the one evaluating scouting reports and choosing the likes of Aaron Maybin. That had to be Jauron. The team's talent was not that bad until Marv/Russ/Dick drove it into the ground. Worthless UFA additions, bad draft picks, it just dragged on and on. Donahoe left unfocused talent, but it was burned off instead of refocused. Spikes, Fletcher, Adams, Milloy - we had the heart of a good defense until we made them all expendable with a worthless scheme change (thanks, Jauron). QB was a mess that was never seriously addressed, but we had some decent pieces on offense with Peters, Moulds, Evans, McGahee, etc. Run into the ground. The list of success stories during Marv's era as GM begins and ends with Kyle Williams. With that one exception, every draft pick and free agent signing of Marv's era failed to live up to expectations, or was an outright failure. However, TD's focus had been on building quickly, rather than the long-term. One example of this was his decision to trade away a first round pick for an aging Drew Bledsoe. It's unwise for the GM of a 3-13 team to trade away first round picks for quick fix solutions with no long-term value. Another example was Antoine Winfield. At the time he became a free agent, he had the best combination of youth + proven accomplishment among the Bills' DBs, and was among a small group of very good, young players that could have been part of the team's core for many years to come. TD let him walk so that he could overpay for Lawyer Milloy and an aging Troy Vincent. Some might argue that over the short-term, Vincent and Milloy might have been as useful to the defense as Winfield. But those players hit a wall, while Winfield kept right on playing at a high level. In 2005 the Bills went 5-11 in large part because of a sharp drop off in defensive production. The offense didn't play well either: there was no long-term answer at quarterback, and no long-term answers on the offensive line except for Jason Peters. The Bills of 2005 were not just a bad team. They were an aging bad team. TD's shortsightedness and quick fix solutions had finally caught up with him. If you want to have a very good or elite team, you need to have a core of very good players who will be with you for a long time. The Super Bowl era Bills had a core consisting of players like Jim Kelly, Andre Reed, Thurman Thomas, Kent Hull, and Bruce Smith. TD never really build a core for the team. With the exception of Lee Evans, none of his first round picks became part of whatever semblance of a core the Bills had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 Guess according to the article in the Syracuse paper today, he also thinks lrtting Trent go was a mistake Alomg with Lil Donte etc..he still loves all his draft picks..can't believe he did not say Maybin should still be here Is there really any question on Marv's performance as a GM? I saw that...he compared Trent (after 3 seasons of bleh) to Romo and Bradshaw - also critiqued loss of Poz, Evans, Whitner.... I do think he's living beside a River in Egypt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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