BADOLBILZ Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Donahoe was a pretty good GM for the Bills. I feel that people who say otherwise are unfairly bitter. Let's look at his drafts: 2001 1 - Nate Clements 2 - Aaron Schobel 2 - Travis Henry 3 - Ron Edwards amazing draft 2002 1 - Mike Williams 2 - Josh Reed 2 - Ryan Denney 3 - Coy Wire poor draft, obv williams ruined it 2003 1 - Willis McGahee 2 - Chris Kelsay 3 - Angelo Crowell 4 - Terrence McGee another great draft 2004 1 - Lee Evans 1 - JP Losman rolled the dice on a QB. didn't work out but you have to take your shots. 2005 2 - Roscoe Parrish mortgaged the 2005 draft in 2004 Donahoe also did very well in free agency, building a great defense by bringing in guys like Spikes, Fletcher, Adams. Williams and Losman were HUGE failures and ruined his time with the Bills. He let some guys like Winfield and Pat Williams and such go in free agency when perhaps they could have been kept. He made some big mistakes, but the Bills were competitive under him and if his big franchise picks at QB and T had panned out a little better they might have turned the corner. Most importantly, though, during the Donahoe era there was at least a feeling of HOPE, and the Bills were legitimately close to being a contender. Since he left they haven't been even remotely close to doing anything. Donahoe's two worst moves were hiring Gregg Williams and cutting Ted Washington. The 3-4 defense was still viable with TW and PW forming "the package" and it was the identity of the franchise. Resetting that to a 4-3 was disastrous. They hadn't played defense that badly since the mid-80's and it really started the culture of losing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fixxxer Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Funny how Donahoe never worked in the NFL for another team ever again. Wasn't he recently an advisor for the lowly Rams? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Grid Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Wasn't he recently an advisor for the lowly Rams? That might make the Bills look even smarter. And quite frankly I'd be relieved to hear that as I feared the reason we hadnt heard from TD since his firing was because Mort had him locked away in some sort of Saudi rape dungeon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Blizzard Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I still think this franchise would be in a better place today, if TD hadn't been canned. I also don't think Mike Mularkey was a bad coach. What happened after TD was fired really set this franchise back. I seriously can't believe you posted this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nucci Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) Players switch teams every year due to FA. With research you can find players all over the league playing well with different teams. Joseph from the Texans left the Bengals last year. If Donahoe is so great why hasn't he run a football team since leaving the Bills? Edited January 8, 2012 by nucci Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buftex Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I seriously can't believe you posted this. What have you seen in the last 6 seasons to make that seem so unbelievable? Players switch teams every year due to FA. With research you can find players all over the league playing well with different teams. Joseph from the Texans left the Bengals last year. If Donahoe is so great why hasn't he run a football team since leaving the Bills? Good point...but I bet you no other franchise is (or will be) clamoring for Buddy Nix, Marv Levy or Russ Brandon to come and pull them out of the doldrums either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
todd Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Yeah, donawho really nailed the Mike Williams, JP Losman, Travis Henry, etc. There are only two players remaining in the NFL from the 2005 draft, and neither are starters. Evans is the only remaining starter from 2004. 2003 was decent. 2002 was a joke. 2001 was a good draft. There's been a stunning lack of pro-bowl players among those drafts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FluffHead Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) There are only two players remaining in the NFL from the 2005 draft, and neither are starters. Evans is the only remaining starter from 2004. 2003 was decent. 2002 was a joke. 2001 was a good draft. Evans doesn't start for the ravens, boldin and Torrey smith do Edited January 8, 2012 by FluffHead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave mcbride Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I would reverse that...but I know I am in the minority. Particularly in the Jauron/Levy/Brandon time, there was truly awful football management. I really think the Bills were much closer to being a playoff team when TD was fired, than they are right now. Name a GM who doesn't make mistakes. What I liked about TD, he was a master at working the cap, rarely (if ever) over-payed FA's, and took real, bold moves to address issues. They weren't always the right moves, but he also wasn't afraid to cut his losses. People point the Mike Williams and McGahee picks as terrible...but almost any GM would have picked Mike Williams, with the same needs, when TD did. And, for all the BS about McGahee, he has a solid, if not spectacular, career. He pissed off Bills fans on his way out, but there were few gripes (that I recall) about him as a teammate, or his lack of work ethic. To me, TD's biggest blunder was forcing Mularkey to make Losman the starter, before he was ready. It was bad for the team, and possibly, hurt Losman. It may have been the right move to dump Bledsoe at the time, but Kelly Holcomb wasn't an adequate replacement. In the end, it was more the relationship that TD had with the owner, and some other front office people that likely got him fired...more so than the wins and losses. Well...this may all be true, but lets look back on the drafts since, in another 6 years, and see how bad those were. I will go to my grave swearing that trading up to pick JP Losman in the first round was not as bad a move as trading up to pick John "friggin" McCargo! A guy still waiting, after 6 years, to make an impact of any kind, other than a franchise salary cap. Good post, but my understanding is that wilson had a lot to do with getting rid of bledsoe. As you'll recall, he watched the final game of the 2004 season in the owner's box and was quite disgusted. Ralph of course is well known for making rash demands ... Donahoe's two worst moves were hiring Gregg Williams and cutting Ted Washington. The 3-4 defense was still viable with TW and PW forming "the package" and it was the identity of the franchise. Resetting that to a 4-3 was disastrous. They hadn't played defense that badly since the mid-80's and it really started the culture of losing. Very true. Big ted wanted to come back, but as you'll recall, williams said he didn't want fat guys. Greer wasn't drafted, btw. He was a UDFA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkrules Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Funny how Donahoe never worked in the NFL for another team ever again. This says it all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkady Renko Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Funny how Donahoe never worked in the NFL for another team ever again. Must be because Ralph Wilson has been convincing all the other owners not to hire him! You know, because Ralph Wilson is one of the most powerful owners in the league! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Tuesday Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 This thread is depressing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkrules Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Must be because Ralph Wilson has been convincing all the other owners not to hire him! You know, because Ralph Wilson is one of the most powerful owners in the league! Absolutely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xsoldier54 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Mort is an idiot. He has zero credibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CardinalScotts Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Donahoe was a pretty good GM for the Bills. I feel that people who say otherwise are unfairly bitter. Let's look at his drafts: 2001 1 - Nate Clements 2 - Aaron Schobel 2 - Travis Henry 3 - Ron Edwards amazing draft 2002 1 - Mike Williams 2 - Josh Reed 2 - Ryan Denney 3 - Coy Wire poor draft, obv williams ruined it 2003 1 - Willis McGahee 2 - Chris Kelsay 3 - Angelo Crowell 4 - Terrence McGee another great draft 2004 1 - Lee Evans 1 - JP Losman rolled the dice on a QB. didn't work out but you have to take your shots. 2005 2 - Roscoe Parrish mortgaged the 2005 draft in 2004 Donahoe also did very well in free agency, building a great defense by bringing in guys like Spikes, Fletcher, Adams. Williams and Losman were HUGE failures and ruined his time with the Bills. He let some guys like Winfield and Pat Williams and such go in free agency when perhaps they could have been kept. He made some big mistakes, but the Bills were competitive under him and if his big franchise picks at QB and T had panned out a little better they might have turned the corner. Most importantly, though, during the Donahoe era there was at least a feeling of HOPE, and the Bills were legitimately close to being a contender. Since he left they haven't been even remotely close to doing anything. where are those many good players playing at a high level Mort was talking about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mob16151 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Doesn't Donahoe have a reputation as a hard guy to work with, and someone who likes to needlessly alienate the local media? Might explain why he hasn't really worked again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiggieScooby Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 No biggie Mort is a B word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San-O Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Sorry fellas but he is probably right. How about McGahee as well. One of the biggest issues with Buffalo is the fanbase and the media in Buffalo. They are extremely quick to get negative. This puts a ton of pressure on the organization to make abrupt changes. It also somewhat fills the psychis of the players constantly reading how much they suck in the papers and hearing it from fans on the radio etc. I'm sure most of this board was calling for Mularkey's firing. He was probably a pretty decent coach. Wade Phillips wasn't popular in buffalo yet he was leading us to the playoffs somewhat consistently. Fact is, all the negative mindsets who are quick to say "we suck" is a significant part of the problem. Face it boys. So, the FANS are the reason the franchise is bad and can't win? Hmm? Interesting take. In that case, I apologize right now for all the 1st round busts and those to be reached for in the remaining years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sisyphean Bills Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 2004 1 - Lee Evans 1 - JP Losman rolled the dice on a QB. didn't work out but you have to take your shots. Actually, this was a HUGE miscalculation. He mortgaged the 2005 draft to take Losman in 2004 on the reasoning that there were no QBs in 2005 worth taking. Aaron Rodgers was drafted in 2005. Epic fail with the forecast scouting = Modrak. The conspiracy theories that Donahoe sometimes reacted to what Pittsburgh was doing may not be wholly true, but sometimes one has to wonder if there wasn't a grain of truth there. Mularkey later said he knew Losman wasn't ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) Players switch teams every year due to FA. With research you can find players all over the league playing well with different teams. Joseph from the Texans left the Bengals last year. If Donahoe is so great why hasn't he run a football team since leaving the Bills? Donahoe's tenure was not a success. A major factor in his failure had to do with his insufferable arrogance and prickly personality. Letting TD go was the right stafffing move by the owner. Hiring the ill-equipped Levy as his replacement was a disasterous response by the clueless owner. Following up with replacing the quickly escaping Levy with Brandon the marketing specialist as the boss of the football operations was not only inexplicable but it was outright weird. This is the same laughable organization that not only prematurely gave Jaurnon an extension, they also gave him more authority in personnel. How did his light and quick philosophy wourk out? There is nothing unusual about an organization hiring someone and then not having it work out for a variety of reasons. It happens all the time in all organizations What distinguishing this franchise and what anchors this lame organization to the botton of the pit is the never ending sequence of bad staffing hires. The person doing the hiring is an out of touch owner who has a penchant for not seeking advice from outside of his very tightly knit stupid circle. Edited January 8, 2012 by JohnC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts