Bills' Worst Draft Ever...Try and Top this one

[Dragonborn10]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this but the 2000 draft also produced a certain QB named Tom Brady. Taken that selection byt the Patriots and what he has nearly single handedly done to this team, cements 2000 as the worst draft in Bills history.

 

But just to make you feel better/worse the rest of the Patriots draft sucked that year.

Round Overall Player Position College 2 46 Adrian Klemm Offensive tackle Hawaii 3 76 J. R. Redmond Running back Arizona State 4 127 Greg Robinson-Randall Offensive tackle Michigan State 5 141 Dave Stachelski Tight end Boise State 5^[7] 161 Jeff Marriott Defensive tackle Missouri 6 187 Antwan Harris Safety Virginia 6 199 Tom Brady Quarterback Michigan 6 201 David Nugent Defensive end Purdue 7 226 Casey Tisdale Linebacker New Mexico 7 239 Patrick Pass Fullback Georgia

 

If just by luck the Bills happened on this kid from Michigan instead of the cheater one has to wonder how different it all could have been...

Edited January 30, 2013 by Dadonkadonk

[San Jose Bills Fan]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this but the 2000 draft also produced a certain QB named Tom Brady.

 

It was mentioned:

 

Suan Alexander was one of the best running backs in the NFL for half a decade. He was a two time All-Pro. Urlacher and John Abraham were probably the only other players who had really successful NFL careers. But that draft was pretty meh outside of Brady being a late rounder. 2002 was probably one of the most ****ty drafts as well.

[Tcali]

Obviously the Bills have done a horrible job of drafting throughout much of their history esp from 2000 on.-Thats how you build a joke of a team--w the great assistance of ralph and his horrible choices of coaches and GMs.

The only way to really judge these drafts is team vs team. It is easy to spin a mediocre draft...make excuses for it by cherry picking certain picks.

I would like to see a draft vs draft list(im too lazy to look it up myself) of a consistently good franchise vs the Bills over the past 12 years.Thats where the real differences would show up.

2 or more bad drafts in a row is really disastrous for a team because then they r forced to back and fill when a good player goes into free agency or a good player gets old.Playing catch up like that forces teams to reach to fill gaps vs smartly filling the holes left by FAs and players getting past their primes or injured.--I gotta give Nix SOME credit last yr for valiantly trying to catch up . His picks one and two were excellent. Total whiff on LBs and at QB.....-But because of our past bad drafts we were forced to go DB again at #1 because of the prior whiffs on McKelvin and because they didnt replace their best CB McGee when he was on the way down.

[pimp 2]

The Bills for the past 10 years have tried to outsmart themselves with draft picks. I do recall Flowers was touted as a quick d-lineman and was thought of as a safe pick that busted...but when you consider the McCargo type picks and the Maybin types, we are sometimes caught looking for the "diamond in the rough" type guys in Rounds 1-3 (Maybin, McCargo, TJ Graham, etc) rather than the solid pick based on performance during four years of college, injury history, nose for the ball, etc.

 

I agree with this ^^^^.

 

I have always thought that the FO has been a tad arrogant with their premium pics as well. Nix says that production is the key but the picks of Maybin, Flowers, McCargo, etc (Nix was on the staff for most with the exception of McCargo). I'd like to add production and how they fared against top prospects to the equation...when Maybin was drafted I cringed because I saw him play in two games (USC & Iowa) and I didn't even notice him on the field. I'm hoping the pendulum swings back in our favor draft- wise...we're way past due.

[metzelaars_lives]

Something tells me even if we had the 3rd pick we would have still taken Flowers. Like I said...I think the Bills' FO tries to act too "cutesy" in their picks sometimes (Graham, Maybin, etc) instead of going with BPA based on analytics/four year college record.

 

Then again, Jimmy Graham had limited college football experience and is a stud.

 

We just have a crappy record of drafting good, solid talent...

 

 

We couldn't have taken Von Miller...he was selected by Broncos right before us as I recall.

I agree with your thoughts though. Glad your Draft Board turned out better than the Bills professionals...send in your resume'...it worked for George Costanza.

 

Graham was a "cute" pick. As was Whitner and Troup. Maybin was not a stretch there. Neither was McKelvin, Aaron Williams, Mike Williams, even McCargo. Some of it is just bad luck.

 

I agree with half of what you said but allow me to play devil's advocate here for a second:

 

I was raised to not be that guy- Joe from Tonawanda with the Buffalo accent and the mustache calling in on the whiner line- "We shoulda/coulda done that..." My Dad taught me that the organization does this for a living and knows way more than we do. But a lot of these blown picks in the last few years are ones that the Joe from Tonawandas were clamoring about before the draft. Donte Whitner would have been sitting there, ecstatic his phone rang when we picked in the 2nd round. Me and my bro were all about Gronkowski when they took Troup. I was obsessed with Kaepernick when they took Aaron Williams. Every single person I knew wanted Russell Wilson in the 3rd round. I was shocked when they took Cordy Glenn this year because that was the first time I can remember that the big, fat, softball pick- the consensus guy on the big boards- fell right into their laps and they actually took him. I would have expected this organization to take some obscure dude at a postion they didn't need that was slated to go in the 4th round, Glenn going the next pick and performing well on whatever team drafted him in his rookie year. That is what I have come to expect from this organization- them taking the "cute" pick, thinking they know something that no one else does. It took me til I was 34 years old to acknowledge that sometimes Joe from Tonawanda is right. My apologies if your name is Joe and you are from Tonanwanda.

Edited January 30, 2013 by metzelaars_lives

[San Jose Bills Fan]

Also Metz, to springboard off an observation made earlier in the thread (or maybe it was a different one), there are numerous draft picks in Bills history where you just knew it was a questionable pick at best.

 

I can remember very few instances where these questionable picks ended up working out; where the Bills were right and the general public was wrong.

 

I'm trying to think of just one and I can't.

 

Many times, I tried getting on board with the picks and tried talking myself into liking them. But it seems every time my skepticism was borne out.

[Formerly Allan in MD]

BTW, that was a John Butler draft.

If the draft was exceptionally weak overall, what was Butler supposed to do, create clones?

 

A "winning" Buffalo law firm: Maybin, McCargo and Losman. Losers in every case but they took the money and ran.

[maddenboy]

maddenboy, on 29 January 2013 - 08:48 AM, said:

 

So here's the thing.

 

Been saying this for years.

 

Draft who you like. Draft who you think is gonna be good. Dont give a Fu** about "draft position" or "value." There's only gonna be a few really good players in every draft. So if you think you found one, take him at 8.

------

 

Sincerely,

Ryan Nassib

Okay, I get that you guys are having a little fun here.

 

But for the record, I dont want Nassib.

 

sincerely, Mrs. Nassib.

 

(By the way, I want somebody with huge upside. And nassib doesnt have it. He's a game manager at very best. Give me a cannon arm in the draft, or a super cerebral guy, or a run-through-brick-walls leader type. Give me something I can be excited about).

http://www.nfl.com/d...=0610&type=team

 

1975. Period.

 

Hic finis est.

How cool is it to scroll down to 1970 and see "O.J. Simpson" as the bills draft pick.

 

Murder aside, we all feel a warm feeling inside remembering that we had O.J. God I love the Bills sometimes.

Edited January 30, 2013 by maddenboy

[The Senator]

How cool is it to scroll down to 1970 and see "O.J. Simpson" as the bills draft pick.

 

Murder aside, we all feel a warm feeling inside remembering that we had O.J. God I love the Bills sometimes.

 

How true...in fact, until the wall-to-wall TV coverage of the Bronco chase interrupted the NBA playoffs, I could almost stand OJ as an actor!

 

For the record, I hope we draft another USC player this year...

 

GO BILLSSS!!!!

 

19 and 0 baby!!!!!

[KollegeStudnet]

 

A sack of potatoes has value

 

Strippers at Sundowners has value

 

 

Okay, I get that you guys are having a little fun here.

 

But for the record, I dont want Nassib.

 

sincerely, Mrs. Nassib.

 

(By the way, I want somebody with huge upside. And nassib doesnt have it. He's a game manager at very best. Give me a cannon arm in the draft, or a super cerebral guy, or a run-through-brick-walls leader type. Give me something I can be excited about).

 

How cool is it to scroll down to 1970 and see "O.J. Simpson" as the bills draft pick.

 

Murder aside, we all feel a warm feeling inside remembering that we had O.J. God I love the Bills sometimes.

 

As do I

 

I still think OJ is Nevergiveup

 

Just typing away in his cell

 

Overall, Go Bills!

[djsabres]

The only good thing about that draft, was not being in the top ten. Which means the Bills didn't suck the year before.

[BringBackFergy]

 

 

Graham was a "cute" pick. As was Whitner and Troup. Maybin was not a stretch there. Neither was McKelvin, Aaron Williams, Mike Williams, even McCargo. Some of it is just bad luck.

 

I agree with half of what you said but allow me to play devil's advocate here for a second:

 

I was raised to not be that guy- Joe from Tonawanda with the Buffalo accent and the mustache calling in on the whiner line- "We shoulda/coulda done that..." My Dad taught me that the organization does this for a living and knows way more than we do. But a lot of these blown picks in the last few years are ones that the Joe from Tonawandas were clamoring about before the draft. Donte Whitner would have been sitting there, ecstatic his phone rang when we picked in the 2nd round. Me and my bro were all about Gronkowski when they took Troup. I was obsessed with Kaepernick when they took Aaron Williams. Every single person I knew wanted Russell Wilson in the 3rd round. I was shocked when they took Cordy Glenn this year because that was the first time I can remember that the big, fat, softball pick- the consensus guy on the big boards- fell right into their laps and they actually took him. I would have expected this organization to take some obscure dude at a postion they didn't need that was slated to go in the 4th round, Glenn going the next pick and performing well on whatever team drafted him in his rookie year. That is what I have come to expect from this organization- them taking the "cute" pick, thinking they know something that no one else does. It took me til I was 34 years old to acknowledge that sometimes Joe from Tonawanda is right. My apologies if your name is Joe and you are from Tonanwanda.

No offense taken...I'm not Joe and not from Tonawanda.

 

Sincerely,

Chuck from Cheektowaga

Gary from Gowanda

Carl from Clarence

Arnold from Amherst

[BuffBill]

Here's a little game I like to call....."WTF was the front office thinking?". Since it is slow in the Bills news category and I am burned out with analysis of "what ifs" in the upcoming Draft 2013, I took a gander at the Bills' drafting history (as I am apt to do each year before our Draft) and doubt anyone can find a more depressing draft than 2000. Take a look and if you think you can beat it, please feel free.

 

 

2000 1 26(26) Bills Erik Flowers DE Arizona State 2000 2 27(58) Bills Travares Tillman DB Georgia Tech 2000 3 27(89) Bills Corey Moore LB Virginia Tech 2000 4 27(121) Bills Avion Black WR Tennessee State 2000 5 27(156) Bills Sammy Morris RB Texas Tech 2000 6 28(194) Bills Leif Larsen DT UTEP 2000 7 27(233) Bills Drew Haddad WR Buffalo 2000 7 45(251) Bills DaShon Polk LB Arizona

That is pretty bad, the only one that contributed at all was Sammy Morris for the length of his first contract, then he actually played a bigger role with the Pats. If you read over the entire draft, it was a pretty bad draft from top to bottom with only a handful of players being really good, and most of them before they picked Erik Flowers, with Brady the glowing exception. That draft had another good example of why the Cowboys are screwed as long as Jerry stays the GM-they gave up two first round picks for Joey Galloway (2000 & 2001). Edited January 30, 2013 by BuffBill

[mjt328]

Wow. That is insane. Out of an entire first round, who turned out to be an impact player in the pros? Lewis, Burress, Urlacher, Abraham, Peterson, Janikoswski, Pennington, Alexander, Hovan and Bulluck. I guess Shaun Ellis was OK. But even of those guys, none of them were insanely good except Urlacher. Perhaps the Raiders weren't so crazy taking Janikowski after all.

 

I think there is a collective sinking feeling around here that this year's draft could turn out a lot like this one.

 

Don't forget the two Washington Redskins at the top of that list.

Chris Samuels was a 6-time Pro Bowler, and LaVar Arrington was one of the best linebackers in football (until injuries ruined his career of course).

 

Corey Simon was a pretty solid tackle for the Eagles, and Thomas Jones was an effective starter for quite a few years in the NFL.

[Bill from NYC]

In 2006 we got an above average (and pro bowl) SS, and a dominating DT. Just because Whitner never lived up to his draft spot doesn't mean he isn't a good SS.

 

Neither draft was a home run, but looking back they were both probably close to an "average" draft.

 

 

I vehemently disagree. The 2006 draft was stacked with talent on positions of great need for the Bills. A draft should also be judged by who a team passed on. Levy/Jauron passed on great players in 2006 in order to draft primarily scrubs, and gave up an early 3rd round pick in the ugly process.

Edited January 30, 2013 by Bill from NYC

[BringBackFergy]

I vehemently disagree. The 2006 draft was stacked with talent on positions of great need for the Bills. A draft should also be judged by who a team passed on. Levy/Jauron passed on great players in 2006 in order to draft primarily scrubs, and gave up an early 3rd round pick in the ugly process.

I guess the purpose of this thread was to point out the absence of any real talent in that 2000 draft and, hence, I labeled it the worst draft ever.

 

I see your point though...not only should we look at "who" we drafted (or the questionable picks we made) but also "who we didn't draft" that were available on the board. Even though the 2000 Draft turned out bad for us, I never looked any farther in the second round to see if we could have selected a different player other than Flowers. The obvious "no picks" that everyone still pains over are Orakpo, Ngata, Gronk, Wilson...but that is based on hindsight now that those guys have blossomed into stars. From a pure "failure to draft good solid players across the Board" I still lean toward 2000.

[Maybe Someday]

No it doesn't. Wow. Way off. First off, you can't exclude a guy. Second of all, Damien Covington was a complete stud until he DIED was injured. John Holecek was good too and I believe he even started on that defense that was ranked #1 in (I believe it was) '99? Darrick Holmes was a a steal that late in the draft, are you kidding me? This thread has really exposed those who have unrealistic expectations for draft classes and think that other teams must hit on all of their picks or something. The OP was right about the 2000 draft, but this is overkill.

Agree with your point but had to fix this part. He was killed about 5 years after his career was cut short due to a knee injury.

[Bill from NYC]

Holecek was pretty decent too

 

He was very good, and he too was lost to injury.

 

I think that 1995 was one of the best for the Bills in recent memory.

[mannc]

Also Metz, to springboard off an observation made earlier in the thread (or maybe it was a different one), there are numerous draft picks in Bills history where you just knew it was a questionable pick at best.

 

I can remember very few instances where these questionable picks ended up working out; where the Bills were right and the general public was wrong.

 

I'm trying to think of just one and I can't.

 

Many times, I tried getting on board with the picks and tried talking myself into liking them. But it seems every time my skepticism was borne out.

You know, I could not agree more. I firmly believe that the Bills would be better off today if their draft picks over the past ten years had been made by some well-informed fan who simply followed a lot of the pre-draft publications, or if the picks had been based upon a poll of the participants on this board. Sure, there would have been some duds, but we also would not have had to put up with Lil' Donte, Loss-man, McCargo, Torrell Troup, or TJ Graham, to name just a few. And of course Ralph could have saved himself some $$. On the other hand, I am old enough to remember 1985, when most of Bills Nation badly wanted the team to use the first pick in the draft on Doug Flutie. Instead, the Bills picked a talented but raw defensive lineman from Virginia Tech.

[DC Tom]

If you really want to be sick, take a look at the succession of drafts from 2003-2008 as a whole. Those are the drafts that produced players that are in their prime right now. Out of those drafts, the Bills have:

 

Kelsay

McGee

Kyle Williams

McKelvin

Steve Johnson

 

That's all the Bills have from the period of time that the core of this current team would have been drafted.

 

That's !@#$ing horrible.