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Most Disappointing Buffalo Draft Picks (Any Sport)


Nukethis

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The list is long but heres my picks in football, hockey and basketball. I did not include baseball as Buffalo is a farm team.

 

Football: Walt Patulski , DE Notre Dame, #1 overall pick 1972. Not a great draft year period.

Almost as big of a bust as the Raiders JaMarcus Russell and his purple drank

Honorable mention: Perry Tuttle, Clemson WR

 

Basketball: Elmore Smith, "The Big E", Number 3 overall pick of the Buffalo Braves in 1971.

An excellent rebounder but that was his whole game.

 

Hockey: Morris Titanic, defenseman selected number 12 overall by the Sabres in 1973.

Career stats: 17 games, 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 penalty minutes.

 

Looking forward to seeing names added to this motley crew

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For me this list starts and ends with Maybin. A practice squad level player drafted ninth overall!! How is it possible to be that wrong about a guy?

 

Comparisons with Mike Williams are silly -- Williams was a medicore player but did in fact play and start for most of five years.

And yes, Walt P was a big miss, but that was 1972 -- scouting was in the dark ages compared to the tools available today. To miss as badly as they did with Maybin in this day and age shows a level of incompetence that is hard to fathom.

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just to namer a few....

 

Sabres: Jiri Dudacek, Taro Tjisimoto:-), Ric seiling (good player but Islanders took Bossy with next pick), Joel Savage. think they had quite a few 1st and 2nd rounders who never played in the NHL

Braves: John Hummer, Tom McMillian were first rounders,

Bills: Al Cowlings, Erik Flowers, James Hardy, Perry Tuttle, Gary Marangi, ( Carl Eller & Paul Warfield who never signed and went on to the Hall of Fame), The bills have had enough bad draft picks to fill a few pages

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There needs to be an asterisk next to the Cousineau pick. Although he jolted for the CFL for a lot more money, eventually his rights were traded to the Browns for a 1st round pick, which became the the #14 pick in the 1983 draft, which was Jim Kelly.

 

In retrospect, the Cousineau pick may have been one of the best ever, even though it took 7 years to start paying off.

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Unquestionably it's OJ Simpson.

He singlehandedly brought a level of shame on his fans and supporters that is without redemption - not to mention he savagely murdered two people. Instead of a sports legend, now his name is a hiss and a byword.

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Anyone who denies CJ Spiller being eligible for this nomination is full of it. At that time we did not need him at all. We had two good backs, had more glaring needs and he showed us next to nothing the first year.

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Anyone who denies CJ Spiller being eligible for this nomination is full of it. At that time we did not need him at all. We had two good backs, had more glaring needs and he showed us next to nothing the first year.

 

Lynch is one strike away from missing at least 8 games. We were not going to re-sign him after his off the field exploits in Buffalo. Of course Spiller did nothing his first year. He was used to just being able to outrun everyone in college. If he stays here his whole career he will go down as one of the greatest RB's in Bills history. Wasted pick. :rolleyes:

 

Maybin and Flowers are the two worst, imo.

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The list is long but heres my picks in football, hockey and basketball. I did not include baseball as Buffalo is a farm team.

 

Football: Walt Patulski , DE Notre Dame, #1 overall pick 1972. Not a great draft year period.

Almost as big of a bust as the Raiders JaMarcus Russell and his purple drank

Honorable mention: Perry Tuttle, Clemson WR

 

Basketball: Elmore Smith, "The Big E", Number 3 overall pick of the Buffalo Braves in 1971.

An excellent rebounder but that was his whole game.

 

Hockey: Morris Titanic, defenseman selected number 12 overall by the Sabres in 1973.

Career stats: 17 games, 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 penalty minutes.

 

Looking forward to seeing names added to this motley crew

Elmore Smith??? The dude averaged 17-18 pts a game and 14-15 rebounds in his two years with the Braves. In his firs season with the Lakers, he led the league in blocked shots: http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/smithel01.html .

 

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As for the NFL, There's a strong argument for choosing Patulski given that he was #1 overall. What cuts against that is that he wasn't truly horrible, getting 6-7 sacks per season his first couple of years. Plus round 1 of the 72 draft was weak overall except for franco harris. The bills did land reggie mckenzie with the first pick of round 2, and since I think he's a borderline hall of famer, the draft can be considered a success overall.

 

Mike Williams is a logical choice as well - he was a very high pick.

 

However, my vote goes for this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Eller . The Bills drafted him very high, but couldn't pony up the bucks necessary for him and he chose the Vikes. He represents a huge lost opportunity. Ralph is cheap!

 

Whitner doesn't qualify because he's actually a good player overall.

 

Interestingly, in 1964, the Bills drafted two Hall of Famers -- Eller and Paul Warfield -- plus a borderline hall of famer in Butch Byrd ( a three-time all-pro).

Edited by dave mcbride
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