SBUffalo Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 The Buffalo Bills have NEVER selected a QB with the first pick they possess in the draft. They've selected just two first round QBs, but both Jim Kelly and JP Losman were taken AFTER Buffalo had already made another first round selection. I decided to do a little research on this to see the stats throughout the league. The following stats show how many times each team has taken a QB with the first pick they possessed in that draft. (The first number is the number of times since 1961, the second number is the number of times they've done it in team history including years prior to 1961). Arizona Cardinals 6/8 Atlanta Falcons 4/4 Baltimore Ravens 1/1 Buffalo Bills 0/0 Carolina Panthers 3/3 Chicago Bears 3/8 Cincinnati Bengals 7/7 Cleveland Browns 3/4 Dallas Cowboys 5/5 Denver Broncos 2/2 Detroit Lions 7/10 Green Bay Packers 2/5 Houston Texans 1/1 Indianapolis Colts 6/8 Jacksonville Jaguars 2/2 Kansas City Chiefs 2/2 Miami Dolphins 4/4 Minnesota Vikings 3/3 New England Patriots 4/4 New Orleans Saints 2/2 New York Giants 3/5 New York Jets 7/7 Oakland Raiders 5/5 Philadelphia Eagles 3/4 Pittsburgh Steelers 3/5 Saint Louis Rams 5/7 San Diego Chargers 4/4 San Francisco 49ers 3/5 Seattle Seahawks 2/2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 5/5 Tennessee Titans 5/5 Washington Redskins 4/11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bladiebla Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Wow, great research/find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phlegm Alley Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 No wonder why we suck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 In the Elway to Marino doc, Norm Pollom of the Bills implied that the Bills at #12 and #14 actually had Kelly rated higher than Tony Hunter, but they worried Hunter was going to be taken by the team directly above us at 13, and they wouldn't take a QB. That's why they took Hunter over Kelly. It's truly amazing that they haven't taken a QB with first pick. But the Bledsoe and RJ trades/picks skew that a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOFO Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 (edited) The Elway to Marino doc is great...only an hour into it...can't wait to find out if Elway plays football or becomes a Yankee!!!! I hope we don't draft a QB #1... Edited April 25, 2013 by MOFO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrags Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Great find. I think this might be a problem, but on another note, I wonder if its worse to be a team that constantly drafts one, or never does. Teams like the Redskins and Lions have over 7. That's just a ton to not really have anyone worth a crap in almost forever. I mean they got lucky now with Stafford and RG3 but they were absolute no brainers. I'd imagine if the Bills were in a position to take either of them, or Cam, Luck, Manning, Rothlisberger, Rivers, Etc... We would have one too. The problem is we suck, just not enough to have a good early draft pick in the upcoming draft. Of course we could trade the future away for Luck or RG3 like the Skins did, but that was almost a no brainier move. And honestly, we will see how that turns out in time. My guess is, not good for Washington in the long run. It's truly amazing that they haven't taken a QB with first pick. But the Bledsoe and RJ trades/picks skew that a little. yup. And I know the point of this was 1st picks in the draft, not first round, but you can't completely ignore the trade ups into the first. Or 2nd first round picks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach55 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 No wonder why we suck. This is great research, but clearly is meaningless as there appears to be no correlation to winning with 1st picks or even 1st round picks for that matter, otherwise Cinci and Detroit would be Super Bowl regulars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kellyto83TD Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Nope too scared to do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandler#81 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Wasn't our very first ever pick in 1960 a QB? Green? Just going by memory here and I'm getting old, so.. Anyway, I think it likely the reason we haven't taken one that high since the merger is we either weren't in position to get the anticipated best guy or had other pressing needs at the time. Even last year, with strong college candidates, we passed because the FO was convinced Fitz solved the problem.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Wasn't our very first ever pick in 1960 a QB? Green? Just going by memory here and I'm getting old, so.. Yep, you're right. It was Richie Lucas a QB out of Penn State, I think #4 overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agardin Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I agree there is no corelation. There is just as likely a case that teams that didn't do it frequently are better franchises as they have had QBs that played a long time so there was no need to continually draft a QB in the first round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 In the Elway to Marino doc, Norm Pollom of the Bills implied that the Bills at #12 and #14 actually had Kelly rated higher than Tony Hunter, but they worried Hunter was going to be taken by the team directly above us at 13, and they wouldn't take a QB. That's why they took Hunter over Kelly. It's truly amazing that they haven't taken a QB with first pick. But the Bledsoe and RJ trades/picks skew that a little. Imagine if the Lions had picked Kelly and we had spent all those years loving Dan Marino. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
section122 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 In the Elway to Marino doc, Norm Pollom of the Bills implied that the Bills at #12 and #14 actually had Kelly rated higher than Tony Hunter, but they worried Hunter was going to be taken by the team directly above us at 13, and they wouldn't take a QB. That's why they took Hunter over Kelly. It's truly amazing that they haven't taken a QB with first pick. But the Bledsoe and RJ trades/picks skew that a little. I thought it was that they liked Kelly and Marino so they knew that at least one of them would have been there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I thought it was that they liked Kelly and Marino so they knew that at least one of them would have been there? You're right. That is what he said specifically. But to me, it was implied that they liked the QBs better and would have chose Kelly at 12 (since they had the pick and took him over Marino) if they didn't worry Hunter would be taken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBUffalo Posted April 25, 2013 Author Share Posted April 25, 2013 The funny thing is that a stat like this would imply that you've been finding great QBs elsewhere, but they haven't... Yep, you're right. It was Richie Lucas a QB out of Penn State, I think #4 overall. Richie Lucas was selected by the Bills in the AFL draft, but the Washington Redskins took him in the NFL draft the same year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
section122 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 (edited) You're right. That is what he said specifically. But to me, it was implied that they liked the QBs better and would have chose Kelly at 12 (since they had the pick and took him over Marino) if they didn't worry Hunter would be taken. You may be right. I didn't read to much into it I got caught daydreaming about Marino being the qb for my beloved Bills and trying to figure out if that would have been better or worse than Kelly. I never made up my mind because I honestly couldn't. Marino was an amazing passer and giving him Thurman would have been incredible. I just don't know if it would have been better than Kelly. (I think it might have but want to punch myself in the face for thinking it ) Edited April 25, 2013 by section122 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Richie Lucas was selected by the Bills in the AFL draft, but the Washington Redskins took him in the NFL draft the same year. True. But why on earth would you start with 1961 instead of 1960 when the Bills started, and selected a QB #1, and guys were taken in both leagues for several years. You may be right. I didn't read to much into it I got caught daydreaming about Marino being the qb for my beloved Bills and trying to figure out if that would have been better or worse than Kelly. I never made up my mind because I honestly couldn't. Marino was an amazing passer and giving him Thurman would have been incredible. I just don't know if it would have been better than Kelly. (I think it might have but want to punch myself in the face for thinking it ) Kelly would have been better, IMO. Marino was a far better pure passer, perhaps the best passer in NFL history. But he had a LOT of trouble just handing off. Part of the reason they never had a great running game was that he wasn't a great ball handler in the running game. It was bigger they didn't have great players but you could see repeatedly how Marino just lunged handing the ball off over his entire career. He probably just hated to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cash Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 True. But why on earth would you start with 1961 instead of 1960 when the Bills started, and selected a QB #1, and guys were taken in both leagues for several years. Because Lucas was a territorial pick, and thus not really relevant to the modern draft process? Or maybe just to bias the results? I dunno. I don't think it's relevant to go back farther than the start of the common draft in any case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billshank Redemption Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 very interesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bills Fan Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Not gonna be sexy, but they will take Warmack/Cooper with #8. Then best available QB in RD 2 - Nassib, Manuel, Barkley in that order. If they go with a QB at 8 it will be Nassib due to the Marrone/Hackett tie in. Austin doesn't make sense here - we have both Spiller and Graham with similar shiftiness and speed so there is no need to get yet another. When was the last time though that a top 10 QB has made a real impact besides the two slamdunk, once in a lifetime QBs of last year - Luck & RGIII? The few other QBs that that the Bills "could have" taken in the past but were passed up were all 2/3/4 rounders (Brees, Kapernick, Dalton, Wilson). There are good players to be had later. It's a crap shoot with QB honestly and I don't think that they will reach for anyone but Nassib if they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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