Mike in Horseheads Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 In this latest Doug Whaley thread I see it always turns back to Bill Polian and how wonderful he was. But as some have pointed out a lot of rules have changed. Polian became Bills GM in 1986 and by then they had drafted Jim Kelly and Bruce Smith. Kind of hard to miss with a cornerstone on both sides of the field. Thurman fell to the 2nd round and what I believe his greatest move was fleecing the Colts for the Biscuit. Latter he went to the Colts and drafted the consensus #1 Payton Manning and was great again? ... I'm sure I will get blasted for asking a question about a Bills God. But he won with talent. Phil Jackson is great too in many eyes but he won with what many consider the greatest ever MJ with the Bulls and then Kobe and Shaq with the Lakers. As a GM with the Knicks I guess we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BreezeMafia Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 Players during the Bills rise in the 80's already on the roster pre Polian GM also include Jim Richter, Darryl Talley, Joe Devlin. The best trade he made, actually didn't receive a ton of press, was trading the '85 1st overall Supplemental Pick to Cleveland for their '85 and '86 #1's. Â Not arguing that trading for Biscuit was not a great move, but the trade certainly was not a fleecing. We gave up our fair share of picks for sure, I 2 #1's, #2, and maybe a 3rd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justnzane Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 In this latest Doug Whaley thread I see it always turns back to Bill Polian and how wonderful he was. But as some have pointed out a lot of rules have changed. Polian became Bills GM in 1986 and by then they had drafted Jim Kelly and Bruce Smith. Kind of hard to miss with a cornerstone on both sides of the field. Thurman fell to the 2nd round and what I believe his greatest move was fleecing the Colts for the Biscuit. Latter he went to the Colts and drafted the consensus #1 Payton Manning and was great again? ... I'm sure I will get blasted for asking a question about a Bills God. But he won with talent. Phil Jackson is great too in many eyes but he won with what many consider the greatest ever MJ with the Bulls and then Kobe and Shaq with the Lakers. As a GM with the Knicks I guess we'll see. He did have the balls to trade Marshall Faulk who was asking for too much $ and drafting Edgerrin James (over the "sure thing" of Ricky Williams) after year 1. At Indy, he did draft Freeny, Mathis, Sanders, Wayne, Dallas to continue his cycle of drafting in the 20's every year, by supplying just enough for Peyton Gump to succeed, just like amassing enough talent to keep the Bills deep enough to make 4 SB's in a row. Â There is too much coincidence for it to be luck. Polian was a genius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 In this latest Doug Whaley thread I see it always turns back to Bill Polian and how wonderful he was. But as some have pointed out a lot of rules have changed. Polian became Bills GM in 1986 and by then they had drafted Jim Kelly and Bruce Smith. Kind of hard to miss with a cornerstone on both sides of the field. Thurman fell to the 2nd round and what I believe his greatest move was fleecing the Colts for the Biscuit. Latter he went to the Colts and drafted the consensus #1 Payton Manning and was great again? ... I'm sure I will get blasted for asking a question about a Bills God. But he won with talent. Phil Jackson is great too in many eyes but he won with what many consider the greatest ever MJ with the Bulls and then Kobe and Shaq with the Lakers. As a GM with the Knicks I guess we'll see. Â You will get blasted for doing absolutely not even the most basic research into Polian's career before vomiting up this thread. Â You might want to review the other players Polain drafted other than Manning in all his years as a GM. Â Also, it will obviously come as a surprise to you that he was the first GM of the expansion Panthers. Check out how he did there. Â This is sad... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Byrd Man Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 I think lucky, with a great head of scouting in Butler with the Bills. And with the Colts as you said he made the right choice of Manning over the slightly more highly touted Leaf. Was that genius or Luck? Sorry about that. But what did he do after that? His colts never had a D of any substance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snafu Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 Bill Polian is f**king crazy!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike in Horseheads Posted October 8, 2016 Author Share Posted October 8, 2016 Â You will get blasted for doing absolutely not even the most basic research into Polian's career before vomiting up this thread. Â You might want to review the other players Polain drafted other than Manning in all his years as a GM. Â Also, it will obviously come as a surprise to you that he was the first GM of the expansion Panthers. Check out how he did there. Â This is sad... LOL.... I'm aware of the Kerry Collins era. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 I think lucky, with a great head of scouting in Butler with the Bills. And with the Colts as you said he made the right choice of Manning over the slightly more highly touted Leaf. Was that genius or Luck? Sorry about that. But what did he do after that? His colts never had a D of any substance. Â They had Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, Bob Sanders and Antoine Bethea on the field at the same time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Riverside Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 Does Bill like meatloaf? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
machine gun kelly Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 You will get blasted for doing absolutely not even the most basic research into Polian's career before vomiting up this thread. Â You might want to review the other players Polain drafted other than Manning in all his years as a GM. Â Also, it will obviously come as a surprise to you that he was the first GM of the expansion Panthers. Check out how he did there. Â This is sad... You will get blasted for doing absolutely not even the most basic research into Polian's career before vomiting up this thread. Â You might want to review the other players Polain drafted other than Manning in all his years as a GM. Â Also, it will obviously come as a surprise to you that he was the first GM of the expansion Panthers. Check out how he did there. Â This is sad... Not the sarcasm, but I'm with Weo. You have to look at his late round drafts,, free agents, and trades in Buffalo, Carolina, Anne Indianapolis. Kind of surprised Mike you would start his thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 (edited) LOL.... I'm aware of the Kerry Collins era. Â NFCC game in two years. Â Look up all of the others he drafted in Indy. Â He signed Bruce as Dir of Player Personnel. Â Disaster of a thread (and derivative of dozens of other such threads). Edited October 8, 2016 by Mr. WEO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djp14150 Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 I haven't read over all the replies... Â First off Polian came to buffalo in 84 then gm in 86. He was involved in buffalo drafting Bruce. Â Buffalo had some talent in their system given the 80 and 81 seasons. Â They drafted well and got talent in 4th round or later. Â You also have to remember the system was different in free agency with plan B players buffalo signed that were successful. Â Also remember kelly was not a top 5 pick. To claim he would be food was a crap shoot at best. Â They didn't get taken in the bennett/Richardson trade. They got a high 1st round player for a price very comparable to today in acquiring a top 3 pick. Â He also did well in carolina and indy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike in Horseheads Posted October 8, 2016 Author Share Posted October 8, 2016 Â NFCC game in two years. Â Look up all of the others he drafted in Indy. Â He signed Bruce as Dir of Player Personnel. Â Disaster of a thread (and derivative of dozens of other such threads). WEO... I'll put you in the genius vote, So feel free to move on. Reminder flamers, I asked a question. Obviously early returns are yes he's a genius. So if he is such a genius why didn't he ever find the players or coach to get us over the top in the 4 sb's? I bet answer will be Ralph was cheap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrDawkinstein Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 12 rounds of draft. Only 27 other teams to compete with for players. No salary cap, and team-friendly FA rules. Â Polian was good, but he also had it much easier than modern GMs at the beginning of his career. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 WEO... I'll put you in the genius vote, So feel free to move on. Reminder flamers, I asked a question. Obviously early returns are yes he's a genius. So if he is such a genius why didn't he ever find the players or coach to get us over the top in the 4 sb's? I bet answer will be Ralph was cheap    I don't know. Maybe he just didn't feel like it that day.  Holy cow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed_Formerly_of_Roch Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 He was pretty good to extremely good at finding talent, though in the last few years, he seemed to have lost it a bit. His downfall was more personality wise, he was known to be a tyrant and had issues with working with others which is part of being the GM. Seemed he did a good job of training others to act likewise like AJ Smith and little sonny boy Chris I believe is his name. Everything I've read about him is he's a total disaster and seems like it's hard to hire Bill without getting AJ and Chris as a package deal. For that reason alone I'd say stay away. Â So was he a genius for doing it in three cities or was that a result of his quirks that never allowed him to stay anyplace very long. He was good at what he did, but to many issues to call hi ma genius and think the game has passed him by. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 He was pretty good to extremely good at finding talent, though in the last few years, he seemed to have lost it a bit. His downfall was more personality wise, he was known to be a tyrant and had issues with working with others which is part of being the GM. Seemed he did a good job of training others to act likewise like AJ Smith and little sonny boy Chris I believe is his name. Everything I've read about him is he's a total disaster and seems like it's hard to hire Bill without getting AJ and Chris as a package deal. For that reason alone I'd say stay away. Â So was he a genius for doing it in three cities or was that a result of his quirks that never allowed him to stay anyplace very long. He was good at what he did, but to many issues to call hi ma genius and think the game has passed him by. Â He was in Indy for 15 seasons. Â Â This thread is actually very revealing..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike in Horseheads Posted October 8, 2016 Author Share Posted October 8, 2016 Â He was in Indy for 15 seasons. Â Â This thread is actually very revealing..... That you think he should be the Czar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augie Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 Any guy who is lucky with 3 teams in a row, then makes millions talking about it, is a genius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jms62 Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 WEO... I'll put you in the genius vote, So feel free to move on.Reminder flamers, I asked a question. Obviously early returns are yes he's a genius. So if he is such a genius why didn't he ever find the players or coach to get us over the top in the 4 sb's? I bet answer will be Ralph was cheap Maybe if the players concentrated more on the game then the bars at the Super Bowl things may have been different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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