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What are Some of the Biggest Head Scratchers Made by Bills Ownership/FO in Bills History ?


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15 hours ago, Albany,n.y. said:

In this century the Bills have been bad when trading 1st round picks, up or down.

2002- Traded 2003 1st rounder for Bledsoe

2004-Traded back into the 1st round for JP Losman giving 2005 #1 to Dallas as part of the deal.

2013-Traded down & used the lower 1st rounder on EJ Manuel

2014-Traded up trading their 2014 & 2015 1st rounder in the Sammy Watkins trade

2017-Traded down giving KC the best young QB in the NFL

2018-The jury is out but it may be that Beane has stopped the bad 1st round trades of the 2000s.  We'll be able to better evaluate those trade ups when Allen & Edmunds go for their 2nd contracts.  

 

This about sums it up!!! JP Losman man I hated the guy.

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I live in Chicago, so I had seen first-hand for 5 years how awful of a coach Dick Jauron was. When I heard he was in the running for the Bills' coaching job, my heart sank. I felt sick to stomach for days after he was hired. I knew exactly how it'd turn out, and had to watch it unfold. That was the darkest Bills era for me.

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@CA OC Bills Fan You are right as recalled it incorrectly. I do remember Wade was fired over not firing his special teams coach. Just got the wrong one. 

 

As for letting Chuck Knox walk away. It wasn't a head scratcher to me simply because of how frugal Wilson was at that time. He initially made Knox one of the top highest paid head coaches when he hired him. Now that the man had not only turned the team around he also gave new pride for the city of Buffalo. Remember the "talking proud" campaign which started in 1980? The Buffalo Bills were a big part of that success.

 

Anyway, Knox felt he deserved a raise and the Bills coming off the 1982 strike shortened season at 4-5, Wilson said he felt differently. 

 

Want a real head scratcher? 

 

How about hiring ex Buffalo Bills QB and current Bills QB coach Kay Stephenson to be the head coach after letting Knox walk. Ray Prochaska was Knox's offensive coordinator under Knox and he left Buffalo to go to Seattle with Knox. 

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17 hours ago, Albany,n.y. said:

Polian had nothing to do with drafting Jim Kelly.  

 

Maybe so but he was the one that talked to Kelly when the league he was playing in went belly up & the Bills still had Kelly's rights & he talked to him & told him coming to the Bills would be good for him . 

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13 hours ago, formerlyofCtown said:

Firing Wade Phillips, pushing for Rob Johnson to start.  Basically not letting his football people make the football decisions.

I’m sure someone has already brought it up but he didn’t draft Kelly.  Nor was he solely responsible for those teams.  They were the results of 3 GMs he was the last.

So that the few that do not will begin to appreciate what’s there now maybe.

Well, I’m pretty certain that everyone who follows the history of the bills Since the merger is painfully aware that the current ownership and management is light years ahead of those days, (Polian years exempted). Those that don’t know may very well learn this.  It is still agonizing to look back on so many bad decisions and missed opportunities... ??

 

Go Bills!!!

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Firing Polian

Drafting Spiller/Trading Lynch

Not improving on Joe Ferguson

Firing Wade

Trading Rashad

Letting Knox go

32 minutes ago, Nihilarian said:

@CA OC Bills Fan You are right as recalled it incorrectly. I do remember Wade was fired over not firing his special teams coach. Just got the wrong one. 

 

As for letting Chuck Knox walk away. It wasn't a head scratcher to me simply because of how frugal Wilson was at that time. He initially made Knox one of the top highest paid head coaches when he hired him. Now that the man had not only turned the team around he also gave new pride for the city of Buffalo. Remember the "talking proud" campaign which started in 1980? The Buffalo Bills were a big part of that success.

 

Anyway, Knox felt he deserved a raise and the Bills coming off the 1982 strike shortened season at 4-5, Wilson said he felt differently. 

 

Want a real head scratcher? 

 

How about hiring ex Buffalo Bills QB and current Bills QB coach Kay Stephenson to be the head coach after letting Knox walk. Ray Prochaska was Knox's offensive coordinator under Knox and he left Buffalo to go to Seattle with Knox. 

Not firing Stephenson after 1984 2-14 season.

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19 hours ago, frostbitmic said:

Drafting Donte Hitner over Haloti Ngata and then trading back into the 1st and taking John McCargo over Nick Mangold in the same draft.

 

Giving up a 1st for surfer boy Robb Johnson after 1 good game in Jacksonville.

 

Giving up a 1st for the statue of Bledsoe

 

Making Russ Brandon GM

 

Hiring Rex Ryan as HC.

 

Good list but I would add making Marv GM as a bonehead move.  Look, I love Marv.  But this wasn't a job he could do and Ralph hired him strictly and purely because he (Ralph) felt comfortable with him (Marv), the team and the fans be damned.  Then he made it worse with Brandon.

 

I have to think Ralph really lost it in his last years.  But I always wondered if he really understood how the game on the field worked (hello Kaye Stephenson, Hank Bullough, . . .)

17 hours ago, row_33 said:

Marv’s return was a cynical and pitiful move that cost the franchise a lot of years in punishment

 

I don't know about cynical, but pitiful and flat-out stupid work too.

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3 hours ago, Bill from NYC said:

The Levy/Jauron draft in 2006 set this team back 5 years. It was SO bad that most posters on this board knew how much it would hurt the team (although, a few actually defended it).

 They entered the draft with the #8 in rounds 1 & 2, and 2 top ten picks in round 3. 4 early picks in the first 3 rounds!!! The net result?  DB Whitner (mediocre and cost 36 million in real cap dollars), McCargo (DL who completely sucked), and DB Ashton Youboty (just awful).  Oh, and the draft was stacked with good players.

 

Not painful enough? They grabbed another horrible DB, Ko Simpson in round 4.

 

Levy and Jauron were two clowns, at the sub-basement level of Rich Kotite. 

 

PS: I don't care that they drafted Kyle Williams in the 5th in that draft. That was pure luck. Nobody else thought that he was any good. I would have been more impressed if they took him early.

 

 

Ko Simpson was worth millions though.  Just ask him & he will tell you.  

2 hours ago, Canadian Bills Fan said:

Drafting Torell Troup over Gronk

 

 

The funny thing was they stated later on they wanted to stay away from Gronk because of concerns with his back & Troupe had his career ended with back problems.  Honestly you can't make this stuff up.  

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1 hour ago, 947 said:

I live in Chicago, so I had seen first-hand for 5 years how awful of a coach Dick Jauron was. When I heard he was in the running for the Bills' coaching job, my heart sank. I felt sick to stomach for days after he was hired. I knew exactly how it'd turn out, and had to watch it unfold. That was the darkest Bills era for me.

 

 

That hiring was exasperating.    I'm generally bemused by the Bills being Billsy but I was so angry that I kicked a wastebasket that I'm pretty sure would have been good from 50.

 

What people forget is that so many fans loved all the close games that Jauron Ball created and the fanbase really bought into Jauron for 3 years because of it......................the same way they loved Jauron Ball 2.0 in 2017 with McDermott.    The spirit of the game isn't to not make any sudden moves and just hope that your opponent makes enough errors that you can squeak out a win..........that kind of football just bastardizes the sport.

 

 

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19 hours ago, T master said:

 

The one article i read while surfing around this board was the one of Pollian announcing his own firing ? here is the man that put together the trade for Cornelius Bennett, drafted Kelly, brought in Marv Levy & built the team that went to 4 consecutive SB's something that may never happen again, talk about a head scratcher !!

 

 

 

There was a lot of very real circumstances that drove a wedge between Ralph and Bill, this really came as no surprise to anyone at the time.  It was upsetting to us as fans, but not much of a heads scratcher.

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