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


T master

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5 hours ago, Seasons1992 said:

 

It worked out just fine.

 

Only after Kelly got his head out of his A** & after Pollian talked to him because at first he was a turd, said the last place he wanted to go was to the Bills & that was the reason why he went to the USFL which to this day chaps my A** !! 

 

 I've actually met Kelly since & he's a great guy !! 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Bill from NYC said:

The #8 in a draft that was loaded with talent needs to be more than a legit starter, which he barely was. Whitner was an undersized safety with mediocre speed.

 

I agree that the 2000 draft produced worse players for the Bills. Absolutely true but there were less good players to choose from.  In fact, it was probably one of the worst draft classes ever. I think that the first QB chosen was Chad Pennington. :) 

 

In 2006, Levy passed on excellent players and turned down at least 2 offers to trade down, one of which included multiple picks. I heard him say this during a post draft interview and he was actually bragging about drafting Whitner.

C'mon man ... Corey Moore could've been a helluva LB for us ... until he got shot ?

Edited by frostbitmic
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21 hours ago, Billy Claude said:

 

While hiring Rex was horrible in hindsight, I think a lot of people thought it was a good hire at the time.   OTOH, drafting Spilled when they had Lynch was met with almost universal puzzlement.

It was horrible from the get-go. The Jets were a clown show for all but his first few years with them and it made no sense to hire a defensive coach when we already had a good D. We badly needed an offensive overhaul and we hired one of the least effective coaches from an offensive standpoint you could possibly find. 

 

The saddest thing is that when it comes to picking out bonehead moves, we have boatloads of options. 

 

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23 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 !!

The one thing that Bills fans that were around when Polian was fired know is that ole Bill had a very fiery temper to go along with his red hair. And even at that point in time Ralph Wilson (75) was considered a cantankerous, frugal owner. The two were always fighting about something. Polian needed to go to war with Wilson over spending money on players, improvements for the stadium, better field, big screen etc. 

 

 Polian happened to get into an argument with Wilson's daughter who worked for the team, Linda Bogdan, She was vice president and assistant director of college and pro scouting. (she had scouted and recommended that the Bills draft WR Jerry Butler .)

 

Anyway, Polian was heard calling her a very unpleasant name which ultimately prompted his firing. I can also recall something about Polian's brother working security for the team and there was a rumor in Minnesota before the SB that somehow the Redskins had gotten hold of a Buffalo Bills playbook because of him. Polian was fired Feb 4th 1993. So, take your pick.

 

 

On another note. When Chuck Knox was hired by Ralph Wilson he brought with him his player personnel director from the Rams in Norm Pollom. He was the one that recommended that the team hire a young upstart scout/pro personnel director by the name of Bill Polian to become the new Buffalo Bills pro personnel director in 1984. He didn't become GM until 1986.

 Anyway, it was Pollom who stayed with Buffalo after Knox left to eventually help draft Bills HoFers Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith and Andre Reed in the fourth round, Daryl Talley too. More of Pollom's players for the Los Angles Rams were HoFers Tom Mack, Jack Youngblood, Jackie Slater, as well as Lawrence McCutcheon and Dennis Harrah.

 

How Jim Kelly eventually got to Buffalo was a strange story. After the fall of the USFL, at that time the Raiders owner all Davis thought he could pull off another Daryle Lamonica type trade to bring Kelly to the Raiders. (Rumor has it that Davis paid for Kelly to go to London in an all expenses paid trip with some Raiderettes.) This was on Bill Polian who convinced the Bills owner that bringing in Kelly would revive the team money wise, season ticket wise. Ralph Wilson did something he had never done previously as he made QB Jim Kelly the highest paid QB in the league to get him to play for the Buffalo Bills. It did indeed sell season tickets as Bills fans went nuts over Kelly. 

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...before getting into individual personnel moves, think I would look bigger picture an an "era".......the personnel stuff should (IMO) then be a reflection.....post Donohoe debacle, when RW felt his "Inner Circle of Trust" was violated, he went into "full panic mode" by "re-tiring" Marv (with Pep Boys recaps) and promoting Brandon into position(s) that he was woefully unqualified for......and the "Gruesome Twosome" hire Dopey Dicky Jauron as HC.....that was the start of "F Troop Running the Show".....no offense to Sgt O'Rourke intended............

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

It was the joke of a duo of Nix/Gailey who traded Lynch, not because Ralph didn't want to pay him, but because the duo didn't like his off the field stuff.  So, instead of building his trade value up, they tore it down by drafting another RB in the 1st round, then demoralizing Lynch making him unwelcome & taking snaps away from him.  So after that Lynch was glad to get away from a team that (yes, through Ralph's "contribution") had become a place where nobody wanted to come to and had no chance of winning for the foreseeable future.  That's how we got Gailey in the 1st place since the situation was so bad, Nix had to hire a coach whose last NFL stop was getting fired as an OC in preseason because no self respecting coach would come here.  I still don't get the love Gailey gets around here-he sucked as a HC, exemplified by the time he lost a game by punting from his opponent's 34 yard line because he didn't trust his kicker to try a 51 yard FG or trust his offense to get a 1st down.  

 

The reason Chan gets slack is he was a genuinely nice human being. I know that isn't the test but in a world where the hires around him were Greggo, Mularkey, Jauron, Saint Doug and Rex.... guys it was possible to dislike while they coached your favourite team.... Gailey just seemed likeable even when I knew he was out of his depth. I think he sometimes gets overrated as a coach because of that. 

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2 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

The reason Chan gets slack is he was a genuinely nice human being. I know that isn't the test but in a world where the hires around him were Greggo, Mularkey, Jauron, Saint Doug and Rex.... guys it was possible to dislike while they coached your favourite team.... Gailey just seemed likeable even when I knew he was out of his depth. I think he sometimes gets overrated as a coach because of that. 

 

He wasn't nice when he yelled at those poor fans at practice.

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This isn’t really one head scratcher, but a combination of events during the drought. The front office inability to assess QB’s was terrible during that time. I understand, it isn’t easy to find a franchise QB in the draft, but we stuck with guys far too long who had little potential. I can’t believe anyone ever considered Losman, Edwards, and Fitz as long term solutions. We wasted lots of time and resources on those guys. Additionally, simply drafting Manuel in the first round was a pathetic move. 

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I apologize to the OP, and whoever else may see this differently, but I don’t see anything positive coming from this. By “head scratchers”, we basically mean screw-ups. So, let’s rehash everything that’s ever gone wrong in Bills history??? 

 

I respect the opinions here, and I get that on some level it’s a legit question, but I don’t like to look at life from the negative side. I know, it’s factual and it’s history, face it. But I just don’t see the point. 

 

Right now I’m focused on looking out of the windshield, not the rear view mirror. I find that more exciting! One guys opinion. Please feel free to carry on. Just not my style. 

 

Go Bills! 

 

 

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Edited by Augie
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