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


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17 hours ago, Bleedbuffaloblue said:

Back in the day when Chuck Knox was coach, don’t remember who the GM was they drafted Gary Anderson, kicker out of Syracuse and cut him after the preseason when he missed a couple near 50 yard FG’s and kept the incumbent Nick Mickameyer (sp?). The Steelers immediately grabbed him up and Anderson went on to be a perennial All-Pro and one of the best place kickers of all time.

Don’t know why that boneheaded move sticks in my head after all these years, but it does.

I'm pretty sure Anderson missed more than those long FG's. It was a long time ago, but i seem to remember him having an awful camp. I may be remembering wrong.

 

It probably sticks in your head because he would have been our kicker in Super Bowl XXV and well....

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5 hours ago, Gugny said:

 

Some kids were taunting Trent Edwards … https://www.espn.com/nfl/trainingcamp10/news/story?id=5492834

so...you are calling yourself a "kid"? How rich...

2 hours ago, Augie said:

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. 

 

One guys opinion. Please feel free to carry on. Just not my style. 

 

Go Bills! 

 

 

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what's surprising is that this is only 6 pages long and the Josh Allen Comp % thread is 111. I really thought this one would easily exceed that....

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Most of the splashy draft surprises that whiffed.

 

Willis McGahee

JP Losman

EJ Manuel 

Sammy Watkins

 

Passing on obvious choice players at positions of need, who fans/media were all predicting/hoping for, that end up being monster good and everyone knew it at the time without 20/20 2020 hindsight.

 

Patrick Mahomes

Khalil Mack

Rob Gronkowski

 

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7 hours ago, Augie said:

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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Your philosophy is sound Augie, however these times were so weird and taxing for fans that is does merit some discussion.

 

Back in the Levy/Jauron days, guys like us went to sports bars and watched the Bills on satellite TV. At home we would watch some college games on a 32 inch screen and read football magazines and newspapers. Then, we would come up with better draft plans than Bills coaches and GMs.

After these 2 miserable failures, things stayed insane for another decade or so. Spiller, Whitner, Kouandjio…..really? I can think of several posters who 100% knew that these were dumb moves that had zero chance of success, and I do mean ZERO.

 

If we were talking about another subject I would tend to agree with your post. In our case, being a Bills fans has been quite bizarre, weird enough to rehash from time to time. And btw, if we don't win big with Allen (I for one think that we can mind you), this thread will be considered giggling kindness when angry fans talk about passing on Mahomes/Watson to draft a cornerback.

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The dumbest of dumb...real head scratcher. 

 

Trading away pro bowl LT Jason Peters to the Eagles and attempted to replace him with a 7th round pick in Demetress Bell or was it Deme' tress or was it Demetrius, I can't remember?

 

This was in 2009, and last time I looked Jason Peters was still locking down that LT position for the Eagles in 2019. 10 years man, 10 years! 

 

 

Now, the story on this was that Peters was a walk on TE that Bills O line coach Jim McNally coached up and converted to become one of the very best left tackles in the league. Just to give an idea how good a coach McNally was, he coached the Bengals line 1980-1994 and HoFer all pro/pro bowler LT Anthony Munoz.

 

Anyway, when Marv Levy had a smart idea to attempt to run that deep passing scheme of the St Louis Rams "greatest show on turf" in Buffalo with new ex Ram OC Steve Fairchild as the new Bills OC. After that first season they saw that the Bills offensive line even with an all pro at LT simply wasn't good enough with LG Mike Gandy, C Melvin Fowler, RG Chris Villarrial, RT Terrance Pennington as four of those five players stunk! 

 

Now how Levy went about building that offensive line was all wrong as he should have done it with the draft. As all bad teams with bad coaches, bad scouting departments they make bad decisions and this Bills regime was no different.

 

Levy brought in high priced free agents LG Derrick Dockery and RT Langston Walker and Brad Butler was the RG. Now Butler wasn't all that bad but Walker and Dockery weren't worth the money and Jason Peters took notice of this and he asked for more money. As I recall the Bills paid Dockery an absurd amount and all that did was piss of the pro bowler LT.

 

Well, trading away Peters did give the Bills the picks to draft C Eric Wood with a #1 pick and LG Andy Levitre with a #2 pick. The problem was while had upgraded the middle of the line they had a lousy ends in LT in Bell and RT in Kirk Chambers.

 

 

Enter new Bills GM Buddy Nix in 2010, who promptly states that, "You're going to think i'm nuts, but we're not that far away". Meaning he thought the Bills had a pretty good roster. That 2010 Bills team went 4-12. Nix went on to sign Cornell Green as a free agent RT who lasted a whole five games before being benched and released. Showing that Nix didn't know offensive line player talent at all. He did manage to find off the street players to band-aid the line with RG Kraig Urbik and RT Erik Pears. 

 

 

This new Bills regime in Beane/McD did make the mistake of drafting a QB and starting him behind a poor line in 2018. They did attempt to upgrade the line in both free agency and the draft in 2019. However, we all saw that line wasn't nearly good enough this past season in games against the Ravens, Patriots, Eagles and hopefully the Bills continue to upgrade the line for 2020. The Bills also had problems punching the ball into the end zone with their run game by the RBs. 

 

And yes, Nathan Peterman as the 2018 starting QB was also a huge head scratcher. Who in their right mind thought that this kid would be a viable starter behind that craptastic 2018 offensive line? 

 

 

 

 

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So many events or decisions that are already mentioned.  One for me is Buffalo's 2016 off-season which included:

 

Whaley saying Buffalo's first 3 picks (all defense) were off the bus starters.  

 

Within weeks of the draft seeing Shaq Lawson injured in a non-contact drill and misses a large part of the season. This after teams removed him from their board for having a shoulder injury.    

 

Whaley saying that football is "a violent game that I personally don't think humans are supposed to play."

 

The Bills media policy briefly specified that reporters could not talk about results from practice because EJM was all over the field with throws.  I believe this was quickly revised

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On 2/9/2020 at 4:56 PM, 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.  

 

The trade got Edmunds, Tre White and Dawkins.

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1. Trading away Marshawn Lynch but keeping Fred Jackson... could never understand that move.

 

2. Hiring Rex Ryan
 

3. Releasing Shady McCoy and keeping Frank Gore 

 

4. never drafting an actual good deep threat WR

 

5. Starting Rob over Flutie

 

6. Still not figuring out how to best the Patriots even in a down year.

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7 minutes ago, Dflow23 said:

1. Trading away Marshawn Lynch but keeping Fred Jackson... could never understand that move.

 

 

 

Lynch had checked out well before the last game he wore a Bills jersey, was very public about it, sorry you missed it.

 

 

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3 hours ago, RichRiderBills said:

Heres a few that pop in my head:

 

-trading Peters.

-Not trading up for Big Ben or Rivers in 2004 draft. 

-TJ Graham over Russell Wilson 2012.

-trading up for Watkins.

-Passing on both Mahomes and Watson.

-Letting Robert Woods walk.

-Letting Gilmour walk. 

The last two are super short sighted “letting them walk.” 
 

Robert Woods was visibly upset on the field with the lack of decent QB play... a team can offer all the money in the world and a player can still say “no.” Robert woods was not going to resign in Buffalo unless we paid him top 3 money. I really like Robert woods and wish we had him, but he isn’t worth top 3 money.

 

this is similar to Gilmore, who didn’t play very well his first year in NE. A couple years under Belichek helped him progress from a solid corner to a top corner

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17 minutes ago, Dflow23 said:

1. Trading away Marshawn Lynch but keeping Fred Jackson... could never understand that move.

 

2. Hiring Rex Ryan
 

3. Releasing Shady McCoy and keeping Frank Gore 

 

4. never drafting an actual good deep threat WR

 

5. Starting Rob over Flutie

 

6. Still not figuring out how to best the Patriots even in a down year.

1.  Zero impact on Bills franchise.

2.  Yep. Disaster.  Two lost years.

3.  Zero impact on Bills franchise.

4.  Big problem.

5.  We'll never know.

6.  Still waiting for a solution to this one.  None in sight.  

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6 minutes ago, mannc said:

1.  Zero impact on Bills franchise.

 

 

Lynch would have been an amazing keeper for his prime years, would 100% have raised the team's strength

 

but it wasn't just Lynch, it was also McGahee for this era, and Henry was totally disaffected before leaving town

 

Bills were a great farm team to get some experience before letting them run off to greener pastures

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26 minutes ago, PolishPrince said:

The last two are super short sighted “letting them walk.” 
 

Robert Woods was visibly upset on the field with the lack of decent QB play... a team can offer all the money in the world and a player can still say “no.” Robert woods was not going to resign in Buffalo unless we paid him top 3 money. I really like Robert woods and wish we had him, but he isn’t worth top 3 money.

 

this is similar to Gilmore, who didn’t play very well his first year in NE. A couple years under Belichek helped him progress from a solid corner to a top corner

 

Ill give you Gilmore, he wanted top CB money and had been solid, not great. Def seemed a me first guy. Most of us had a blah opinion of him leaving. But turns out he was great. Best CB in the league, best Defensive Player in the league...thats a biting loss....whatever our feelings or justifications were.

 

Woods was a team guy and I never recall this attitude you mention. I remember most bemoaning that you do not let team guys with his ethic walk, and few wanted him gone. The top 3 notion is inherently false, as the Bills could have transition tagged him for top 10.  He was productive and steady, but nobody could predict the blow up of that Rams O. We had to draft WRs to replace his loss and give up the farm. We've needed that consistant tough WR for years and neither Watkins or Zay could cut the mustard. As it is now, that 8 million per year was peanuts.

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39 minutes ago, PolishPrince said:

The last two are super short sighted “letting them walk.” 
 

Robert Woods was visibly upset on the field with the lack of decent QB play... a team can offer all the money in the world and a player can still say “no.” Robert woods was not going to resign in Buffalo unless we paid him top 3 money. I really like Robert woods and wish we had him, but he isn’t worth top 3 money.

 

this is similar to Gilmore, who didn’t play very well his first year in NE. A couple years under Belichek helped him progress from a solid corner to a top corner

 

Woods and Gilmore were both cases of guys who had enough here, unfortunately.

 

 

I think Woods really wanted to go to the west coast anyways and everything, at least publicly seemed amicable.  I love his game.  

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