Biggest Bills Bust Post 1980

[MarkyMannn]

21 hours ago, First Round Bust said:

remember that hunter was taken before kelly -imagine the benefit of getting a decent player, let alone all-pro or star level for that pick during the super bowl era...

Talley was taken in that same draft

[dgrochester55]

Williams and Losman are strong cases if you go by what the Bills could have done instead.    As an individual, I think that it is Maybin hands down.   At least Williams and Losman played for awhile.  Maybin played less than most 7th rounders and seemed to have a worse attitude that most players.    There were other much better options available at the position and practically everyone knew that it was a bad choice right away.  

 

Manuel is the least of a bust out of these choices.   Yes he was bad, but when Matt Barkley is the best you could have done that year, I consider to be more of an unfortunate circumstance.   The bigger mistake was not only going all in on Fitz, but being content with Tyler Thigpen as a backup and not drafting any quarterback once between 2008 and 2012.  Had Buffalo drafted Wilson or even Dalton or Foles, there would not have been a need to pick a qb in 2013 and the drought may have ended sooner.

[Billzgobowlin]

Man that is quite a list.  With what we gave up for Watkins I would put him in the conversation but ultimately if your 4th overall pick was supposed to be your future LT and he was serviceable at Guard, he would be the one I would pick.  That Williams pick changed the trajectory of the franchise.

[Billzgobowlin]

22 hours ago, First Round Bust said:

remember that hunter was taken before kelly -imagine the benefit of getting a decent player, let alone all-pro or star level for that pick during the super bowl era...

Yeah Darrell Green, Jim Jeffcoat, Gil Byrd, Joey Browner and Willie Gault all in the First Round that year after Hunter.

[SoTier]

28 minutes ago, dgrochester55 said:

Williams and Losman are strong cases if you go by what the Bills could have done instead.    As an individual, I think that it is Maybin hands down.   At least Williams and Losman played for awhile.  Maybin played less than most 7th rounders and seemed to have a worse attitude that most players.    There were other much better options available at the position and practically everyone knew that it was a bad choice right away.  

 

Manuel is the least of a bust out of these choices.   Yes he was bad, but when Matt Barkley is the best you could have done that year, I consider to be more of an unfortunate circumstance.   The bigger mistake was not only going all in on Fitz, but being content with Tyler Thigpen as a backup and not drafting any quarterback once between 2008 and 2012.  Had Buffalo drafted Wilson or even Dalton or Foles, there would not have been a need to pick a qb in 2013 and the drought may have ended sooner.

 

The Bills didn't go "all in on Fitz" because the Bills under Russ Brandon were all about maximizing profits not winning football games.  If Fitz had managed to morph into Aaron Rodgers, they would have kept him at mid-range starting QB money.  They also didn't spend on backup QBs; I think almost all of their backups while Brandon was the head of the organization might have been practice squad players at best on most other teams.  That included Nathan Peterman during Josh Allen's rookie season.

 

Russ Brandon became Bills GM in 2006 and was finally fired in 2018.  Keeping Brandon after he bought the team and then promoting him after the Rex Ryan disaster to head both the Bills and Sabres was the biggest mistake Pegula made.  Luckily, Pegula made the right pick for Bills GM with Beane.  The Sabres paid for Brandon's "money ball" philosophy for a lot longer, although they seem to be finally making strides in the right direction.

 

 

 

[May Day 10]

Mike Williams

 

 

That one hurt bad.  Premium spot in the draft.  Was an early domino in the drought years

 

He was supposed to be a stud franchise cornerstone LT.  Many of the other players listed here had lower floors/ceilings.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by May Day 10

[Big Turk]

On 4/25/2022 at 2:59 AM, Dan Darragh said:

Maybin, because the Bills became the laughingstock of 31 NFL front offices. I doubt anyone else had him ranked above a 3rd rounder.

 

By this token Manuel deserves a mention, although I remember the panic about getting a QB in a draft that had no legitimate starter candidates. At least if we'd taken Geno we'd have taken a guy who stayed around the league a long time.  But I think EJ was a stand-up guy and he took the criticism like a man.

 

More so for his rap skills which somehow were worse than his on field skills...

 

 

[Helpmenow]

erik Flowers

[Rico]

Perry Tuttle and Booker Moore were very uninspiring picks, but no one was close to being an obvious bust on draft day than Maybin. 

[AlfaBill]

On 4/24/2022 at 10:21 PM, Motorin' said:

JP Losman, especially considering it cost us the next year's 1st round pick while Aaron Rodgers was still available.

Not even close. JP had some talent. Unfortunately the coaching, receivers, and overall roster was crap. I always thought in the proper situation he would have been a solid starter. 

[vincec]

13 hours ago, dgrochester55 said:

Williams and Losman are strong cases if you go by what the Bills could have done instead.    As an individual, I think that it is Maybin hands down.   At least Williams and Losman played for awhile.  Maybin played less than most 7th rounders and seemed to have a worse attitude that most players.    There were other much better options available at the position and practically everyone knew that it was a bad choice right away.  

 

Manuel is the least of a bust out of these choices.   Yes he was bad, but when Matt Barkley is the best you could have done that year, I consider to be more of an unfortunate circumstance.   The bigger mistake was not only going all in on Fitz, but being content with Tyler Thigpen as a backup and not drafting any quarterback once between 2008 and 2012.  Had Buffalo drafted Wilson or even Dalton or Foles, there would not have been a need to pick a qb in 2013 and the drought may have ended sooner.

Nailed it. Other than that it was a great pick. 😂

[Motorin']

24 minutes ago, AlfaBill said:

Not even close. JP had some talent. Unfortunately the coaching, receivers, and overall roster was crap. I always thought in the proper situation he would have been a solid starter. 

 

He did go 7-9 once... And then win 3 other games in his entire career... And we mortgaged our 2005 1st round pick.

[Straight Hucklebuck]

Sammy Watkins was an atrocious pick.

 

Two first rounders, passed on Mack from UB, in a class loaded with great WR talent.

 

He doesn’t even see the end of his rookie deal in Buffalo.

 

Traded for a lousy 6th and EJ Gaines.

 

4th overall pick and Doug Whaley/Russ Brandon got it wrong. 
 

And we got rid of Steve Johnson, a guy who played his heart for the Bills.

[BillsfaninChicago]

Piggy backing off my other point about Losman. Why is Manuel even listed instead of Tulane Torpedo? If I remember correctly didn’t we move down in the draft in 2013. EJ didn’t pan out but we still got some picks in the first to soften the blow of being a desperate buyer in a weak QB class. Losman we bet the farm and were set back further.

[Buffalo03]

On 4/25/2022 at 12:21 AM, Motorin' said:

JP Losman, especially considering it cost us the next year's 1st round pick while Aaron Rodgers was still available.

I bring this up to my friend all the time. The fact that all we had to do was just go one more year and hold on to our 2005 pick and Aaron Rodgers would have fell right into our lap. Literally, not even a trade up

[Buffalo03]

On 4/25/2022 at 8:19 AM, SoTier said:

 

That wasn't Nix.  He might have been on the Bills staff at that time, but it was Brandon and Jauron running the draft in 2009.   Jauron loved smurfs on defense because they were supposed to be faster (I still remember watching Bills LBs regularly being dragging downfield by RBs).  IIRC, Maybin had straight line speed even at 240 lbs (which was like 30+ lbs more than his playing weight at PSU) but he didn't have much agility so he couldn't develop the kinds of moves that lighter edge rushers use to get to QBs.

I remember hearing a report about how Eric Wood who was in the same draft as Maybin, went against Maybin in practice that training camp and he knocked him on his ass and told him to "get the f**k up and earn his money". I found it pretty hysterical 

[Tuco]

With the 19th selection in the 1982 draft, the Bills select --

 

1982 - 7 games, 7 receptions, 107 yards, 0 touchdowns

1983 - 9 games, 17 receptions, 261 yards, 3 touchdowns

 

After Buffalo, in Atlanta and Tampa Bay, a total of -

1984 - 8 games, 1 reception, 7 yards, 0 touchdowns

 

Total - 24 games, 25 receptions, 375 yards, 3 touchdowns

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you, The Hero of The Orange Bowl, All-American wide receiver, Perry Tuttle . . . bust extraordinaire.

[BillsfaninChicago]

2 hours ago, Buffalo03 said:

I remember hearing a report about how Eric Wood who was in the same draft as Maybin, went against Maybin in practice that training camp and he knocked him on his ass and told him to "get the f**k up and earn his money". I found it pretty hysterical 

Oh yeah! I think that is pretty much verifiable true at this point. Good on Wood. 2009 was actually a decent draft and it would have been outstanding if we took someone like Orakapo instead Maybin with that first pick.

The Maybin pick was a fiasco from the start when he held out for an uber contract and missed important practice and development time. It didn’t improve once he was on the team. Garbage holdout tactics like that were one the reasons for the lock out the following off season.
 

That was one of the few pro sport labor disputes that I actually think improved the league because it capped rookies contracts and limited the number of the hold outs( I believe Bosa in San Diego did hold out post new labor agreement) and end the buy the farm deals on no production rookies you would see prior to 2010.

Edited April 27, 2022 by BillsfaninChicago