Good lord, how far we’ve come…

[Fr. Jerk]

We're not 7-9 anymore, thank gawd.

 

And it was Fred's turn, ya dig?

[Dan Darragh]

16 hours ago, QCity said:

The Spiller pick was still monumentally stupid.

Stupider than the Donte Whitner pick? Or the Aaron Maybin pick?

 

This franchise abused our blind loyalty for about 2 decades.

[Steptide]

Spiller was a huge let down, but Freddy Jackson became a star, at least to the bills. Hard to say if Lynch would've ever been as good with the bills as he was with Seattle. Either way, drafting spiller after this team had already invested so much in rb's under previous regimes was just stupid. Imo, a big reason for the long drought was never trying to get a legit franchise qb. Marrone was the only one who attempted it and unfortunately it was ej Manuel. Jauron bet on trent Edwards/losman, gailey bet on Fitz, Marrone on ej, Rex on Tyrod. I mean all those guys are pretty laughable as franchise qb's, and don't get me wrong, I love Fitz. Beane and McDermott are the first to come in here in 20 years and build a team they way it should be done. Granted 90% of McDermott and beanes success is Josh Allen. They miss on that pick and who knows where we are right now

[SirAndrew]

1 minute ago, Steptide said:

Spiller was a huge let down, but Freddy Jackson became a star, at least to the bills. Hard to say if Lynch would've ever been as good with the bills as he was with Seattle. Either way, drafting spiller after this team had already invested so much in rb's under previous regimes was just stupid. Imo, a big reason for the long drought was never trying to get a legit franchise qb. Marrone was the only one who attempted it and unfortunately it was ej Manuel. Jauron bet on trent Edwards/losman, gailey bet on Fitz, Marrone on ej, Rex on Tyrod. I mean all those guys are pretty laughable as franchise qb's, and don't get me wrong, I love Fitz. Beane and McDermott are the first to come in here in 20 years and build a team they way it should be done. Granted 90% of McDermott and beanes success is Josh Allen. They miss on that pick and who knows where we are right now

Exactly, we counted on guys becoming franchise QB’s who were never thought of as having that potential. Brady is the GOAT as a fifth round pick, but had immediate success. Those type of guys aren’t given years to succeed. Somehow we got stuck on players like Edwards and Fitz for years. 

[chris heff]

17 hours ago, AlBUNDY4TDS said:

Not gonna lie, I was excited when we drafted Spiller. We don't seem to do well with Clemson players. Spiller, Watkins, Shaq Lawson.

You forgot Perry Tuttle.

[Buffalo03]

13 hours ago, T.E. said:

Nix was at least was making a genuine attempt to win. The real lean years were when Russ Brandon was calling all the shots. That entire era felt like a showcase to ultimately move the team to Canada.

He was only GM one year. And he was here right up until McDermott's first year. He was president I believe when Buddy Nix was here so they weren't separate times

[Royale with Cheese]

Yes, I remember the 14 game schedule we had for all those years.

2 games a year were automatic losses to NE so we had to figure out how to get 9 wins for the rest of the 14 games remaining.  

[Ethan in Cleveland]

7 hours ago, Sojourner said:

You might be right but if they couldn’t have traded and got Josh, maybe they end up with Lamar?

Maybe Kyler Murray, Daniel Jones or Dwayne Haskins?

 

Burrow, Tua or Herbert?

 

Lawrence, Wilson, Trey Lance or Mac Jones?

 

Guess we’ll never know… thankfully!

 

All Praises to Josh!

 

Agreed! Thankfully we will never know. Maybe 30 years from now when Im dead they will do a retrospective show on Allen's multiple SuperBowl wins and Beane will say who he would have drafted if Allen was not on the board. 

[T.E.]

43 minutes ago, Buffalo03 said:

He was only GM one year. And he was here right up until McDermott's first year. He was president I believe when Buddy Nix was here so they weren't separate times

Fair enough. Those years from 09-13 kinda all run together

 

[Logic]

I know this isn't the point of this thread, but:

CJ Spiller was ahead of his time. He was also poorly used by the Bills.

Put him in the 2025 NFL with its increased space and speed and college influence, and give him to a creative offensive mind...that boy would EAT.

That said: Yeah. We've come a long way. From the Marv Levy nostalgia tour, to using the 9th pick on a "waterbug" and sleeping through the start of free agency, to the toxic dumpster fire that the Bills became under Russ Brandon and Doug Whaley. And who could forget the constant (and very real threats) of losing our team to another city?

And now look at the Bills: one of the most respected and well run franchises in the National Football League, perennial division winners and Super Bowl contenders, and 12 months out from the opening of a brand new stadium that should keep the Bills in Buffalo for decades to come.

What a long, strange trip its been.

 

Edited August 14 by Logic

[Buffalo03]

The weirdest part to me about the drought years, is that we made hires at the time that seemed like good ones. Tom Donahoe and Doug Whaley worked for the Steelers before coming over to Bills. Donahoe was there throughout the 90s as "Director of Football Operations" and was part of building very successful teams. Including going to the Super Bowl in 1995 and multiple championship game appearances. After he was let go by us, he became a Senior Advisor and then won a Super Bowl as the Senior Director of Player Personnel" with the Eagles in 2017. He made some good signings and draft picks with the Bills but somehow just couldn't figure it out as far as actually having a good team. 

 

Whaley was also part if the Steelers organization throughout the 2000's when they made and won 2 Super Bowls. Yet, comes here and is a huge failure.

 

Buddy Nix was actually a scout for us back in the 90s working under Butler and AJ Smith when we still built solid teams throughout the 90s. He followed Butler and Smith over to San Diego. He was the director of Player Personnel and then became assistant GM after Butler died. Him and Smith built solid teams there the entire decade. He comes back to Buffalo and can't figure it out. It's mind blowing how ridiculous and baffling it all was 

 

Thank God for Beane and McDermott who had a sure plan and built it their way and have made it work

Edited August 14 by Buffalo03

[RoscoeParrish]

14 minutes ago, Logic said:

I know this isn't the point of this thread, but:

CJ Spiller was ahead of his time. He was also poorly used by the Bills.

Put him in the 2025 NFL with its increased space and speed and college influence, and give him to a creative offensive mind...that boy would EAT.

That said: Yeah. We've come a long way. From the Marv Levy nostalgia tour, to using the 9th pick on a "waterbug" and sleeping through the start of free agency, to the toxic dumpster fire that the Bills became under Russ Brandon and Doug Whaley. And who could forget the constant (and very real threats) of losing our team to another city?

And now look at the Bills: one of the most respected and well run franchises in the National Football League, perennial division winners and Super Bowl contenders, and 12 months out from the opening of a brand new stadium that should keep the Bills in Buffalo for decades to come.

What a long, strange trip its been.

 

CJ was blind. He had negative vision.

 

He was always a superb athlete. He wouldn’t be better than James Cook today. He’d probably be what he was. A very fast athlete who was a bust.

 

Sean Payton couldn’t use him. It wasn’t creativity 

[corta765]

18 hours ago, H2o said:

Spiller had the one big year in 2012 with 1,700 (1,244 rushing and 459 receiving) total yards and 8 TD's. I thought he had turned the corner. He had another solid year in 2013 with 1,100 total yards, but only 2 TD's. Then he quickly faded off into anonymity. 

 

lol I love that they were interviewing him on ESPN in 2015 about his status on contract with the Bills.. and then the Bills literally traded for McCoy mid interview and yea his time was toast hahaha

[Mark Vader]

17 hours ago, SoTier said:

 

Lynch had 2 incidents in Buffalo.   He had another incident in Seattle early on, but after that, he seems to have stayed on the straight and narrow. 

 

I saw Lynch play at Cal, and he was the "fun-loving Skittles guy" in college that he later showed in his commercials but he lost that fun-loving personality under Dick Jauron's coaching.  My guess is that Lynch's personality didn't sit all that well with Jauron, and Lynch cared too much about winning to be happy playing Jauron's "play not to lose by too much" brand of football.   I think that led to his getting into trouble off the field, and landed him in Jauron's "dog house" -- ie, not playing much -- on the field.

It's Dick Jauron's fault that Lynch was carrying an unregistered firearm in the trunk of his car? 

[Alphadawg7]

19 hours ago, Rigotz said:

My friends were chatting about the “dark ages” and the CJ Spiller draft came up.
 

Most of you will recall, the team already had Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson on the roster, with about a billion other holes. Despite this, new Bills GM Buddy Nix selected CJ Spiller 9th overall. A few months later, he flipped Marshawn for a fourth round and conditional fifth round pick.

 

So… I went down a rabbit hole, curious how egregious team building like this could even happen.

And I present to you, Buddy Nix’s introductory Press Conference:

https://www.buffalobills.com/video/buddy-nix-named-general-manager-1002411

Compare this to our current operation. Yes, Josh has elevated the franchise, but there’s more to Buffalo’s rise than just one man. It’s refreshing to look back and see the difference.

 

(Before anyone says anything, my apologies for slandering Ralph. We are forever grateful to the man who created the team we all love!)

 

I heard we are not well run, terrible at drafting, offense stinks, defense stinks, we are too boring, and our first preseason game predicts our doom.  So are you sure we are not still in the "dark ages"?  😂

[Joe Ferguson forever]

19 hours ago, Rigotz said:

 

Compare this to our current operation. Yes, Josh has elevated the franchise, but there’s more to Buffalo’s rise than just one man. It’s refreshing to look back and see the difference.

 

(Before anyone says anything, my apologies for slandering Ralph. We are forever grateful to the man who created the team we all love!)

That seemed very clear in the Hard Knocks clips.

 

But Ralph was cheap...

[SoTier]

16 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

With all due respect OP, I think you are grossly underestimating the effect Allen has had on this franchise.  If Cleveland or the Jets take Allen, then McD and Beane are out of a job several years ago.  They did everything to position themselves to get a QB and with Darnold or the wrong Josh both of these fine men would have been given the boot a long time ago.

 

 

I think you are grossly underestimating Beane and McDermott.  Beane is an excellent GM and McDermott is an excellent HC.  Both also learned on the job, since they didn't have previous experience at their positions as some of their peers, like Howie Roseman and Andy Reid.  I think the Bills might have taken Lamar if they couldn't take Allen.  If they took Josh Rosen, I think he would have had a much better career than he had even if he was, at best, a decent NFL starter.  The same with Sam Darnold.  The Bills would be playoff contenders if not Super Bowl contenders. 

 

What would have been sad is that Josh would have been a disaster if he'd gone to the Browns or Jests.  The success of Baker and Darnold later in their careers, after they both got some good coaching with other teams, is an indictment of the Browns and Jests FO and coaching staff.  Sadly for the young QBs for the Browns, Stefanski is still the Browns HC.

 

14 hours ago, major said:

It was a train wreck, but man that circus was fun to watch 🎪 

 

No, it wasn't.  There was nothing fun about the best part of attending any Bills game was the tailgating because the Bills hadn't lost the game yet.

 

9 hours ago, Sojourner said:

Wrongly utilized more often than not. 
 

Similar to Watkins, a lot of his collegiate dominance was due to quick passes and screens, something you seldom saw him being deployed in. 
 

A lot of great players that never panned out over those years, sadly. 

Can’t fault Ralph really, Nix was that older mentality that he probably gravitated to. Double down with the networking he had within the league and it did kind of make sense. 
 

Russ Brandon, at least to me, was the biggest part of Ralph’s problems. Certainly mismanaged a lot of the improvement/building of the teams over his tenure. 

 

Buddy Nix was a former Bills employee.  I think he was a head scout or something under GM John Butler.  When Butler left the Bills for San Diego, he took his assistant GM, AJ Smith, and Nix with him.   The Bills then hired Tom Donahoe as GM.  Something happened between Ralph and Donahoe.  I have no idea what it, but after he was fired, Donahoe never got another opportunity with another NFL team.   He was persona non grata so it had to be something significant.

 

Russ Brandon didn't "mismanage" the Bills between 2006 and 2014 so much as he had a different agenda than fans.   Fans wanted to win football games.  Brandon wanted to maximize profits.

 

2 hours ago, Buffalo03 said:

He was only GM one year. And he was here right up until McDermott's first year. He was president I believe when Buddy Nix was here so they weren't separate times

 

Brandon had been hired by the Bills a few years before after he left MLB with the distinction of having sold off most of the personnel assets of the World Champion Florida Marlins, so that the Marlins went from World Champions to the worst record in baseball the next season.   The Marlins' playroll went from one of the largest in MLB to one of the smallest in one year, too. 

 

In 2006, Ralph named Brandon the Bills CEO and Dick Jauron as HC.  Marv Levy was a figurehead GM.  Jauron was the "talent" selector between 2006-2009 but Brandon controlled the purse strings and decided what players to keep and which players to send packing.  Nix and Whaley were essentially talent evaluators, and they were pretty good, but Ralph's health and mental facilities deteriorated, Brandon operated as de facto owner.  Under Brandon, the Bills philosophy was always to prioritize profits over winning football games.  Brandon's control of the Bills, and also the Sabres, continued until the spring of 2018 when Pegula fired him because of a sexual harassment incident with a Sabres employee who happened to be a friend of Kim Pegula's.   Brandon's fall from grace was dissected in the media and on TSW at the time.

 

1 hour ago, Buffalo03 said:

The weirdest part to me about the drought years, is that we made hires at the time that seemed like good ones. Tom Donahoe and Doug Whaley worked for the Steelers before coming over to Bills. Donahoe was there throughout the 90s as "Director of Football Operations" and was part of building very successful teams. Including going to the Super Bowl in 1995 and multiple championship game appearances. After he was let go by us, he became a Senior Advisor and then won a Super Bowl as the Senior Director of Player Personnel" with the Eagles in 2017. He made some good signings and draft picks with the Bills but somehow just couldn't figure it out as far as actually having a good team. 

 

Whaley was also part if the Steelers organization throughout the 2000's when they made and won 2 Super Bowls. Yet, comes here and is a huge failure.

 

Buddy Nix was actually a scout for us back in the 90s working under Butler and AJ Smith when we still built solid teams throughout the 90s. He followed Butler and Smith over to San Diego. He was the director of Player Personnel and then became assistant GM after Butler died. Him and Smith built solid teams there the entire decade. He comes back to Buffalo and can't figure it out. It's mind blowing how ridiculous and baffling it all was 

 

Thank God for Beane and McDermott who had a sure plan and built it their way and have made it work

 

After Brandon was fired, Pegula gave Beane full control of the Bills.  Beane and McDermott have worked together since, and their primary goal has been/   is to win football games rather than maximize profits.  Best of all, they're pretty good at their jobs!   

Edited August 14 by SoTier

[corta765]

55 minutes ago, Buffalo03 said:

The weirdest part to me about the drought years, is that we made hires at the time that seemed like good ones. Tom Donahoe and Doug Whaley worked for the Steelers before coming over to Bills. D

 

I will make a "in defense of" piece for the Bills with both hires.

 

Donahoe was highly regarded when he came in given the work he had done with PIT. It was viewed as a stabilizing move at the time and one that the Bills were moving into the future bringing in a strong mind outside the org. It didn't work, but the true sin was not doing so again and instead going internal. Like QB if your GM doesn't work you need to try again with the best candidates possible which many times are outside of your org when your not doing so hot. Ralph instead got a yes man in Marv (with due respect) and the org sunk lower.

 

Whaley was part of the Nix group and had  similar vibes as he scouted much of that PIT D which dominated in the 2000s. I honestly think he was a decent GM as he found good players in later rounds and had a real good feel for the FA market regarding affordable options. The problem is he went nuts when the check book opened in 2015 although I'd argue Rex stopped that team from being a playoff group. His move for Watkins also was wayyy too aggressive for a team that was not in position for it. Whaley I at least get why he made those moves because by the time he took over they were desperate to slay the drought and the team had enough talent to make it happen (which kind of did happen in 2017). He never could get out of the way with his EJ pick which hurt him & its been covered in length the missteps with Watkins/2015 FA spending spree, but I honestly think with another go around he would be a pretty good GM as he had a good eye for talent in all rounds and he was really good with finding cheap FA's or trades (remember he traded for Jerry Hughes).

[Toomstone.Part.Duex]

Im 4mins into that press conference and its God-Awful!     

[corta765]

1 hour ago, Mark Vader said:

It's Dick Jauron's fault that Lynch was carrying an unregistered firearm in the trunk of his car? 

 

Everyone knows Dick typically collected unregistered firearms after every practice and didn't that day. Duh