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Rob Johnson


Rubes

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My sense was that the mistake which was made was not the trade for RJ, (a 1st and a 4th rd pick was not an unreasonable amount to pay for a vet QB who you believed in even if his record gives one hope but is no sure thing). The two mistakes which were made were:

 

1. The Bills decided to pay him a huge bonus up front without him proving himself to be reliably healthy.

 

Some argue that you had to pay him the huge bonus contract up front or he might simply refuse to sign and play out the season and hit FA and we get nothing for him. I think this is incorrect as even if it took half a season of play for us to be sure of RJ, it seems incredibly unlikely that even if he had an outstanding 4-8 games that he would run the risk of getting hurt by refusing to sign a deal so he could put himself out to bid as an FA.

 

I think the worse thing that could have happened to us if we had waited on signing him for 4-8 games is that he did well and we would have been forced to give him a $30 million contract at the time rather than the $25 million contract he signed.

 

5 million is big bucks but even if he proved to be the real deal I think this would have been a small price to pay for a now proven franchise QB.

 

What would have happened in real life is that RJ started going down to his string of injuries relatively early in his first season and as it happened, he could have been signed for far less or the Bills would have simply eaten the 1st and 4th they are anyway for this failed QB but we would not have given him the $8 million bonus to play hurt for us.

 

Ralph and Butler made the mistake of signing him to the big contract rather than hanging tough. Wade made the mistake on not seeing what other's claim in retrospect to have seen immediately (and which RJ's own comments seem to bear out with him saying take care of yourself first) of misreading how much of a football player he was).

 

2. Ralph, Butler and the team made a huge error is not giving Flutie a fair shot to win the starting QB job on the field and also of at least giving him the impression he would get a fair shot at the job. Flutie already had a chip as big as a planer on his shoulder because no NFL GM/owner believed in him. The Bills simply made this worse by bringing him in with an incentive laden contract and then by mortgaging the farm for RJ essentially relegated Flutie to a sub role where if RJ remained healthy, Flutie would have ended up signing for chump change.

 

Its too bad that DF could not be a secure enough guy that he is could do more than simply win to inspire loyalty and a following. However, given how badly the Bills braintrust treated him and his history of being a short guy it is little wonder to me that though he was successful as a player he was a successful a-hole.

Do you ever wrap up a thought in one or two sentences ?

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