ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

[The Answer]

LOL - wow seriously is Mortenson dating Donablow or something??

Dave (Dallas): Mort, what are you thoughts on the drafting that Marv Levy has done for the Bills the last two years? By my count they have drafted 9 starters.

Chris Mortensen: Dick Jauron has done a real good job of drafting. That, combined with the good work by Tom Donohoe, gives the Bills hope. They have made some mistakes in letting people go because of the owner's tight-fistedness but the Bills are also an extremely well-coached team. I like watching them play, especially when Losman is at QB because they are more explosive on offense and Lynch gets a less-loaded box to attack.

Mike (Boca Raton): Mort, you mentioned Tom Donahoe earlier. What is his status? Any possible return to an NFL team? By the way, does he still live in Pittsburgh?

Chris Mortensen: My understanding is that Donohoe is living in the Buffalo area as his kids finish school. He is still being paid by the Bills but that ends this year. His track record as a personnel man - evaluating and picking players - is among the five best in the NFL over the past 15 years or so.




~The Answer

[Mudflap1]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

Holy crap!

[OpIv37]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

apparently 2001-2006 never happened.

[Mr. Pink]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

Apparently Losman, Peters, Evans, Schoebel, McGee, Crowell, etc...just arrived when Marv did too.

Mort is right about the mixture, Donahoe for all his faults, did leave a decent foundation to build on. However, I would never say he's one of the top 5 guys of the past 15 years.

[LtBillsFan66]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

Jeez.



Donahoe did more to hurt this team than even remotely help it.

[justasportsfan]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

Mort didn't count Moolarkey and Greghead as part of the personel. I wonder why.

[patmoran2006]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

NOt quite what's so funny about that.. Evans, Losman, Schobel, Kelsay, Crowell, McGee--- most the core of our good players were acquired during Donahoe's reign.

The guy is a total scumbag. But his contribution to a team perhaps on the rise shouldn't be totally dismissed.

[OpIv37]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

NOt quite what's so funny about that.. Evans, Losman, Schobel, Kelsay, Crowell, McGee--- most the core of our good players were acquired during Donahoe's reign.

The guy is a total scumbag. But his contribution to a team perhaps on the rise shouldn't be totally dismissed.

he missed in the draft as much as he hit, NONE of his FA's are still here a mere two years later and the only one who's really doing anything elsewhere is Fletch, and his coaching choices were horrible.

Yeah, in 5 drafts he found a handful of good players, but you can blindly throw darts at a draft board and end up with a handfull of good players.

[justasportsfan]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

In the end it's all about the results. TD could've brought an all pro team here but would mean nothing if we didn't even make playoffs. Again , another thing that Igor/Mort missed.

[Philagape]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

Yeah, in 5 drafts he found a handful of good players, but you can blindly throw darts at a draft board and end up with a handfull of good players.

Yup. A 14-year-old can buy a draft magazine the night before the draft and get some good players.

[EDS]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

he missed in the draft as much as he hit, NONE of his FA's are still here a mere two years later and the only one who's really doing anything elsewhere is Fletch, and his coaching choices were horrible.

Yeah, in 5 drafts he found a handful of good players, but you can blindly throw darts at a draft board and end up with a handfull of good players.

For the record, TD built the core of the offense (Evans, Losman, Peters, Reed, and Parrish), defense (Schobel, Crowell, McGee, Kelsay, Greer, Denney and Wire) and special teams (April, Moorman, Lindell, McGee, Parrish, Aiken, Haggan, etc.). He also drafted some credible NFL players who have since left the team, such as Travis Henry, Nate Clements, Jonas Jennings and Willis McGahee.

Whether you think that is a good thing, or bad thing, is another story.

[Patrick76777]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

Won't be popular, but I really like the team he had in place in 04. That team was killing teams at the end of the year. I remember being board while killing the 49ers in one of those games.

If that team gets off to a better start (0-4 just didn't cut it), I think they would have made some noise in the playoffs.

[Forward_Lateral]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

Marv has assembled the entire O-line, besides Peters, if I'm not mistaken.

Marv, on D has brought in: McCargo, Williams, Triplett, Hargrove, Ellison, Digi (I think), Whitner. All are either starters or major contributers. Not to mention Ko Simpson and Poz, who would be starters if they weren't hurt. I also believe Marv brought in George Wilson and Jim Leonhard, but I could be wrong.

On O, besides the O-line, Marv brought in Royal, Marshawn, etc.

My point is, Marv has drafted more players that have been useful to the team in 2 years than TD did in his entire tenure here.

Yes he picked some great ones (Evans, Schobel, etc.) but he also picked some horrible busts.

[The Answer]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

For the record, TD built the core of the offense (Evans, Losman, Peters, Reed, and Parrish), defense (Schobel, Crowell, McGee, Kelsay, Greer, Denney and Wire) and special teams (April, Moorman, Lindell, McGee, Parrish, Aiken, Haggan, etc.). He also drafted some credible NFL players who have since left the team, such as Travis Henry, Nate Clements, Jonas Jennings and Willis McGahee.

Whether you think that is a good thing, or bad thing, is another story.

They may be credible - but you could fill an entire classroom with all of mcgahee and henry's babies combined.

~The Answer

[OpIv37]

Re: ESPN/Mortenson Chat 11/7 - More Donablow Praise

For the record, TD built the core of the offense (Evans, Losman, Peters, Reed, and Parrish), defense (Schobel, Crowell, McGee, Kelsay, Greer, Denney and Wire) and special teams (April, Moorman, Lindell, McGee, Parrish, Aiken, Haggan, etc.). He also drafted some credible NFL players who have since left the team, such as Travis Henry, Nate Clements, Jonas Jennings and Willis McGahee.

Whether you think that is a good thing, or bad thing, is another story.

well for one thing, some of those guys you mentioned as ST guys were drafted to be position players and it turns out they suck at their position.

Second, notice how Schobel is the only DE and there are no OL's or DT's on that list still on our team. Outside of Jennings, his OL selection was downright terrible, both in the draft and in FA (you could argue Peters but he brought Peters here as a TE).

Third, outside of April, his coaching selections were downright awful.