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POLLOCK: Losman's failure on Donahoe
To Tom Donahoe, it seemed worth a shot.
To cynics it was another example of the Bills' former president/general manager's perceived attitude that he was smarter than his peers.
No matter which, his ill-fated tenure won't be defined, as so many think, by the colossal failure of Mike Williams, but rather the washout by quarterback J.P. Losman.
To be sure, the selection of Williams, the fifth overall pick in 2002, was a gaffe that recalled similar Buffalo blunders, Walt Patulski, No. 1 overall in 1972, and Al Cowlings, No. 5 in '70, two defensive ends who were total busts as high picks.
But, in fairness, the Bills took Williams exactly where he was predicted to go.
Any number of NFL teams were enamored by the 6-foot-6, 375-pound specimen who nobody seemed to notice didn't have the mean streak required to play offensive line at that level.
Losman, who officially lost his starting job on Monday afternoon after a third straight underwhelming performance, was different.
In 2004, Donahoe realized the Drew Bledsoe experiment was coming to an end and Buffalo needed to draft a QB.
That was a great year for quarterbacks as Eli Manning would go No. 1 and Philip Rivers No. 4. The Bills' hope was that Ben Roethlisberger would fall to their position at No. 13. Instead, Pittsburgh grabbed him one spot earlier.
So the Bills took wide receiver Lee Evans, but Donahoe frantically crafted a deal with Dallas for the Cowboys' pick at No. 22 of the first round.
Even now, the uninitiated claim Buffalo give up three draft choices to make that switch. They did not.
The exchange of Dallas' first-rounder in '04 for Buffalo's in '05 was a wash. But, for the privilege of making that switch the Bills gave up both a second and fifth round pick in '04.
For the record, Dallas used those choices to take running back Julius Jones (second round) and tight end Sean Ryan (fifth), now out of the league.
And that first-rounder in '05 became starting defensive end Marcus Spears.
The Bills used that 22nd selection in '04 to take Losman, the Tulane QB who drew mixed reviews from scouts.
In his very first training camp, the California native came off as a bit cocky and when he was reportedly hot-dogging during a scramble, Losman was tagged by safety Troy Vincent, a popular team leader, and J.P. fell awkwardly, breaking his leg.
The injury effectively wiped out his rookie season and a year later, coach Mike Mularkey never could make up his mind and split the starts between Losman (1-7) and veteran Kelly Holcomb (4-4), though J.P. also won the Kansas City game after an injury brought him in early.
Last season, though, was supposed to be his breakthrough campaign.
And after a 2-5 start, Losman caught fire, went 5-4 down the stretch with 13 touchdown passes and eight interceptions and had three games with passer ratings over 111, two in excess of 140.
But clearly the Bills weren't convinced.
Last spring, in the draft's third round, a key choice for a team loaded with holes, Buffalo surprisingly opted for Stanford QB Trent Edwards at the urging of the late Bill Walsh, something of an expert in quarterback play.
The message to Losman was clear ... step up your play, or we have another option.
An injury to J.P. hustled Edwards into the lineup in Game 3 at New England and he played well enough to keep the job after Losman got healthy.
But Edwards also got hurt, giving J.P. one last chance but after a solid performance in a home win over Cincinnati, he turned in three straight sub-standard efforts.
Hence, Monday's announcement that Edwards has been elevated back to starter and, by insinuation, unless there's another injury Losman is bench-bound for the last five games before likely being shipped out after the season.
Was J.P. a bust?
Given the sorry state of quarterbacking in the NFL, Losman can surely play somewhere.
But a franchise QB? Not so much.
And, by the way, if you're wondering, ponder this statistic.
Donahoe, the deposed former Steeler executive, presided over five Buffalo drafts, starting in 2001.
In that time, his regime selected 43 players, of which only 14 remain with the team.
To be fair, three - Nate Clements, Jonas Jennings and Justin Bannan - left via free agency and two - Travis Henry and Willis McGahee - were traded.
Still, less than half those draft choices remain in the league ... hardly an impressive retention rate.
And Losman soon seems destined to be the latest ex-Bill.
(Chuck Pollock is sports editor of the Olean Times Herald)
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