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NEW YORK (April 27, 2003) -- I'm willing to give Tom Donahoe the benefit of the doubt.
He has earned it many times over in a long and distinguished career of judging and selecting NFL talent.
And for now, it is only Donahoe's sterling reputation for competence in overseeing many drafts through the years that makes the first-round draft pick the Buffalo Bills spent on Willis McGahee seem like something other than a bizarre, off-the-wall, off-the-planet gamble.
When the Bills' president and general manager calls it a matter of capitalizing on a "chance to get an outstanding football player" and says the Bills had McGahee rated as "one of the best players in the draft," it is hard to scoff. Donahoe has held similar opinions about other players he acquired to help build the Pittsburgh Steelers into a powerhouse and those he has picked up since 2001, when he accepted the challenge of trying to return the Bills to their glory days of the early 1990s.
Of course, this situation is entirely different because we're talking about using a first-round choice on a player who not only doesn't address a crying need, but who also might not even see the field for a year. We're talking about a running back, a player whose legs define his worth, who underwent major surgery on Jan. 5 to repair three knee ligaments damaged in a horrific collision two days earlier with Ohio State cornerback Will Allen in the Fiesta Bowl. Granted, before the injury, McGahee was widely seen as a potential second overall pick. Since then, however, all bets were supposed to have been off.
And the Bills were supposed to use their No. 1 pick on a speed pass rusher. They did get Nebraska defensive end Chris Kelsay in the second round. They have had an amazing offseason of picking up some impressive defensive players, such as linebacker Takeo Spikes from the Cincinnati Bengals. But could the Bills have been one of the several teams that traded up in the first round to grab one of several highly rated defensive linemen?
He has earned it many times over in a long and distinguished career of judging and selecting NFL talent.
And for now, it is only Donahoe's sterling reputation for competence in overseeing many drafts through the years that makes the first-round draft pick the Buffalo Bills spent on Willis McGahee seem like something other than a bizarre, off-the-wall, off-the-planet gamble.
When the Bills' president and general manager calls it a matter of capitalizing on a "chance to get an outstanding football player" and says the Bills had McGahee rated as "one of the best players in the draft," it is hard to scoff. Donahoe has held similar opinions about other players he acquired to help build the Pittsburgh Steelers into a powerhouse and those he has picked up since 2001, when he accepted the challenge of trying to return the Bills to their glory days of the early 1990s.
Of course, this situation is entirely different because we're talking about using a first-round choice on a player who not only doesn't address a crying need, but who also might not even see the field for a year. We're talking about a running back, a player whose legs define his worth, who underwent major surgery on Jan. 5 to repair three knee ligaments damaged in a horrific collision two days earlier with Ohio State cornerback Will Allen in the Fiesta Bowl. Granted, before the injury, McGahee was widely seen as a potential second overall pick. Since then, however, all bets were supposed to have been off.
And the Bills were supposed to use their No. 1 pick on a speed pass rusher. They did get Nebraska defensive end Chris Kelsay in the second round. They have had an amazing offseason of picking up some impressive defensive players, such as linebacker Takeo Spikes from the Cincinnati Bengals. But could the Bills have been one of the several teams that traded up in the first round to grab one of several highly rated defensive linemen?
