The Rise and Fall of the Buffalo Bills

[mysticsoto]

Excellent (not so short) summation of the Bills for the last 2 decades or so.
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Buffalo Bills: The Rise and Fall of the Bills Franchise

The following is a sad but true story.

In the early '90s, the Bills ran a fierce no-huddle offense orchestrated by All-Pro quarterback Jim Kelly, taught by all-time great coach Marv Levy and supported by the running game led by All-Pro running back Thurman Thomas.

The merciless defense was led by Bruce Smith and anchored by Darryl Talley.

Things were going well. In 1991 they played in their first Super Bowl, losing in a close game to the New York Giants (http://bleacherreport.com/new-york-giants). They came back in 1992 to play in another Super Bowl, coming up short in a late rally to the Washington Redskins (http://bleacherreport.com/washington-redskins).1993 marked the third Super Bowl in a row for the Bills, tarnished by yet another Super Bowl loss—this time in blowout fashion at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys (http://bleacherreport.com/dallas-cowboys). 1994 was historic in the sense that it was a Super Bowl rematch and the Bills' fourth straight trip. The Bills walked away from the Super Bowl for a last time without a victory.

To go to four straight Super Bowls is quite the feat and has not been repeated, and most likely will never be repeated. To lose four straight? Well, that tarnishes things. I liken it to being the first person to climb a mountain—after the first person did, that is. It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of the franchise and certainly exhausted the roster and the fans.


http://www.twackle.com/sitebar?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Farticles%2F704786-nfl-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-buffalo-bills-franchise

[OpIv37]

I got about halfway through it before I realized that I already know this story by heart. *sigh

Great read for non-Bills fans or younger people who aren't aware of the beginning of the end in the late 90's/early 2000's though.

[mysticsoto]

I got about halfway through it before I realized that I already know this story by heart. *sigh

Great read for non-Bills fans or younger people who aren't aware of the beginning of the end in the late 90's/early 2000's though.

Sadly, it's a story we know all too well. :(

Still, an interesting read. Had we waited a year and not forced/grabbed Losman, we could have had Aaron Rodgers. For those that are still upset that we didn't draft a QB this yr, maybe this is a lesson they can learn from.

[Jeff1220]

Wow. That was depressing. I wish I could take back the time I just spent reading that.

[trapezeus]

that losman pick was absolutely killer. from 2004 we still feel the effects of missing on that pick. they forced the pick like the way the vikings did, the jags did and the bengals did this season.

And we even traded 3 picks for him to the very team that marked us as losers in 2 of the 4 super bowls. i know losman is a good guy, but it's almost unforgivable how bad he was.

i didn't read the article by the way as it was blocked for some reason.

[better days]

that losman pick was absolutely killer. from 2004 we still feel the effects of missing on that pick. they forced the pick like the way the vikings did, the jags did and the bengals did this season.

And we even traded 3 picks for him to the very team that marked us as losers in 2 of the 4 super bowls. i know losman is a good guy, but it's almost unforgivable how bad he was.

i didn't read the article by the way as it was blocked for some reason.

What was killer was the Losman pick followed by the Edwards pick. Two losers in a row = years & years of bad football.

[mysticsoto]

What was killer was the Losman pick followed by the Edwards pick. Two losers in a row = years & years of bad football.

And the Mike Williams pick before the Losman pick. And later, Whitner...just terrible choices!!!

[Philagape]

What was killer was the Losman pick followed by the Edwards pick. Two losers in a row = years & years of bad football.

At least Edwards cost only a third-round pick.

[trapezeus]

but edwards was a half assed response to the fact losman was no good. Jauron and levy didn't have the guts to just cut bait with him. They let him linger and then took a mid level pick to push a mid level qb.

The other busts sucked for sure, but there were players who backed them up ok. the secondary had other members who were ok. the line as a whole was terrible so mike william's awfulness wasn't so concentrated to him.

but the QB's were terrible in that span. i'd even throw bledsoe in after his first year.

[binlock]

Edwards had a chance to be good. He actually was pretty good. Decent first season playing as a rookie and started off great in 2008. Peter King had Edwards as an early MVP Candidate, and many others did too:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/peter_king/09/29/Week4/index.html

I know he had Trent in the top 3 also at half point of the season too. Trent lost it after he was crushed in Arizona and lost all confidence. Lost his balls.

[SabreEleven]

I could have wrote this aritcle in 4 words.

Bill Polian got fired.

[Night Train]

Wait...there was a rise ?

[Billz_fan]

I could have wrote this aritcle in 4 words.

Bill Polian got fired.


As you can tell by my sig I agree. Bad management starts at the top and trickles down. That was a depressing but well done recap of the last several years of screw ups. It's funny how now we can read that and point out easily the bad moves but while it's happening they are not readily apparent. So sad. We must have pissed off the football gods at some point.

[TacklingDummy]

There has been no worse of a pick in the last 20 years than Arron Maybin.

[mysticsoto]

There has been no worse of a pick in the last 20 years than Arron Maybin.

What?

Mike Williams has to be one of our worse ever! JP! Eric Flowers! McCargo! Are all up there among the worse also!

[trapezeus]

As you can tell by my sig I agree. Bad management starts at the top and trickles down. That was a depressing but well done recap of the last several years of screw ups. It's funny how now we can read that and point out easily the bad moves but while it's happening they are not readily apparent. So sad. We must have pissed off the football gods at some point.

i think we were pretty vocal in cutting bait with polian. and it would be somewhat forgivable, but ralph did it again with jerry butler. And he took the entire scouting team with him. The organization cupboards were left bare. We knew it.

What we didn't know was that donahoe didn't retool very well and despite being a big name, it seems like bill cowher did the heavy lifting during their time together in pitts.

and all that was survivable. What wasn't survivable was when ralph felt like he couldn't trust anyone again and pretty much just lived like a rap star. It was just his cronies playing with his money and making terrible, terrible decisions. That is what has left us so broken.

[mjt328]

A pretty detailed recap, with one exception.

The Wade Phillips era was most famous for the Flutie vs. Johnson mess, which was - in my opinion - the first really bad decision of many for this team. It's only been downhill from there.

The fact Buffalo was able to grab Flutie off the scrap heap and remain a strong playoff contender during his time starting was an example of how good teams seem to have all the luck.
But then we benched our starting quarterback for the first round of the playoffs. Something COMPLETELY unheard of.

All of a sudden, there is the Music City Miracle and this team has never recovered.

[Extremebillsfan247]

Excellent (not so short) summation of the Bills for the last 2 decades or so.
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The actual downturn of the franchise began in 1993. It was the year free agency as we know it today began. This team over the next 5 years continued to get slowly dismantled as we couldn't compete with the bigger market teams for high priced free agents. By the time the 2000's began, the effect of that labor agreement between players and Owners as a result of the last work stoppage that caused the shortened season of 1987 was already in full effect. We have been a struggling franchise, trying to adjust to that CBA ever since. JMO