Grade Tom Donahoe's 2001 Draft

[Ebenezer]

It's been 3 years. It is usually good to wait until a player's first contract is up before giving out grades I think we can start to put grades to the 2001 draft.

What do you think?

6 of the top 7 are still with the team and 4 of them are starters...Henry is an All-Pro, Clements is a lock down corner, Schobel is solid for a 2nd round pick, Jennings may be a T on this team for years...got to give it an A-.

:feedback:

[BAM]

B+ alltogether

A+'s for Henry, Schobel, Clements

[Devin]

well i mean his three first picks alone were very solid, i think id have to say a A especially if Schobel has another solid year.

[The Spaz]

Well it's pretty damn good except fot the 6th and 7th round picks but those are usually hopefuls and projects.

Grade: B+

[don137]

A for rounds 1-3 couldn't ask for muchh better
D rounds 4-7...no real impact player on that list even though Sullivan may have a chance under McNally

[TedMock]

An overall A. I don't think there's such thing as an A+ draft. 1. Not everybody makes the team and 2. Most of the time your day two picks will not be studs. If you get quality depth and special teams on day two, consider it pretty good.

[Tatonka]

an A, because i think you have to consider that he passed on kenyetta walker to get an extra pick and used that extra pick on henry, while still getting clements.. and then got jennings and sullivan later..

definately the kind of draft we need this year.

[lordofgun]

Reggie Germany was becoming a good receiver before the injury.

[Patrick76777]

Some tough graders here!

"Sure he got 4 starters, but that 7th round pick really sucked, i'll give him a B-"

I'd guess that 95% of all 7th rounders suck!

[The Spaz]

Originally posted by Patrick76777
Some tough graders here!

"Sure he got 4 starters, but that 7th round pick really sucked, i'll give him a B-"

I'd guess that 95% of all 7th rounders suck!

True but no one hits on 7th rounders consistently. Robertson was listed as a sleeper and did have potential but drugs got in his way from achieving that.

[Patrick76777]

Originally posted by The Spaz


True but no one hits on 7th rounders consistently. Robertson was listed as a sleeper and did have potential but drugs got in his way from achieving that.


I was being sarcastic!

[The Spaz]

Originally posted by Patrick76777



I was being sarcastic!

Oh my bad!:doh::up:

[lordofgun]

Originally posted by Patrick76777
I was being sarcastic!

link?

[Tatonka]

Originally posted by lordofgun
link?

:rofl:

[Pride]

How can you evaluate a draft on simply who we chose? You have to examine who we passed on when making the picks...

If we picked a guy in the first round, who is now "average" but passed up a guy who is a stud for another team, that should equate to a bad grade, as we did not pick the guy who is playing well today.

just a thought.

[The Spaz]

Originally posted by Pride
How can you evaluate a draft on simply who we chose? You have to examine who we passed on when making the picks...

If we picked a guy in the first round, who is now "average" but passed up a guy who is a stud for another team, that should equate to a bad grade, as we did not pick the guy who is playing well today.

just a thought.

A lot of those guys we chose are starters for our team.

[Patrick76777]

Originally posted by Pride
How can you evaluate a draft on simply who we chose? You have to examine who we passed on when making the picks...

If we picked a guy in the first round, who is now "average" but passed up a guy who is a stud for another team, that should equate to a bad grade, as we did not pick the guy who is playing well today.

just a thought.


Using that thought process, we need to look at our needs at the time!

We had Moulds and Price at the time and just because maybe the player taken after Clements turned out to be a great WR doesn't make not taking him a mistake!

[Novacane]

I gotta give him an A for 2001.

Now..............2002 is another story. I'll give it another year but that draft looks like a D+ right now.

[TedMock]

I think we need one more year to see how 2002 works out.....
Williams will be a starter for a long time and I think Josh Reed and Coy Wire will end up having productive careers. Bannon and Thomas are 50/50 right now. We'll see.

1 Mike Williams OT Texas
2 Josh Reed WR LSU
2 Ryan Denney DE Brigham Young
3 Coy Wire S Stanford
5 Justin Bannan DT Colorado
6 Kevin Thomas CB Nevada-Las Vegas
7 Mike Pucillo OG Auburn
7 Rodney Wright WR Fresno State
7 Jarret Ferguson RB Virginia Tech
7 Dominique Stevenson LB Tennessee

[Pride]

Originally posted by TedMock

1 Mike Williams OT Texas
2 Josh Reed WR LSU
2 Ryan Denney DE Brigham Young
3 Coy Wire S Stanford
5 Justin Bannan DT Colorado
6 Kevin Thomas CB Nevada-Las Vegas
7 Mike Pucillo OG Auburn
7 Rodney Wright WR Fresno State
7 Jarret Ferguson RB Virginia Tech
7 Dominique Stevenson LB Tennessee

The only starter out of this whole group is Mike Williams! Wire is a special teams player at best. Not knocking the guy, but he is a tweener. And Josh Reed, most of you have been looking to sign a #2 receiver all offseason! You telling me a 3rd year rookie isnt good enough to be #2? He is a bust as far as I am concerned. But he has 1 more year to prove me wrong. I grade it a D+ right now.

[The Spaz]

Again we can use Eric Moulds as an example Mould was taken in the 1st round and up intil his 3rd year most of concidered him a failure.

[TedMock]

Most WR's don't make a big splash until year 2 or 3. Randy Moss is obviously not included in that group. Josh Reed doesn't have the flat out speed to be a game breaker but he'll be a very good slot receiver for a long time. I think Wire has the potential to be a quality starter at SS for a long time too. I know he played LB in college but that's obviously not where he'd be in the pro's so the learning curve is there. He is a smart player and he can hit so there's plenty of room there. I don't consider him a tweener simply because there's no way in hell he can be a LB. Bannon got into the rotation a little and he may end up a good one too. Pat Williams wasn't a stud from the get go either. I'm a firm believer that a draft can't be fairly graded until 3 years later. So, after this season I'll give it my grade.

[THATHURMANATOR]

It is an A for sure

[Ebenezer]

Originally posted by Fairway To Green
I gotta give him an A for 2001.

Now..............2002 is another story. I'll give it another year but that draft looks like a D+ right now.

although i agree it may not appear to be great we have to wait a year on the 2002 draft...way too early to tell

[baalworship]

A+: One of the best Bills drafts EVER. This is the first Tom Donahoe draft in Buffalo and 3 years later the results are obvious.


Trading down and passing on Kenyatta Walker to take Nate Clements and using the extra pick on Travis Henry was brilliant.


Nate Clements, Aaron Schobel, Travis Henry, Jonas Jennings and some depth. If we drafted like this 3 years in a row we will be a powerhouse.




2002 doesn't look as good yet but let's evaluate the picks again in 2005. Mike Williams and Josh Reed could still become big players for us.

[TedMock]

Originally posted by The Spaz
Again we can use Eric Moulds as an example Mould was taken in the 1st round and up intil his 3rd year most of concidered him a failure.

Marvin Harrison, Joe Horn, and T.O. all came out in 1996 and it took them 2 or 3 years to put up numbers as well.

[ScottLawrence]

The 2002 draft looks like **** right now.

2001 draft I give an A-.

[Dozerdog]

Give the draft from 2001 an A- Even the guys who didn't pan out were good selections at the time. Germany was a good WR but got hurt- can't blame TD on that.

Tyrone Robertson was a risk- but at where we picked the guy- had he stayed clean he could have been a real sleeper.

Some folks won't give an A to anything unless you get 3 hall of famers out of it.

[The_Philster]

I'd give it an A. 4 strong starters in the first 3 rounds...
Sullivan could be playing well again in 2004, and Reggie Germany and Tyrone Robertson both looked good until their careers were cut short. Spoon was a decent starter for most of a year.

[Dozerdog]

Originally posted by Pride
How can you evaluate a draft on simply who we chose? You have to examine who we passed on when making the picks...

If we picked a guy in the first round, who is now "average" but passed up a guy who is a stud for another team, that should equate to a bad grade, as we did not pick the guy who is playing well today.

just a thought.

=============================================
Let's play hindsight-


We drafted 14th- Traded Down with Tampa and got Clements and Henry

Here is who we passed on with the 14th pick-

14. Tampa Bay (from Buffalo): OT Kenyatta Walker, Florida
15. Washington: WR Rod Gardner, Clemson
16. N.Y. Jets (from Pittsburgh): WR Santana Moss, Miami (Fla.)
17. Seattle (from Green Bay): OG Steve Hutchinson, Michigan
18. Detroit: OT Jeff Backus, Michigan
19. Pittsburgh (from N.Y. Jets): DT Casey Hampton, Texas
20. St. Louis: S Adam Archuleta, Arizona State

At the time of the draft, we passed on 3 OL guys, of which only one really panned out as a #1 value IMHO (Hutchison) Don't know a lot about Backus- so I'll pleade ignorant. Our Guards at the time were Fina and Brown, both were pretty steady up to that point (and had big cap numbers if we were going to cut them). Henry Jones was our Safety (which they cut before week 1) and WR was the strongest position on the team. Overall- trading down was a a wise choice.


We picked Clements- the only second guess you could have come up with there was we could have grabbed RB Deuce McCallister- since Antoine Smith was a cap casualty.


22. N.Y. Giants (from Indianapolis): CB Will Allen, Syracuse
23. New Orleans: RB Deuce McAllister, Mississippi
24. Denver: CB Willie Middlebrooks, Minnesota
25. Philadelphia: WR Freddie Mitchell, UCLA
26. Miami: CB Jamar Fletcher, Wisconsin===>:rofl:
27. Minnesota: RB Michael Bennett, Wisconsin
28. Oakland: S Derrick Gibson, Florida State
29. St. Louis (from Tennessee): DT Ryan Pickett, Ohio State
30. Indianapolis: WR Reggie Wayne, Miami (Fla.)
31. Baltimore: TE Todd Heap, Arizona State
=============================================

Round 2-

32. San Diego: QB Drew Brees, Purdue
33. Cleveland: WR Quincy Morgan, Kansas State
34. Arizona: DE Kyle Vanden Bosch, Nebraska
35. Atlanta: TE Alge Crumpler, North Carolina
36. Cincinnati: WR Chad Johnson, Oregon State
37. Indianapolis: S Idrees Bashir, Memphis
38. Chicago: RB Anthony Thomas, Michigan
39. Pittsburgh: LB Kendrell Bell, Georgia
40. Seattle: CB Ken Lucas, Mississippi
41. Green Bay (from San Francisco): WR Robert Ferguson, Texas
42. St. Louis: LB Tommy Polley, Florida State
43. Jacksonville: OT Maurice Williams, Michigan
44. Carolina: DT Kris Jenkins, Maryland
45. Washington: CB Fred Smoot, Mississippi State

46. Buffalo: DE Aaron Schobel, Texas Christian

Looks like the one big need for Buffalo was linebacker- we had Cowart in the middle but the best LB prospects (Bell, Polly) were gone. At DT we have pat Williams and Phil Hansen (who is long in the tooth) but Carolina nabs Jenkins. With Wiley a cap casualty- Schobel is a logical pick and a wise one. Not much that we passed over either.

47. San Francisco (from Green Bay): LB Jamie Winborn, Vanderbilt
48. New England (from Detroit): OL Matt Light, Purdue
49. New York Jets: RB LaMont Jordan, Maryland
50. Detroit (from Pittsburgh ): C Dominic Raiola, Nebraska
51. Denver (from Tampa Bay through Buffalo): DE Paul Toviessi, Marshall
52. Miami (from Indianapolis through Dallas): WR Chris Chambers, Wisconsin
53. Dallas (from New Orleans): QB Quincy Carter, Georgia
54. Arizona (from St. Louis): CB Mike Stone, Memphis
55. Dallas (from Miami): S Tony Dixon, Alabama
56. Philadelphia: LB Quinton Caver, Arkansas
57. Minnesota: DE Willie Howard, Stanford


58. Buffalo (from Denver): RB Travis Henry, Tennessee

Can't Argue with 4,169 yards of total offense and 30 career TDs- on a team that was offensively offensive 2 of the 3 seasons he's here.

59. Oakland: QB Marques Tuiasosopo, Washington
60. Tennessee: CB Andre Dyson, Utah
61. Detroit (from N.Y. Giants): DT Shaun Rogers, Texas
62. Baltimore: CB-SS Gary Baxter, Baylor

========================================
3rd Round- Ron Edwards- run of the mill average DT-

WR Steve smith was the only big name of note picked before, and we passed over RB Reggie Barlow , and CB Will Peterson


95. Buffalo: OT Jonas Jennings, Georgia Last pick of Rd 3- Awesome pick
============================================
Anything picked on day 2 is usually a crap shoot anyway-

Rd 4 Spoon-

Available-WR Justin McCairens and RB Correll Buckhalter

Rd 5- Sullivan-

Available - QBs AJ Feely, Mike McMahon (6th and 7th QBs taken)

Looking over the last 2 rounds- there is really nothing that we passed over that is making any noise in the NFL, except for Marc Bulger-QB- who went undrafted.




TD got exactly what we needed and got maximum value in this draft. We weren't getting a WR, and we weren't getting a Guard with Ruben Brown's new fat contract & Signing Bonus, and Fina making a big chunk of change as well (we cut him and it still cost us 4 million in dead cap over a year later- check my math Clumpy)


If you wanted to do maximum hindsight- the draft could have gone like this-

1) Draft MCallister after trading down.

2) With Clements still on the board, bump all the CB's selected down a spot ( a stretch- I know) and that leaves us Fred Smoot at our pick

3) That leaves us with DE to fill- and there is slim pickings-Reggie Hayward of Denver, Delawrence Grant picked by Oakland.... a bunch of nobodies.


I think TD gets an A....he did the best with what he had

[EDS]

Based on DozerDog's response, it is hard to find any fault with that 2001 draft. Four solid starters - Henry, Schobel, Clements and Jennings will all be considered for the pro bowl before they are done - is a great, great draft. Four guys like that out of each draft and you are a SB contender.

[Dantheman1280]

What ever happened to Spoon, He looked very promising he rookine season. why did we cut Him???

[The Spaz]

Originally posted by Dantheman1280
What ever happened to Spoon, He looked very promising he rookine season. why did we cut Him???

He was always injured he blew out his bicep twice.

[mikedd74]

A- Is the grade I would give Henry, Schobel, Clements lower part of the draft was OK but that is expected... I hope they can have that type of draft like the Ravens did last year....