Best and Worst Moves of the Tom Donahue Era

[camelcowboy]

Its been about five years since TD has taken over after John Butler, and he has made alot of changes. Many Good, many Bad.


Here's my opinion feel free to chime in with yours.

His best move: Signing Spikes-TD picked up Spikes at the best possible time. The offense was strong, and we needed defensive help. He was a great player on a team that no one watched at the time. He came to Buffalo and got the spot light he needed, and was able to take his game to the next level.

Worst move: Greg Williams- Do i need to say more?

[EDS]

I agree on both.

[The King]

His worst move was taking a passing offense away from a passing QB.

His best move was dealing Peerless Price.

[pleasesavedrew]

Best Moves: Drafting Mcgahee, Henry, Clements, Schobel, and Lee Evans. Signing Spikes, Adams, Miloy, and Flethcer are also great moves. Tradin price was great too. Finding Moorman in a sea of horrible play in NFL Europe.

Worst: Cuttin Bledsoe, Cuttin Flutie and Keepin Johnson, Gregg Williams was also a mess.

[pleasesavedrew]

His worst move was taking a passing offense away from a passing QB.

His best move was dealing Peerless Price.
Couldnt be more right, he hung bledsoe out to dry by lettin Centers and Reimersma go.

[casdhf]

I think one of the best moves was completely gutting the team when he came in. I was pissed at the time, but piecing together a team woulda been worse...especially where we are now

[camelcowboy]

I think one of the best moves was completely gutting the team when he came in. I was pissed at the time, but piecing together a team woulda been worse...especially where we are now
I remeber when he had to choose between Moulds, and Wiley, and i really wanted them both. He clearly mad the right decision their.

I still think that they should of draft Bryant Mckinny over Mike Williams. We are paying too much money for a right tackle, who appears like he will never play left tackle. Mckinny is atleast a starter at right tackle.

[OpIv37]

If McGahee's knee holds up, that will clearly be his best move. Losman could also make him look like a genius.

Worst move was not firing Williams and Gilbride halfway through '03.

[Historian]

Even considering a low-life worthless POS like Gregg Williams to be the Head Coach of this magnificent organization will always be a blemish on TDs record, IMO, even if we win a Super Bowl.

Most of his other moves have or are panning out. Pick one. I especially thought getting a pick for Price who was leaving anyways, was genius.

[ryjam282]

I think the best move was getting Spikes. I mean, he came in for a visit and wouldn't let him leave without a contract that he knew the Bengels wouldn't match. Who knows where TKO would have ended up if TD let him leave that day without a contract.

Worst move, hiring Kevin Gilbride. He was absolutely atrocious.

[djjimkelly]

tagging then trading price for what eventually became mcgahee might go down as one of the best draft day moves ever. worst move was trading a 1st for bledsoe i know team was in shambles and so on and to look at that draft when we grabbed big mike both qbs where off the board actually thank god becuz i dont like harrington or carr. but he should have done something different about the qb position in his second year. there would be an extra 1st rounder on our team from the 2003 draft.

[EDS]

Even considering a low-life worthless POS like Gregg Williams to be the Head Coach of this magnificent organization will always be a blemish on TDs record, IMO, even if we win a Super Bowl.

Most of his other moves have or are panning out. Pick one. I especially thought getting a pick for Price who was leaving anyways, was genius.

Well, Greg Williams is a heck of a coach so I can see what TD was thinking. How the guy can be such a good defensive coordinator and horrible head coach is beyond me. Probably his worst moves were in hiring an offensive staff - he does not know enough to pick the right people.

[Uncle Jesse]

Best Moves: Drafting Mcgahee, Henry, Clements, Schobel, and Lee Evans. Signing Spikes, Adams, Miloy, and Flethcer are also great moves. Tradin price was great too. Finding Moorman in a sea of horrible play in NFL Europe.

Worst: Cuttin Bledsoe, Cuttin Flutie and Keepin Johnson, Gregg Williams was also a mess.
Couldnt agree more!

[Bert102176]

best move was getting TKO but worst move, not getting us an OL

[Marvelous]

Most zoners hit it on the head. Kelsay was a great steal in the 2nd esp since some of us were content with him in the 1st :bf1:
Mgee was a solid pickup even if he only makes nickel which imo he will be better then that.
-Last years udfa's
- Greg Williams was solid minus Gilbride & Bledsoe. Kinda like how JJ was stuck with washed up Marino.. IMO GW will be a good hc one day.
-Jerry Grey, Did TD bring him in?
-Modrak! Not sure what exactly his role is but from the bits here&there i've read TD calls on his input..
-As of now trading for JP. Assuming JP makes the cut. But it's too early.
-Astro play!
-Fixing Butlers(RIP) cap nightmare!!!!
-Playing hardball with Henry 7 teams trying to take advantage
-Schobel extension
-Ryan Neufeld- I liked his play late in the season.
- Damien Shelton is the ultimate Sam Gash prototype for our power running game...
-Ross Tucker is great depth G or C
-Smooth deal with The Postons with Milloy contract. Odd with all the problems they cause teams, our deal went smooth.
-Posey- kinda hard for fans to call him out. As much as we want to because he lacks primetime stats.

Some neggs-
-Trading up for Denney. Not what we/he had hoped..I like Denney as depth and hope we can keep him. He makes the most of part time play and seems better fitted for that role imo..

-Verdict is still out on Troy Vincent. He makes alot for a FS. I'm A-ok if he plays FS like he is poised to do but if he's onluy average then 3 mill is too much...

*All in all im very glad we have TD on our side...

-Keeping Drew 1 year too long!
-

[helmetguy]

Best move: Clearing up the salary cap mess.

Worst move: Not talking GW out of Kevin Gilbride.

[don137]

Best moves: Trading Peerless Price and ending up with McGahee, getting Sam Adams, Fletcher and Spikes in FA, trading down with Tampa Bay in the draft and drafting Clements and then using the extra pick on Henry, (TBD- trading up for Losman who seems to have the work ethic and attitude of a winner. Now lets see what he can do on the field and hiring Mularkey).
Worst moves: Very bad drafts in recent years (Josh Reed, trading up for Ryan Denney, not addressing the OL in the draft, Mike Williams), (in hindsight) signing Bedsoe to an extension which caused dead cap which $$ could of been used in FA, hanging onto Gregg Williams too long, #1- hiring Gregg Williams over Marvin Lewis and John Fox.

[DaBillzAhDaShiznit]

Overall, TD has done more good than bad when you figure any GM is going to miss here or there.

Best Moves: Getting 1st round pick for Price, Great work on cap friendly contracts for almost every free agent aquisition, and gambling on McGahee.

Worst Moves: Not so much hiring Greg Williams as passing up Marvin Lewis when we could have had him instead. If TD was at all involved in the uniform planning, he should have been fired, because they are one of the worst in the NFL. Cutting Larry Centers loose--he was a big asset in more than one facet. Replacing Mike Hollis with Lindell--the move saved zero $, and Lindell is not as good a kicker as Hollis.

[Bulldog]

Overall, TD has done more good than bad when you figure any GM is going to miss here or there.

Best Moves: Getting 1st round pick for Price, Great work on cap friendly contracts for almost every free agent aquisition, and gambling on McGahee.

Worst Moves: Not so much hiring Greg Williams as passing up Marvin Lewis when we could have had him instead. If TD was at all involved in the uniform planning, he should have been fired, because they are one of the worst in the NFL. Cutting Larry Centers loose--he was a big asset in more than one facet. Replacing Mike Hollis with Lindell--the move saved zero $, and Lindell is not as good a kicker as Hollis.

Hollis hasn't kicked since. I think he hurt his knee the following pre-season with the Giants. It's not like he went on to be a stud for some other team. That said :

Best Move : Willis

Worst Move : Lindell

I still think that Lindell is going to cost us one or two games this year. It was pretty obvious last year that the coaching staff had zero confidence in him to hit anything beyond 40 yds. And I'm pretty sure that Lindell has done little to change that in the off-season. I hope I'm wrong, but I just cringe when I think of him kicking with the game on the line.

[DaBillzAhDaShiznit]

Hollis hasn't kicked since. I think he hurt his knee the following pre-season with the Giants. It's not like he went on to be a stud for some other team.

I Did Not know that....

Ok, ok.....chalk another one up for TD I guess.

I still would rather see Jason Peters kicking fieldgoals for us than Lindell.
How come nobody uses a big fat dude for a kicker? Seems like all that momentum would really carry the ball a long way. I can just see a big monster of a guy like Peters out there with virtually no pads and a cheesy kicker's helmet with the movable single bar facemask....It would be awesome!

[Bulldog]

I Did Not know that....

Ok, ok.....chalk another one up for TD I guess.

I still would rather see Jason Peters kicking fieldgoals for us than Lindell.
How come nobody uses a big fat dude for a kicker? Seems like all that momentum would really carry the ball a long way. I can just see a big monster of a guy like Peters out there with virtually no pads and a cheesy kicker's helmet with the movable single bar facemask....It would be awesome!

I couldn't agree with you more about Lindell. And the Raiders already have a fat dude for a kicker. Janikowski is listed as 6'2 and 250. By the looks of him, I'd say the scales are off by about 30 lbs.

[mysticsoto]

I couldn't agree with you more about Lindell. And the Raiders already have a fat dude for a kicker. Janikowski is listed as 6'2 and 250. By the looks of him, I'd say the scales are off by about 30 lbs.
Does that really matter? Moorman isn't huge like that, and look at what he can do. Actually, I like that he's a track runner and really fast. I wish they'd use him in trick plays more to fake a couple of punts every so often. Considering the fantastic ST we have, I'm sure he could get a few good blocks in front of him!

[justasportsfan]

Worst MOve: Hiring GW
Best Move: Getting rid of GW

Worst hindsight move: drew Bledsoe
Best hindsight move:getting a no.1 for Peerless.

[EAGLE9]

Best Move: letting an injured Cowart walk and signing Fletcher/franchising price and getting the mcgahee pick

Worst Move: not firing GW at the bye week in 2003

[Meathead]

1. McGahee
2. Spikes
3. Price for 1st
4. Modrak
5. Adams for cheap
6. Milloy
7. Letting Jennings walk

[Mr. Cynical]

Best: Spikes and Moorman (if McGahee steps it up a notch next year, then he will be the best move)

Worst: GW and Drew (tied...both destroyed this team)

[ublinkwescore]

hopefully soon mike mularkey will be a candidate for this list, but that will require frequent playoff appearances and a superbowl.