According to Peter King's MMQB:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...19/mmqb/1.html8. Buffalo. Surprise, surprise. All you western New Yorkers who kicked Tom Donahoe on his way out the door should remember the weekend of April 21-22, 2001: Nate Clements (80 games, 80 starts at corner), Aaron Schobel (75 starts as a DE), Travis Henry (3,749 rushing yards with the Bills) and Jonas Jennings (52 starts at tackle before leaving as a free agent for the Niners). Not bad.
You think you're hot **** in a champagne glass, but you're really cold diarrhea in a Dixie cup!
1 out of 5 ain't bad.
Interesting.
I also look at where bill Polian got his O-linemen and that reinforces my opinion that you don't have to draft them early to get good ones. Diem and DeMulling on day 2 of the same draft...nice.
Its not WHERE you pick them, its WHO is picking them that countsOriginally Posted by andyxc71
hold on a second Op. Wait until 2003 gets reviewed.
1. McGahee
2. Kelsay
3. Crowell
4. McGee
Donahoe's biggest weakness in all these drafts was that he didn't draft enough O-linemen, and when he did, most of them were horrid.
LOL
Some people let hate blind their reality of what is really going on.
They don't like Donahoe so they just automatically say he didn't bring in any good players and all of his drafts suck.
Donahoe had some good drafts here and also brought in some important FA's. He couldn't find the right coach and that was his downfall in Buffalo.
Most of these guys will sit here and talk about all the great talent we have on our team. Donahoe was the guy who brought these players in.
So make up your mind. If Donahoe didn't bring in any good players then how could we have all these great players some of you say we have? If Donahoe didn't bring in any good players then I guess these guys suck.
People just can't think for themselves. Donahoe had to gut this entire team and within a couple years he built the roster back up to be competitive and challenge for a playoff spot. He also found a good amount of talented players out of the draft. More then the majority of the teams in the NFL have over that 5 year span.
Had he been able to find a good coach this would've been a playoff team. He couldn't and that's where he failed. Give the guy credit for the players he brought in though. He did a good job in that area.
Agreed Feve...as far as bringing in talent, he did a good job. His coach-hiring and PR were the problems he had. I attribute that to fear. He was afraid to hire a strong coach because the last strong coach he worked with is still in Pittsburgh
Question: If Donahoe brought in so much talent, where the hell is it now? He had the last five drafts. It was pretty clear that this team lacked talent last year, particularly on the DL and the OL. Now Marv has to find a whole bunch of young guys to fill holes and we may end up with 4 rookies starting on D at some point this season.
Donahoe had his moments in the draft, but overall his drafting was pretty bad.
He brought in good players at the skill positions and had a knack for marketing. I don't think anyone doubts those strengths.
BUT he never properly addressed the needs of our lines, the foundations upon which any great NFL team is built. He had a penchant for hiring coaches who served as his lackeys rather than independent people who had full control over the players they were given (a problem he had with Cowher in Pittsburgh). He also had a really huge ego and a lack of respect for the fans which was evident toward the end of his tenure.
To me those negatives outweighed the positives. Look, as a GM he is supposed to get good players in here. That's what he's paid to do. But part of that is addressing ALL of the needs of the team including the lines and no, hiring some scrubs and cast offs from other teams isn't what I'd consider addressing the problem. Also, it is never acceptable to belittle the fans. We are the ones paying good money for the merchandise and game tickets. To tell us to not "bother wasting the postage", ordering security to confiscate signs, and just overall being a pretentious dick-head aren't going to go over well with fans in ANY city.
I don't see why we need to ruminate on the positives of Donahoe's reign and conveniently forget the reasons why he got fired in the first place.
Waaait just a second. This whole offseason you've been *****ing that they picked whitner too high. Now it's not where you pick them?
What will it be in another month?
Donohue's downfall was his spectacular blunders. He did have some nice drafts, 2003 in particular.
Bills drafting problems have to do with coaches not using the good players Donahoe did draft well.
He had a few good draft picks, but I wouldn't say he every really had a great draft. He had an eye for talent but lacked in picking players that would effectively build a solid team.
I also think that when it came to free agency he went after big names to sell tickets.
2001 was pretty good...2002 was awful
He definitely was better with draft and trading players than free agency and trading for players.
2001 Rd Sel# Player Pos. School 1 21 Nate Clements CB Ohio State 2 46 Aaron Schobel DE Texas Christian 2 58 Travis Henry RB Tennessee 3 76 Ron Edwards DT Texas A&M 3 95 Jonas Jennings T Georgia 4 110 Brandon Spoon MLB North Carolina 5 144 Marques Sullivan T Illinois 6 178 Tony Driver FS Notre Dame 6 195 Dan O'Leary TE Notre Dame 6 196 Jimmy Williams CB Vanderbilt 7 214 Reggie Germany WR Ohio State 7 238 Tyrone Robertson DT Hinds CC
When you look at the whole picture and not just the first 2-3 rounds....it doesn't really look that great.
In my opinion the problem with Donahoe's drafts was two-fold: other than McGee, he never found a second-day superstar and every great team needs to find at least one. plus a couple of additional solid players and none of the offensive linemen that he drafted, early or late, developed into anything more than average (Jennings) at best. He brought in some solid players at the top of his drafts, but the lack of depth in his drafts was not sufficient to make up for the gambles/failures that he had in the early rounds, despite the team finding some contributors in its UFAs. Hence, the failure of Mike Williams, the year that McGahee lost, and the slowness of JP Losman's development, along with the loss of Price, Jennings and Winfield to free agency, hurt the team a lot more than these things would have if the Bills had found some real gems in the later rounds. It's fine to look for your offensive linemen in the later rounds--the Pats and other teams have been successful doing that--but you've got to be very good at finding them there and you have to find and develop them, which Donahoe wasn't and didn't.
The Bills still might have been serious competitors thanks to the free agent talent that Donahoe brought in, but he picked very bad coaches--HC's who were too inexperienced to manage a roster with a lot of young talent that needed to learn and develop on the one hand and experienced veterans who didn't need to be taught so much as led and were eager to win immediately and unwilling to wait for the young guys to develop. A strong, highly respected, experienced coach and coaching staff might have been able to deal with that kind of mix on the roster, but neither of the HC's that Donahoe hired knew how to do that, let alone had the character or reputation required to do it successfully.
Donahoe's overall plan might have been successful--there was nothing wrong with the plan--but he had the wrong people in place to execute it and was unable to provide the team with the personnel that they would have needed to overcome their mistakes. At least, that's how I see it.
Levy also has what appears to be a solid plan. It remains to be seen if he has selected the right people to implement it and can get them the personnel that they will require to be successful. But, the one thing that he has that Donahoe and his people didn't is a reputation for being a HOF HC. As Tutan Reyes told the media, when Reyes first met Levy the first thing he said to Marv was, "You're a legend!" That will help, but Levy is still going to have to pick the right people and come up with the right personnel in order to make his plan work and for the Bills to become perennial winners again.
Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. And, thus it was that they surrendered their freedom; not with a bang, but without even a whimper.
I don't think it's that simple. True, the coaching has been suspect, but I've also seen fundamental breakdowns in the players. Can we blame that on the coaches? I'm hoping these guys go into the professional ranks as fundamentally sound players.
In my opinion, coaching has something to do w/ our woes, but it is NOT the sole culprit.
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