The Donahoe Factor

by The Historian

The 2005 season represents Tom Donahoe’s fifth year as General Manager of the Buffalo Bills. Much has been made of the fact that the team has yet to make the playoffs during his tenure, resulting in a five-year playoff drought for the Bills. The 2005 season represents Tom Donahoe’s fifth year as General Manager of the Buffalo Bills. Much has been made of the fact that the team has yet to make the playoffs during his tenure, resulting in a five-year playoff drought for the Bills. Fan opinion seems to be divided into two camps: One group thinks four years is long enough to assemble a winning formula in today’s NFL, and that Free Agency should speed up the process. The other group discounts the cap purging year of 2001, and believes Donahoe deserves the benefit of the doubt, as the team is headed in the right direction, just missing the playoffs in what amounts to only their third year of building.

Who’s right? Both have valid arguments, actually. While there have been some extenuating circumstances over the last couple seasons, and although the team seems to be on the upswing, most Bills fans have become impatient, and rightly so. Teams like Miami and San Francisco rarely spend more than one season below .500, while the Bills sometimes seemed destined to be bogged down at the bottom of the league for several seasons at a time as they rebuild. Unfortunately, the success or failure of a GM cannot simply be measured in wins and losses, or, at least it shouldn’t be. Other areas need to be considered.

In as much as the enigmatic Donahoe shies away from the press, some of his moves behind the scenes have been quite bold. He’s not afraid of controversy, and in fact, sometimes, like his players, thrives on it. In order to properly evaluate the Bills GM, we have broken down the position of General Manager into four major categories, Players, coaches, community, and marketing, so that we may take a closer look at Mr. Donahoe’s actual accomplishments.

Players:

Some of his picks have panned out nicely. Aaron Schobel and Nate Clements have lived up to their #2 and #1 draft picks respectively. Chris Kelsay played better this year, and Willis McGahee broke out. His knee looks to have rehabbed nicely. Time will tell whether he can handle the rigors of a sixteen game NFL schedule, but the smart money believes he can. McGahee’s success probably spells the end of Travis Henry in a Bills uniform, but the second round pick from Tennessee had three solid years rushing the football here. Donahoe’s biggest selection, (both literally and figuratively) Mike Williams, was a slow start, but had an improved 2004, and should benefit not only from Line Coach Jim McNally’s tutelage, but from off-season additions to the line as well. 2004’s first round pick, wide receiver Lee Evans, has done everything you could ask of a rookie first round pick. JP Losman saw only limited duty in 2004, but seems to possess a mental toughness the position has not seen since the retirement of Jim Kelly.

Disappointments include Josh Reed, who never regained his rookie form, Ryan Denney, Coy Wire, and Justin Bannan. although Wire has been a standout on special teams the last two seasons.

Unfortunately for Donahoe, fans like to hang the Drew Bledsoe trade around his neck, even though most agreed with it at the time. Most of us would have made the same deal, based on Bledsoe’s past reputation, and given the trauma we had been through at the position. How Donahoe handles the Quarterback position this off-season will go a long way to determining the length of his tenure here.

Player evaluation: B+ Coaches:

Probably the most bothersome decision Donahoe has made as GM of the Bills was the selection of Gregg Williams as his first Head Coach. That one decision probably his most important, set this team back three years. Of course, only the Bills brain trust knows what type of arrangement they had, but most could sense that Williams was not ready for the job. Still, TD got his man, and sent the Bills into one of those series of losing seasons, they have become synonymous with throughout their history.

Not seeming to learn from his mistake, he then hires Mike Mularkey away from the Pittsburgh Steelers, all while several veteran coaches are looking for work. Most like Mularkey’s easygoing demeanor, which already puts him light years ahead of his predecessor, but he's still very inexperienced. At least this time, Donahoe helped out his Head Coach by finding him some experienced assistants. April, Wyche, McNally, and Clements are all solid at their positions.

Coaching Evaluation: C

Donahoe in the Community

Platitudes rang hollow after his "Save the postage." comments last season to the Buffalo faithful. You simply don't treat fans as loyal as these in that manner. Buffalonians have suffered through too many two-win seasons for that kind of sentiment. He doesn't do much personally in the community, and sometimes the stands at the Ralph look like Saturday Night at the Fights. Most feel he is standoffish at best with the press, and after four years here, he still isn’t even listed in the team’s media guide.

Community Relations: D

A real strength of Donahoe’s has been marketing. Moving the training camp from isolated Fredonia to Rochester has been the cornerstone of regionalization, and opened up the team to more fans east of the city. Donahoe expanded on that, by moving the entire Buffalo Bills Experience there each summer.

Kids night, now several seasons old, has resulted in an average of 65,000 paying customers entering the turnstiles annually for that event. Low preseason ticket sales have long been one of Mr. Wilson’s pet peeves. Selling out a preseason game for the first time in 32 years is an incredible achievement, considering the team never even came close to accomplishing that feat during the Super Bowl years of the early ‘90’s.

During his tenure here, the Bills Store opened, with a satellite store in Rochester. Donahoe was also instrumental in instituting the Bills first major uniform change in over three decades. Like them or not, they are contemporary.

He renewed with WGRF 97 Rock, to be the “Voice of the Bills”, sparing fans the poor reception of AM, and the Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse Bills TV Network has broadcast their preseason games further than they have ever been broadcast before. Now fans as far east as Utica, and as far south as Ithaca receive all the games. They even run non-sold out home Preseason games on tape delay. These have all been major accomplishments. Frankly, he's done a magnificent job at marketing and regionalizing the team.

Marketing: A+

Overall, he grades out at about a C+ That grade is always in flux, and the next two years are crucial. Buffalo needs to make the playoffs next year, or all the other positive things he's done take a back seat. The drought is already five years and counting. Despite the pressure, conventional wisdom says he stays put, and perhaps earns a contract extension.

Why? Mr. Wilson. He gave him the title of Team President, and along with it, unprecedented control of the day-to-day affairs of the team. Wilson has had a hands-off approach ever since the Wade Phillips-Ronnie Jones debacle. He chose him. He likes him. He makes money with him. At the end of the day, that's really all that matters, from a business standpoint.

Forget that he sometimes overpays for guys whose better days are behind them. Forget that this team hasn't even sniffed the playoffs since the "Immaculate Deception" (That was five years ago folks!) Forget the utter stupidity of hiring Greg Williams.

The stands are full. The games are sold out. Merchandise sales are up, local sponsors are in place, and salaries (particularly Mr. Donahoe’s) are in line.

He isn’t going anywhere soon.