Bills must make a change at a key position…GM

By Connor Byrne  |   Tuesday, October 04, 2005  |  Comments( 0 )

Buffalo Bills
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27-41...That is the record that the Buffalo Bills have amassed since their current general manger Tom Donahoe stepped in. When Donahoe came to Buffalo prior to the 2001 season, the team was in salary cap jail after their former General Manager, the late John Butler, was fired. He got the Bills out of cap jail but hasn't done much else. So far, Buffalo has not made the playoffs under his reign.

Donahoe's first move would be one that set the team back for three seasons. That, of course, was hiring former Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams to be the head coach. Williams did a terrible job in those three seasons and was despised by just about every Bills fan across the nation. He managed to go 17-31 as the head coach, with his best season being 8-8 back in 2002. Another big move he made was drafting the mammoth Mike Williams, a former offensive tackle from the University of Texas. Williams was the fourth overall pick in the 2002 draft and has been a disaster in the NFL so far. With that pick, Donahoe could have drafted one of the game's best defensive linemen, Dwight Freeney of the Indianapolis Colts, or one of the NFL's best safeties, Roy Williams of the Dallas Cowboys.

However, Tom Donahoe hasn't been all bad. He made a big splash by trading a first-round pick to the defending champion New England Patriots for quarterback Drew Bledsoe. Even though the Bledsoe experiment failed, it was actually a smart move. It generated a great buzz throughout Buffalo and led to more ticket sales. In his greatest move as the Bills' GM, Donahoe traded receiver Peerless Price to the Atlanta Falcons for their first-round draft choice in the 2003 draft. Price has since been cut by Atlanta while the player Buffalo ended up getting with that pick, running back Willis McGahee, has been spectacular in his career with the Bills. It was a controversial move at the time because Buffalo already had Pro-Bowl runner Travis Henry. He became disgruntled thanks to the presence of McGahee and was traded to the Titans this past off-season for a third-round pick in the 2006 draft. Good move considering Henry was recently suspended for violating the league's drug policies while McGahee has turned into one of the NFL's best runners. Donahoe should also be commended for bringing in key players like Lee Evans, Sam Adams, Aaron Schobel, Chris Kelsay, London Fletcher, Takeo Spikes, Nate Clements, Lawyer Milloy, and Troy Vincent through the draft and free agency.

Donahoe has made crafty moves that have often paid off as GM of the Bills, but he has made far too many bad moves. His second head coaching hire, Mike Mularkey, has flamed out thus far in his second year with the team, after a very promising 9-7 season in 2004. Thus far, Donahoe has managed to hire novices at head coach while he should have been zeroing in on proven coaches to give credibility to his team. It has led many to believe that he is an incredible egomaniac who has to control his head coaches. Big named coaches like Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick run the show for their respective teams and the front office personnel stay out of the way. Donahoe, on the other hand, wants to run the show and doesn't want to have to deal with a coach taking his limelight away. He was fired as GM of Pittsburgh because he failed to get along with one of the game's most successful coaches, Bill Cowher.

One of Donahoe's other crippling errors as the Bills' GM has been the failure to draft well in the late rounds of the NFL draft. While New England manages to nab guys like legendary quarterback Tom Brady, starting center Dan Koppen, starting corner Asante Samuel, and starting safety Eugene Wilson in late rounds, Buffalo has failed to find any diamonds in the rough. The only great second day selection by Donahoe was Terrence McGee, a former fourth-rounder. He has done a fairly solid job with his first-round picks, having drafted starting cornerback Nate Clements, starting running back Willis McGahee, starting receiver Lee Evans, and quarterback J.P. Losman. The Losman selection can certainly be questioned, but it's too early to judge whether or not he will be a solid NFL quarterback.

I have already mentioned a great deal of crucial mistakes by Donahoe, but his greatest so far has been to pay zero attention to the offensive line. Teams win championships based on offensive line play because it makes their whole offense better. Donahoe seems to think he's playing fantasy football and all he has to do is find great skill position players. He barely even drafts offensive linemen, and in free agency, he just signs extremely low budget players who are backups at best. This year's starting line for the Bills consists of world-beaters Mike Gandy, Bennie Anderson, Trey Teague, Chris Villarial, and Mike Williams. The only one of them with any business starting in the NFL is Villarial. The rest should be backups or spot starters. It is quite obvious that Donahoe has no idea how to run an NFL franchise correctly and he needs to be relieved of his duties immediately. Owner Ralph Wilson is to blame for letting this incompetence happen right under his nose.

The solution? Fire Donahoe and bring in someone who has proven that they can build a winning NFL team. It's time to give the Bills' fans a team that they can be proud of. The winningest franchise of the 1990s has turned into a laughingstock and they continue to fall deeper into the abyss of the NFL.
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