Bills worst first round picks since 1980

[editor's note, by Brian Galliford] Wondering who the worst Buffalo Bills first-round draft picks of the last 28 years are? RabidBuffalo has you covered. Excellent work, RB. End Note

In honor of the 2008 draft coming up next weekend, I thought I would "celebrate" by looking back at the Buffalo Bills' 10 biggest first round draft busts... since 1980. Why 1980? Well, most of us on this site wouldn't know half the names mentioned anyways from before 1980 (do you remember the immortal Phil Dokes or J.D. Hill?). Also, quite frankly, the Bills sucked and had nothing but crap picks for years. This list would get mighty long. Lastly, many stats we now use to judge players weren't even created yet. Tackles were not counted, and neither were sacks. Since most of us wouldn't know anything about the guys, it would be a useless exercise. Of course, creating a cutoff point of 1980 eliminated the biggest Bills bust of all, Tom Cousineau. The first overall pick of the 1979 draft never played a single down for the Bills and is seen as one of the worst #1 overall picks of all time, period. So without further ado, here we go. And remember, this is just MY opinion.

#10: Antowain Smith, 1997 (23), RB, Houston - As you will soon see, Antowain was the first pick in a second cycle of crap RBs the Bills had over the course of a few years. Like many RBs in Bills history, Smith started off strongly but quickly faded, eventually leading to the need to draft another RB; in Antowain's case, Travis Henry. Of course, Smith would go on to burn the Bills as a Patriot for a few years after being dumped by Buffalo. Smith even has two Super Bowl rings. He had an awesome 2001 season, rushing for 1100 yards and 12 TDs. Injuries took over and the Pats ended up getting Corey Dillon. But basically, Smith was at best simply serviceable for the mighty Bills.

#9: Greg Bell, 1984 (26), RB, Notre Dame - Bell was a solid player out of Notre Dame and looked like a superstar in the making his first two years here. He rushed for over 1900 yards and 15 TDs his first two years. He was a big but shifty back that was also a threat out of the backfield as a receiver. Alas, he began to fade and in 1986 the Bills had to take Ronnie Harmon. Bell was sent to the L.A. Rams where he transformed into that superstar. In 88 and 89, he rushed for over 2300 yards and 31 TDs. Then the injuries re-appeared and he disappeared.

#8: Ronnie Harmon, 1986 (16), RB, Iowa - If you're paying attention, you are starting to see a pattern form. Harmon had to be drafted because Bell was getting injured and the Bills needed some new blood. Harmon was pretty terrible, never rushing for more than 500 yards for the Bills. He scored a whopping 3 rushing TDs in his four years here. He was, however, a very good receiver. Arguably one of the best receiving backs ever. For all of his shortcomings as a RB, he had 582 catches in his 12 year career. The Bills needed a RB though, and Harmon couldn't deliver. His failure led directly to the 1988 second rounder that would end the cycle of RBs in Buffalo for a while, THE Thurman Thomas.

#7: Booker Moore, 1981 (28), RB, Penn St. - Yikes, another RB. If you are saying "Who?", you are not alone. Honestly, he could probably go higher on this list. His four years in the red, white, and blue were pretty useless. He scored a grand total of 2 TDs and never rushed for more than 275 yards. His complete ineptness led to drafting Greg Bell, who led to Harmon, who led to...well you know. If we could go back further, Moore was preceded by the great Terry Miller. Boy, do we suck at drafting RBs. Hopefully our current RB will not repeat this cycle.

#6: Tony Hunter, 1983 (12), TE, Notre Dame - His great Bills career lasted all of...two years. Oy vey! At least he gave us 5 TDs. He was traded to the Rams and played another two years until leaving the NFL.

#5: Perry Tuttle, 1982 (19), WR, Clemson - I'm sure Tuttle was a nice guy. Other than that, there is not a lot to say. Well, he did have a funny name. Heh heh, he said Tuttle. Anyway, old Perry put up a mind boggling 24 catches in two years here. He did score 3 times, but unfortunately we dumped him to Tampa Bay just before he hit his stride...of terribleness. He caught one more pass for 7 yards in '84 and then he was gone. Thanks for everything, Perry.

#4: James Williams, 1990 (16), DB, Fresno St. - James, or JB as I remember him, has a special place in my heart. Williams was the first draft pick that I truly remember following. I watched the draft that year and Williams became my favorite Bill immediately (hey, I was young). I got his rookie card and I was ready to celebrate the greatest Bill ever. Just one problem - he sucked. Sure, he was fast, but he also sucked...bad. He sucked badly, he badly sucked. Whatever, he wasn't good. He gave us a few picks, but mostly served as a poster boy getting toasted against the Phins and Jets. The guy served as a backup's backup while on some very good teams. Oh well, at least he has been to a couple of Super Bowls. Williams was my first understanding that first round picks aren't automatic. Thanks for breaking me heart, buddy.

#3: Erik Flowers, 2000 (26), DE, Arizona St. - Quick, how many sacks did Erik get as a Bill? Give up? Here's a hint; it's less than Bruce Smith. Alright, everyone is less than Bruce. Well, Erik got 4. If you remember any highlights of Erik's tenure here, you deserve a solid handshake and slap on the back because you are a true Bills fan. Honestly, I don't remember anything from him. Somehow he played another 4 years for 4 more teams. We didn't miss anything. One day in 2004, as a Ram, he got a sack. The End...

#2: Mike Williams, 2002 (4), OT, Texas - Well, Mike was a large man. He was kind of funny. That's about as many accolades that I can give out. I'm sure at some point he blocked someone. I guess. The name Mike Williams is synonymous with the word "bust". As the fourth pick in the draft he was expected to provide protection for a decade; unfortunately, he was terrible. He took lots of money and gave us nothing back. However, in my humble opinion, he wasn't the worst ever for Buffalo. One stands above all the rest...

#1: Willis McGahee, 2003 (23), RB, Miami (FL) - Surprised? Statistically, Willis wasn't a terrible pick. He provided some solid years in '04 and '05. But it's not the statistics that make this bad to me. I'm sure some would say that emotions have something to do with it. He did, after all, put down Buffalo and pretty much bail out on us. To me, his pick in 2003 was completely unwarranted. We had Travis Henry at the time and only had the 23 pick because we traded Peerless Price to Atlanta. People could say that the pick could be used to get whomever we wanted since the pick wasn't ours. However, we weren't a good team and couldn't afford a wasted pick. There were some very good players there that would have helped immediately, like Dallas Clark, Eric Steinbach, Nnamdi Asomugha, Rashean Mathis, etc. Willis was an arrogant pick made by an arrogant man trying to be smarter than everyone else. Willis had injury and character concerns. The injuries didn't affect us that much after he took that first year off but the character problems really slapped us in the face. Mike Williams might have been a bust, but the pick made sense. We needed an OT, and Williams was seen as a better choice than Bryant McKinnie. McGahee was pure indulgence. He wasn't needed and he didn't help. We needed a player that would fit our team needs at the time and none of the guys mentioned earlier would have been "reaches". At least our trade of Willis to Baltimore gave us some draft picks to work with, but overall I would say that his stay here was pretty worthless.

Well, thanks for reading. As you can see, our history of first round picks has been pretty strange. Honestly, since about 1990 we haven't drafted that bad. We have had a bunch of middling players like Thomas Smith and John Fina, but not that many true busts. Teams like Arizona and Cincinnati seem to have epic busts every year. During this little exercise, I was really surprised by our ineptness for drafting RBs. We have had two cycles of RB drafts starting in 1978: Terry Miller - Booker Moore (81) - Greg Bell (84) - Ronnie Harmon (86) - Thurman Thomas (88). Then it started again in 97 with Antowain Smith - Travis Henry (01) - Willis McGahee (03) - Marshawn Lynch (07). Hopefully it is over for a while. We seem to draft OL and DB well, save for the two major disappointments.

Again, this is just my opinion. Feel free to fire away and provide your own lists. Go Bills!