Man, I never knew about #7. That was a pretty dumb decision, not just in hindsight, but because of the way Donahoe went about it.

but I witnessed first hand that pathetic loss against the Steelers backups and knew the team was in one huge mess.

I would add firing Rusty Jones to that list.

But if Jauron gets some what of a pass for the mess the Bills are, then Mularkey should get amnesty. Both Mularkey and Kevin Gilbride were offensive genius’ before they came to the Bills. I was tick when Mularkey left too, but in hindsight, he knew the Bills were a huge mess and not likely to improve soon. The Bills had already stunted his career, much the same way he might have stunted Loseman’s. I don’t blame him for wanting out.

line on Donahoe’s reign was he never found the QB that Ralph and he could agree upon, and they treated it like a fantasy team. Rob Johnson, Doug Flutie, Drew Bledsoe. Some pretty good arms, but such a dysfunctional owner/GM. I’ll blame Ralph for the Flutie/Johnson debacle, as Ralph admittedly loved Johnson. Changing defenses wasn’t Donahoe’s fault and Greg Williams was a great defensive mind who knew what he was doing so I had zero issues with that. My biggest beefs with Donahoe, always have and always will be that he had no clue how to BUILD a team. When you ignore the OL for 6 years, you go from being a talent evaluator respected in league circles, to an idiot with no job.

Every defense works in the NFL if you run it well. Williams didn’t know anythign about the 3-4 so if he wants to run a 4-3 he can. Williams built his reputation on it and it has done good things for him.

Everything else… yeah pretty bad.

At least with Donahoe we had a winning season and a top 5 D for a few years. Now what do we have? Lots of 7-9 seasons with terrible defenses and offenses….

I didn’t read everyones comments but…

Yeah – I was very disapointed that Phillips was let go. I almost cried (not really) when Williams was let go as well. Just didn’t make sense to me – still doesn’t make sense.

I think Ralph thought he was doing the right thing in hiring Donahoe – but it just backfired in the worst way. And yes, definately set this franchise back 10 years. That’s just wrong and pathetic – very very tough to overcome.

I hope this is the last time I ever have to write anything in regards to Donahoe and the Bills other than when we are perennial playoff contenders and remember those days as the dark ages of BB football (since i’ve been watching in ’88)

Evidently began his tenure in salary cap prison? HaHa.

Pretty good first draft in Buffalo yielded Nate Clements, Travis Henry, and Aaron Schobel. Passed on Florida offensive tackle Kenyatta Walker at #14, traded down and picked Clements at #21 and used the pick acquired in the trade to select the Ultimate Impregnator, Henry.

Donahoe essentially turned Peerless Price into Willis McGahee, which eventually turned into Trent Edwards. The Bills got Price back, anyway.

Evidently Pat Williams was washed up? HaHa. Antoine Winfield, too? The money that could have been used for Winfield was spent on Lawyer Milloy 1 week prior to defeating the Patriots on opening day in 2003.

Donahoe was somewhat committed to building the offensive line. Not only did he pick Mike Williams at #4 overall, but also picked Jonas Jennings in the 3rd round in the 2003 draft. Jennings played decent in Buffalo, worse in San Francisco, and turned out to be a great “non-resigning/extension”.

“The offensive line might be the position where coaching is more of a significant factor than any position," Bills general manager Tom Donahoe says. "I think you need a premium offensive line coach, the guy who can take down-the-line guys and free agents and develop them into pretty good pros." ”http://www.sportingnews.com/experts/dan-pompei/20050328b.html" target="_blank">http://www.sportingnews.com/experts/dan-pompei/20050328b.html

“We have decided today to not renew Gregg Williams’ contract. He is obviously free to look for another position and we begin our search for a new head coach.”
“I would like to publicly thank Gregg and Gregg’s family for all that they contributed to our organization. Gregg came here under very difficult circumstances and handled things with great class and great dignity all the way through some very difficult times. I would also like to apologize to Gregg. I think some of the personal criticisms that were leveled at him were unfair.” http://www.angelfire.com/nv/billsthunder/WILLIAMSFIRED.html

“We felt that we had a chance to get an outstanding football player in Willis McGahee and true to our philosophy we took the best player that was on the board. He is one of the best players in the draft.”
“In the last couple of days in our discussions we’ve talked extensively about McGahee, he was going to be in the mix regardless of who was on the board. That was how much we felt about his talents.”

“We are very honored to have Mike Mularkey as our coach. I think it’s obvious to people who follow professional football what individuals think of Mike Mularkey. He has been a candidate for numerous jobs over the past few years and certainly was an outstanding candidate for this job. In talking to Mike and looking at our position here with the Buffalo Bills, there are certain things that stood out about Mike in comparison to the other candidates. I think a couple of those things were leadership, which is very important to be a head coach, the ability to teach and to communicate. Mike will bring toughness to our team, which we feel we need. Particularly, mental toughness. Maybe the most important thing is Mike’s ability to understand players and to understand players’ abilities, which is so essential in the game today.”

“Football has changed, as we all know, because of the salary cap and free agency. Your team changes from year to year. Coaches have to be on top of that and have to recognize that. That’s always been one of Mike’s strengths.”
“I could go on forever about what I think about Mike Mularkey. I think he’s a very special person and I think he’s going to be a very special coach in this league and for the Buffalo Bills.” www.buffalobills.com/news/index.cfm?cont_id=224734

This was an excellent story and really shows the damage one man can do. I would add a couple more to your list, including one that continues to plague this team.

Mistake #8: Donahoe takes a page out of Soviet era tactics to repress freedom of speech and confiscates negative (but accurate) signs from fans at the stadium. Although it hasn’t been proven in a court of law, I believe these dissenters were sent to gulags, shot or both.

Mistake #9 (by Ralph Wilson): Mistakes 1-8 cause the Ralph Wilson to rethink his strategy of entrusting the franchise in a single individual. Vowing to never make the same mistake again, he hires Levy, who clearly doesn’t ‘t want to be a GM at this stage in his life to repair the damage. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but after Levy, Wilson then throws the baby out with the bathwater and restructures the front office, splitting responsibilities and putting a marketing guy in the COO role. Donahoe ruined any chance of this team having a normal front office structure while Wilson is alive. Maybe Brandon and the triad can get the job done…but so far we’ve seen nothing but 7-9.

- I can agree with almost every reason, but I still think that Donohoe’s drafts were the worst I have ever witnessed. When he drafter McGahee and already had Travis “9 children” Henry, as well as the trade for JP “Another Surfer QB Bust like Rob Johnson” Losman, I soon realized he should be selling cars. His first year was the only good draft he had, when he got Henry, Schoebel, and Jennings, etc.
- Look at all of the good teams in the NFL, especially the Giants – They draft and sign linemen on both sides of the ball. You win in the trenches, unfortunately Donohoe was always in some dark closet clueless.

Wow, great strory. I especially like the point regarding switching from a 3-4 to a 4-3. Defense is about personel. Buffalo used a 4-3 defence(well 46 defence to be more accurate) with a 3-4 base personel. That will never work.

Also, did Tommy-boy trade a first round draft pick for Rob Johnson?

4.) Neglecting the defensive line. Flipped from the Donahoe era, the Bills invested a big first round pick in a total (so far) bust, John McCargo, while saving the big DL bucks for Aaron Schobel and Chris Kelsay. Blech. Stroud is the one exception.

McCargo does look like a bust, but don’t forget drafting Kyle Williams, who has been a pretty solid player since being drafted.

6.) Replacing Fairchild with Schonert. Another disastrous coaching move. ANd at the same time of course, keeping DJ.

A lot of people complain about Schonert, and rightfully so, but I think the comparisons to Fairchild are unfair. Turk was in his first year as OC last year and the offense saw an almost 50% increase in touchdowns under his play calling. I’m not saying that Turk was good, but he is obviously better then Fairchild.