With the 2011 NFL Draft quickly approaching, we thought it'd be a good idea to run down the Buffalo Bills' ten biggest draft successes and failures. I decided at the last minute to make this an "of my lifetime" series, meaning that the only busts and gems that you'll see listed here every day were picked in 1985 or after.
If, a week from today, the Bills were to draft a 6'2", 274-pound nose tackle with the 213th overall pick, most of you would scream bloody murder. Sure, things were a bit different in the NFL when the Bills did exactly that in 1988 when they took Jeff Wright out of Central Missouri State. That shouldn't diminish what Wright accomplished against long odds.
There's little doubt that the undersized Wright benefitted from playing alongside Hall of Fame end Bruce Smith, as well as one of the franchise's unsung heroes, Phil Hansen, and another pretty good end in Leon Seals. It is still impressive that Wright accumulated 31.5 sacks in his seven-year career with the Bills; that's good for the seventh-highest total in team history.
Buffalo went to four straight Super Bowls because of their star players, and they got a ton of help from unheralded, productive guys like Jeff Wright.
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