COMMENTARY
Bills need infusion of talent
Last December, while laughing off the loss to Miami in Toronto, Ralph Wilson said more than once that his team didn’t have enough talent. The owner bemoaned a trail of dubious draft picks and ill-advised decisions to move up into the first round.
Wilson said the problem went back “seven or eight years,” a clear shot at Tom Donahoe. It was a hardly a surprise. Wilson makes no attempt to conceal his disdain for Donahoe, or his belief that most of his current problems stem back to Donahoe’s reign from 2001-05.
The surprise is that Wilson can finger Donahoe for his team’s plight while leaving his scouting department in the hands of Tom Modrak and John Guy, men who were brought to Buffalo by Donahoe soon after his hiring as team president early in ’01.
Modrak has run college scouting and the draft since coming to Buffalo. Guy has been responsible for pro personnel. The Bills haven’t made the playoffs since, or made meaningful progress since Donahoe’s departure three years ago. Guy has done little of consequence in free agency.
Am I missing something?How can Wilson harbor such disdain for Donahoe as a personnel man, but continue to employ the guys Donahoe hired to find players? That’s just one of the confounding mysteries in Bills Land.
Wilson keeps reminding us the roster isn’t good enough. Then the Bills trade Jason Peters, their only Pro Bowler. They cut Derrick Dockery and Robert Royal, their starting left guard and tight end. Word is, they’re shopping Chris Kelsay, their starting left end, and Roscoe Parrish, the NFL’s leading punt returner.
Russ Brandon, the COO, is putting his stamp on the team. You can’t fault him for unloading players who aren’t worth the money. We’ll find out in time if trading Peters was a mistake. Wilson has piles of money to spend. Who does he intend to spend it on?
If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were rebuilding. But the Bills need to win now. Dick Jauron has to do better than 7-9. They need to get better, fast.
It’s hard to imagine them being better, though. Terrell Owens will help, but that’s a one-year thing. They’re desperate for help at linebacker and defensive end. They’re reconstructing the offensive line. Say what you will about Peters. He was an elite athlete, a physical marvel. They’re not likely to find a left tackle of his caliber any time soon.
So it’s obvious that Brandon wants to build through the draft. They’d better get it right this weekend. They can’t afford another so-so draft. They need players to contribute right away.
How can any objective observer be optimistic about it? Donahoe gets kicked around in Buffalo, but all of those drafts have Modrak’s fingerprints on them. Moving up for J. P. Losman and John McCargo falls on him, too. So do Parrish, Kelsay and Mike Williams. He reached for Donte Whitner in ’06. Name one elite interior lineman they’ve drafted under Modrak.
You don’t even need to consult a list. The Bills have missed the playoffs nine straight years. Modrak is a nice guy, Donahoe without the condescending sneer. But he has been running the draft for almost all of it. For this, he gets elevated to Wilson’s “inner circle.”
It’s about time for them to get it right. There’s an element of luck in any NFL draft, and at some point Wilson is bound to get lucky again. Of course, they also say you can’t judge a draft until three years or so down the road.
If they blow this one, we could be looking at 12 years without playoffs. At that point, Wilson might realize Donahoe wasn’t the only problem.
Jerry Sullivan will be blogging live Saturday and Sunday from the Bills draft room on the Sully on Sports blog at buffalonews.com/blogs
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