The Bills have drafted poorly in the first round for over a decade. That's the only reason they are so awful.
This is who they drafted (and who I would have drafted--and I pay attention to this because I live in Buffalo).
2000 DE Erik Flowers
--Should have drafted Keith Bulluck, played at Cuse, locals saw a lot of him, the favorite
2001 CB Nate Clements (good pick, left in free agency after 1st contract)
2002 T Mike Williams (4th player taken)
--Should have drafted Dwight Freeney, same as Bulluck, locals clamoring for him
2003 Traded a 1st rounder for Drew Bledsoe (Ugh)
--Traded up into 1st and inexplicably picked Willis McGahee w/ torn ACL, missed the season. Nnamdi Asomugha, Larry Johnson, Darryl Clark within the next 10 picks. McGahee left after his first contract, but first insulted Buffalo women and said the nightlife stunk (other Bills said McGahee never ventured beyond chain stores like Applebees in the burbs).
2004 WR Lee Evans (OK pick, did well for them)
--They passed on Vince Wilfork, like so many others. Bills fans wanted Wilfork.
--Traded up into 1st for JP Losman (Nice guy, lived on my street, often out and about in the restaurants, loved Buffalo, often saw girls in long T-shirts and little else taking the walk of shame at 8 AM as I passed his home, played the drums loudly on a nice street). Horrendous pick. Steven Jackson and Karlos Dansby picked afterward.
2005 NO 1st ROUNDER (Losman debacle)
--first pick was Roscoe Parrish late in the 2nd.
--If they hadn't traded up for Losman and lost a 1st and 2nd rounder, they could have had: Demarcus Ware, Shawn Merriman, Derrick Johnson or Aaron Rodgers. Probably would have selected Rodgers there since they needed a QB badly.
2006 SS Donte Whitner (8th player taken). Bad pick.
--Bills fans were clamoring for Haloti Ngata.
--Also traded multiple picks into first round for BUST DT John McCargo. Nick Mangold, Matthias Kiwanuka, Demeco Ryans, went soon afterward.
2007 RB Marshawn Lynch (yet another RB they didn't need, one w/ a propensity to drive drunk and run over people).
--Because Clements had left in FA, the Bills fans were clamoring for a CB. The two they targeted were CB Darrelle Revis and CB Leon Hall. They valued both equally. The 2 went shortly after the Bills took Lynch (to replace McGahee's departure). Bad pick.
2008 CB Leodis McKelvin (to replace departed Clements, a makeup call for missing out on Revis). BUST
--fans were clamoring for Ryan Clady because Jason Peters was hurt, had already declared his intentions to leave Buffalo because of sour contract negotiations the previous year. Peters left in 2008.
--At CB, Terence McGee had filled in more than adequately and the Bills fans felt LT was a much bigger need by the time of the 2008 draft. Yet another munchkin taken when the Bills needed beef up front.
2009 DE Aaron Maybin BUST
--Bills pass on Brian Orapko, Brian Cushing and Michael Oher. LT and DE were huge positions of need. But they picked the wrong DE.
--traded up into first round for C Eric Wood. Often injured, but a good pick. Solid player.
2010 RB CJ Spiller
--Yet another RB in the long line of RBs selected in the first round (and who later left Buffalo) over players such as LT Anthony Davis, Jason Pierre-Paul and Earl Thomas. This one is debatable. And although Spiller is having a breakout year, the Buffalo airwaves still consider this a bad pick, because they took a small guy over needs on the OL. Davis was going to be the pick. Pierre Paul may have given them jitters from the Maybin pick the previous year, so I doubt he was in the cards. They made up for passing on Thomas with some decent picks at safety later in the draft.
--Overall, a bad pick, especially when you have 2 decent backs already, including undrafted FA Fred Jackson who also excels catching passes.
2011 DT Marcel Dareus
--The same guys who bash the Bills for taking Spiller and McKelvin and Whitner over Clady, Ngata and Davis defend this pick from complaining Buffalo fans who would have preferred AJ Green, Patrick Peterson, Julio Jones, JJ Watt and Aldon Smith. The thinking is that Dareus is talented and will become a bigger force in the future, but has so far not lived up to the standing of 3rd player taken. Buffalo needs help in the trenches, so it's too early to dismiss this pick for the sort of mistakes the Bills have regularly made taking WRs and DBs and RBs over bigtime defenders. Then again, Peterson, Green and Jones seem like special players. Whitner and McKelvin they are not.
2012 CB Stephen Gilmore
--Buffalo fans like what they see so far, but the criticism again is ignoring the offensive line and taking a shrimp at CB. Players that could help like Irvin, Hightower, McLellin, Coples could helpt the weakest unit on Buffalo (LB) but they passed on these for Gilmore. Before the draft, the Bills were targeting QB Tannehill and LB Kuechly. Those 2 went right before the Bills picked. Fans hated the idea of Tannehill (I thought they were dumb, and I think Tannehill will be a top 12 QB in this league shortly) but they were very high on Kuechly coming to Buffalo (again, Buffalo would be spinning its wheels with that pick since they lost Paul Poszlusny to Jax 2 years ago, and Poz was the 33rd layer taken 3 years prior).
Looking back, they've taken small guys (RBs and CBs) and lost them, or they'e been bust. They don't prioritize the lines. They have bad evaluation at QB.
If you count Gilmore and Dareus as good picks, they are 4 for 14 in the 1st round (in terms of helping the team) over the last 12 years.
No NFL team has blown the first round more than the Buffalo Bills.
Don't look at the coaches, look at the owner and front office.
