Buffalo Bills: 8 worst moves made by the franchise during the drought era
By Theo Bachman
Buffalo Bills Bizarre Usage of C.J. Spiller
When he was drafted ninth overall in the 2010 NFL Draft the C.J. Spiller pick wasn’t widely criticized. This goes to show how quickly the NFL changes because if a running back had gone in the Top 10 of this year’s NFL draft everyone would’ve lost their collective minds. The analytics movement has led to teams employing committees at the running back position and waiting later in drafts to take a running back. There have been a couple of running backs that have gone in the Top 10 in the last several years with the only justification being that they became a workhorse back on Day 1. This was not the case with the Bills and C.J. Spiller.
Spiller flashed some talent and even averaged over five yards per carry over five years in Buffalo. But, Spiller never became the clear number one running back and never got heavily involved in the passing game. We all love Fred Jackson in Buffalo, but having your Top 10 pick running back split carries with an undrafted free agent is borderline inexcusable.
During his five years in a Bills uniform, Spiller only got 668 carries. For comparison, Todd Gurley a more recent Top 10 pick at the position got 1,265 carries during his first five years with the Rams. Going back it seems clear that Spiller was never going to be a workhorse, he only exceeded 200 carries in a season once in college, and that’s what makes the pick even more perplexing.
The Spiller selection also led directly into the trade of Marshawn Lynch who was traded to Seattle in October of 2010 after four frustrating games to begin the year.