The 2004 quarterback draft class is largely considered the best quarterback draft class since the 1983 class that saw six quarterbacks go in the first round including Hall of Famers John Elway, Jim Kelly, and Dan Marino.
While Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger have all had massive success in the NFL after going in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft, the fourth first-round quarterback taken by the Bills at No. 22 in Tulane’s J.P. Losman didn’t pan out at all.
Buffalo traded back into the first round by getting the Dallas Cowboys’ No. 22 overall pick to draft their next heir apparent under center after Kelly. Losman had an absolute howitzer of an arm playing the for Green Wave in New Orleans, but accuracy, injuries, and frankly confidence derailed his NFL career.
Losman broke his foot during 2004 Bills training camp and that set the tone for five bad years in Buffalo for the strong-armed quarterback. While he did have a strong 2006 campaign for the Bills, he never lived up to the hype as the guy to replace Drew Bledsoe at quarterback. When the Bills drafted Stanford’s Trent Edwards in the third round in the 2007, Losman demanded a trade.
Losman would leave Buffalo after the 2008 NFL season and bounced around as an NFL backup with the Oakland Raiders, the Seattle Seahawks, and the Miami Dolphins before retiring after the 2011 NFL season.
While his career numbers of 33 touchdowns to 34 interceptions for 6,271 yards and a quarterback rating of 75.6 isn’t horrible, the overwhelming success of Manning, Rivers, and Roethlisberger makes Losman one of the biggest busts in Bills history.
Next: 3. DE Aaron Maybin, 2009, No. 11 overall