By Budd Bailey
Ken Jones of the Bills
Taken in Round 2 in 1976
The next pick: Tight end David Hills played 12 years with the Lions and Rams, and was part of two Pro Bowls.
Other picks in the round: You can never have enough Selmons, as Tampa Bay showed by taking Dewey Selmon with the last pick of the round. Brother Lee Roy is in the Hall of Fame. Sammy White spent 10 years with the Vikings, and the first six of them were quite good.
The details: The Bills did a great job of improving their offensive line in one swoop, taking Jones and Joe Devlin in the same round. Jones needed a couple of years to earn a starting job, but in 1978 he claimed the starting left tackle for nine seasons. Ken finished his career with the Jets in 1987.
Other 45s: Todd Collins sat for two years and then was given the chance to replace Jim Kelly as the Bills’ starting quarterback. Good luck with that. Collins was released after the 1997 season, and he started an odd journey as a backup quarterback. Todd played for Kansas City, Washington and Chicago, although there were years when he never got into a game. He started a total of four games after leaving Buffalo, and “won” them all.
He got away: The Braves drafted center Kim Hughes in 1974, but he signed with the New York Nets of the ABA after a year in Italy. Kim was a journeyman in the NBA through 1981, and then went back to Italy for eight more seasons.
(Follow Budd on Twitter @WDX2BB)
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