Terrible-2.91 contribution15th of 16 picks for this GM
Games: direct team-season record. Starts: direct team-season record.
Long-career hit
Donte Whitner became a 11-season, 157-game NFL player after going #8. The retained-value model still ranks him 15th of 16 for Marv Levy because BUF only got 69 of those games.
His retained-value contribution score (opportunity plus quality plus recognition, with related outcomes collapsed inside each bucket) is -2.91. This is a per-pick accountability metric, separate from Marv Levy's leaderboard composite θ.
Full-career context prevents this from being labeled as a bad talent pick: the negative model score is about retained team value, not whether the draft identified an NFL-caliber player.
The walkthrough below shows which bucket carried the pick: playing time, value quality, or league honors.
Opportunity
Did he earn the field?
Games played
69
on drafting team · 157 full-career
Games started
66
on drafting team · 152 full-career
Snap-z
0.0
0 modeled seasons
Quality
Was that time valuable?
On-team AV
25
modeled; full weighted AV 47
AV / 1k snaps
—
snap-era only
AV-rate z
—
position-year adjusted quality
Recognition
Did the league notice?
Pro Bowls
0
2 full-career
AP1 All-Pro
0 AP1
all on drafting team · AP2 context 0
All-Decade
0
context only
Did this pick move Marv Levy's grade?
The first chart removes the time axis: every Marv Levy pick is sorted by retained contribution across opportunity, quality, and recognition. Donte Whitner totals -2.91. The second chart breaks that same contribution into the seasons when the evidence arrived. Opportunity and quality can move separately, which keeps high-snap, low-AV profiles from looking cleaner than they are.
Aggregate contribution by player
Incremental contribution by season
Above expectationBelow expectationDonte WhitnerGM total -2.7Donte Whitner by season -4.7
How much retained production did Donte Whitner return vs. his slot?
Each mark below is one player's model value above slot. Light gray marks are slot-similar peers: DBs drafted within ±5 picks of Donte Whitner since 2010 (12 players).The score is the retained production/value bucket from the pick-residual model: on-team AV plus AV-rate quality, adjusted for draft slot, position, and era. Opportunity snaps and league honors are excluded.
Donte WhitnerSlot-similar peers (12)
Cumulative value over time
Year-by-year running totals since draft. Left axis = games started. Right axis = honors (Pro Bowl / AP1 / AP2). Pre-2013 picks have no games-started line because that comes from per-game snap counts (not available for older players). Honors extend back to 1980.
Games started (cumulative)Pro BowlsAP1 All-ProAP2 All-Pro
Full-career season history (11 scored seasons)
Year
Team
GP
GS
Snaps
Snap-z
AV
AV/snap
PB
AP1
AP2
2006
BUF
15
14
—
—
6
—
2007
BUF
15
15
—
—
5
—
2008
BUF
13
13
—
—
5
—
2009
BUF
10
8
—
—
4
—
2010
BUF
16
16
—
—
5
—
2011
SF
15
15
—
—
6
—
2012
SF
16
16
—
—
6
—
2013
SF
16
16
1,013
1.0
6
5.9
2014
CLE
16
16
1,175
1.6
9
7.7
2015
CLE
14
14
852
0.9
4
4.7
2016
WAS
11
9
576
0.1
3
5.2
How to read this
The current model groups outcomes into three buckets: opportunity (games, starts, snap-z), quality (on-team AV, AV/snap quality when available), and recognition (Pro Bowl, AP1).
Season rows show full-career context across every team. The draft-credit cards above contain the team-specific totals used for GM accountability. Snap-z is position/year-normalized playing time; AV/snap is shown as AV per 1,000 snaps where snap evidence exists.
AP2, full-career AV, HOF, and All-Decade are displayed as context only. They are not active outcomes in the current θ model.
Pre-2013 playing-time rows may show "—" where weekly snap evidence is unavailable; AV/snap quality is snap-era only.
