virtually all parties were shocked upon hearing the news that rob johnson would start ahead of doug flutie, and most of the bills players reacted negatively to the decision. many of them expressed bafflement that the quarterback who led their team to the playoffs would not start, while receiver eric moulds expressed disappointment because he felt he had established a great rapport with flutie and having a different starting quarterback would take away from that. other football media outlets also considered the decision to start johnson over flutie a bad move. on the statistical website football outsiders, aaron schatz routinely labeled the decision to start johnson over flutie as the worst coaching decision in nfl history.