ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) – Drew Bledsoe’s performance got average marks from Tom Donahoe on Thursday, when the Bills president summed up the team’s season.

While referring to the quarterback as playing “winning football,” Donahoe also said he wasn’t happy with Bledsoe’s lack of consistency.

Donahoe said he foresees Bledsoe returning for at least one more season, but he wouldn’t say whether he’d remain the team’s starter.

Bledsoe, a 12-year veteran, has two years left on a contract he restructured last spring. He’s coming off an up-and-down season in which a growing number of critics called for him to be replaced by rookie first-round pick J.P. Losman.

Donahoe made his comments to a select group of reporters, and the interview posted on the team’s Web site.

Repeated interview requests for Donahoe left by The Associated Press with Bills spokesman Scott Berchtold went unanswered this week.

Buffalo (9-7) enjoyed its first winning season in five years. The Bills showed resilience in overcoming an 0-4 start by winning six straight and nine of 11 before their playoff chances ended with a loss to Pittsburgh last weekend.

Donahoe’s comments are his harshest public criticism of Bledsoe since the Bills acquired the quarterback in a trade with New England in April 2002.

When asked earlier this week whether he expected to compete for his job in training camp this summer, Bledsoe said “It’s my team.”

He finished 18th in the league with 2,932 yards passing, the second consecutive season in which he failed to break the 3,000-yard mark. He had 20 touchdowns, 16 interceptions and an efficiency rating of 76.6, which ranked 13th in the AFC and 25th overall.

That’s an improvement over career-low numbers Bledsoe posted in 2003, but a far cry from his first year with the Bills when he set 10 franchise passing records.

Critics pointed to Bledsoe’s poor performance in the season finale, when he went 16-of-30 for 189 yards and one interception. He also had a costly fourth-quarter fumble, which Steelers linebacker James Harrison returned for the decisive TD.

Donahoe was guarded in discussing Losman, noting the rookie lost a chance to fully develop after missing the first half of the season with a broken left leg.

He said it would be wrong to thrust Losman into a starting job next year if he wasn’t ready.

Losman, the No. 22 pick, saw abbreviated playing time in four mop-up role appearances.

Donahoe was particularly happy with the job done by rookie head coach Mike Mularkey.

“I would put the job he did up against any of the rookie coaches in the league,” Donahoe said. “I think he did an outstanding job. I think Mike never acted like a rookie coach.”

Donahoe faces a potential running back controversy after former starter Travis Henry said this week that he wanted out if he had to spend another year serving as Willis McGahee’s backup.

Donahoe noted Henry has a year left on his contract, and said the Bills haven’t ruled out keeping him.

“We’ll see how it develops,” Donahoe said. “But I know this, Travis Henry is a good football player and we’re not going to give him away.”

McGahee, the Bills first-round pick in 2003, replaced Henry as the starter in October and was credited for sparking the team’s turnaround. The Bills were 9-2 when McGahee started and 7-0 when he had 100 yards rushing.

This is Donahoe’s fourth season as team president, a stretch in which the Bills haven’t made the playoffs.

“I think we should’ve been in the playoffs,” Donahoe said. “We know it, the league knows it, our fans know it, and next year we expect to get there.”

—

On the Net:

Bills: http://www.buffalobills.com

AP-ES-01-06-05 1836EST