NFL Draft Busts

Using a non-scientific formula that looked at: only first-round picks; weighted the pick number; considered who was taken after said bust; and measured the drama of the bust’s failure, here is a look at the top individuals and selection themes that comprise the greatest NFL Draft day flops.

Tony Mandarich, No. 2 overall in 1989, Green Bay Packers

Expectations could not have been higher for this behemoth from Michigan State. Dubbed “The Incredible Bulk” and the “best offensive line prospect ever” on a Sports Illustrated cover, the 6-6, 315-pounder could run the 40-yard dash in 4.6 seconds and bench press 225 pounds 39 times. But his steroid fueled rise to beast status on the college level never translated to the NFL. The Green Bay Packers took Mandarich with the No. 2 overall pick in the 1989 draft. He played three seasons in Green Bay and then was out of the League before making a comeback five years later. Mandarich started 32 games for the Indianapolis Colts from 1996-98. But he never came close to the pre-draft hype. Plus, his bust status is probably elevated by the fact that he is only player of the top five taken in ’89 to not be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas and Deion Sanders – the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th picks respectively – all earned spots in Canton.

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Ryan Leaf, No. 2 overall in 1998, San Diego Chargers

Back in 1998 you could easily argue about who should be taken first in the NFL Draft. Tennessee’s Peyton Manning hadn’t won the big one. Archie’s kid never beat Florida. Ryan Leaf had led the Washington State Cougars to a Pac-10 championship and the school’s first Rose Bowl appearance since 1931. But then again, there was a time in the 1980s where you could argue that Dominique Wilkins was better than Michael Jordan. That’s kind of how this one played out, only the margin of ability proved to be far wider between Manning and Leaf. The Colts took Manning with the No. 1 overall pick. Leaf went second to the Chargers. Besides having embarrassingly memorable blow ups with the media, Leaf played in just 25 NFL games. He went 4-17 as a starter, tossing 14 touchdowns and 36 interceptions. Manning, after numerous MVPs, a Super Bowl win and neck surgeries, just signed a near $100 million contract at age 36. Leaf, who will be 36 in May, was recently charged with four felonies for trying to steal prescription painkillers from people’s homes.

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JaMarcus Russell, No. 1 overall in 2007, Oakland Raiders

At least he got paid. You can say that about JaMarcus Russell. It has also been said that he was fat and lazy and fell asleep in team meetings during his painfully forgettable three-year NFL career. He went 7-18 as a starter, throwing 23 interceptions and 18 touchdown passes. In July 2010, after being released by the Raiders and ignored by the 31 other teams, Russell was arrested for drug possession – it was the codeine-laced Purple Drank. But at least he got paid, $39 million dollars – that’s $2.2 million per TD pass.

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Detroit Misery

No fan base has been more loyal through lean times than those who have suffered in the Motor City. With a playoff appearance last season and the draft additions of quarterback Matthew Stafford, the one-man defensive wrecking crew in Ndamukong Suh and the man with the coolest nickname in sports – Megatron a.k.a. Calvin Johnson, it is now probably easier for Lions fans to stomach the team’s history of draft day blunders. Let’s look at quarterbacks: Joey Harrington, Andre Ware and Chuck Long. Harrington, bolstered by a New York City building-sized billboard, finished fourth in the 2001 Heisman Trophy balloting. The Lions took him with the No. 3 overall pick in ’02. He never got beyond mediocre and was out of Detroit after four seasons. Ware won the Heisman Trophy in 1989. He was the seventh pick in the 1990 draft. Coming out of the University of Houston’s run-and-shoot offense he seemed to be the perfect fit for the Lions “Silver Stretch.” He wasn’t. In four seasons he started six games. In college Ware once threw for 340 yards in a single quarter; in his entire pro career he totaled 1,112 passing yards. Long was taken 12th overall in the 1986 draft. The QB who finished second to Bo Jackson in the closest Heisman race at the time, started 21 games in his first three years and never started again in his final three.

While the quarterbacks highlight Detroit’s draft miscues there are also some honorable mentions. Michigan State wide receiver Charles Rodgers was taken at No. 2 overall in 2003. He broke his collarbone, smoked weed in college and then smoked in the pros and since being jettisoned from the NFL has been arrested and served jail time for drug and alcohol related offenses. Even though Mike Williams had been away from football for a year the Lions selected him with the 10th overall pick in ’05. While Williams has resurrected his career with the Seahawks after two years away from the League, he lasted only two seasons in Detroit.

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Penn State: Not Exactly Running Back U

Blair Thomas, the No. 2 overall pick by the New York Jets in 1990, leads this group of Penn State running backs who disappointed at the pro level. No feature back has run with more hesitation than Thomas. He simply never adjusted to the speed of the pro game. The Chicago Bears took Curtis Enis with the 5th pick in the first round of the 1998 draft. In his dismal three-year, 36-game, NFL career, Enis rushed for 1,497 yards and four touchdowns. In his final year at Penn State, Enis ran for 1,363 yards and 19 touchdowns in a little more than 10 games. Finally — and this maybe a cheap one — enter Ki-Jana Carter, the No. 1 overall pick in 1995. The Bengals traded up to get Carter and he tore his ACL on his third carry in the first preseason game of his career. He stayed in the League until 2004, but was never a factor.

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Akili Smith and the Fake Year of the QB

Akili Smith burst onto the scene in his senior year at Oregon when he threw 32 TD passes. He was picked third by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1999 draft. In the 1990s, Cincinnati was a bad landing spot for players who actually wanted to play in the NFL. But with Smith his desire to be in the NFL was questionable. “My off-seasons were horrific,” Smith told Sports Illustrated in 2009. “We had a 16-week program, and I would be in Cincy four days at a time; then I’d jet back to San Diego (his hometown) and party. I’d constantly get calls from multiple women, my boys, club promoters … and I gave in to temptation. I was a complete embarrassment off the field.” Smith played in 22 NFL games and posted a career passer rating of 52.8.

Smith was also part of a draft class that saw five quarterbacks go in the first round. Tim Couch went first. Donovan McNabb went second, Smith third and Duante Culpepper and Cade McNown were picked 11th and 12th, respectively. While McNabb and Culpepper had good careers this is not the ’83 QB class that boasted Hall of Famers John Elway, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly.

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Heath Shuler, No. 3 overall in 1994, Washington Redskins

At Tennessee Heath Shuler was Peyton Manning before Manning came to town. In the NFL, Shuler was bad. He spent three seasons in Washington before being replaced by Gus Frerotte who was the 197th pick in the same draft. Shuler, now a U.S. Congressman, finished his four-year NFL career throwing 14 interceptions and two touchdowns in 10 games with the New Orleans Saints.

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The 2001 Receivers They Could’ve Had

Come on, you know David Terrell, Koren Robinson and Rod Gardner. Those wide receivers that went 8th, 9th and 15th respectively in the 2001 draft. Scratching your head? Well, they combined for 9,011 career receiving yards and 48 touchdowns and are out of the NFL now. I guess you probably don’t remember them because the receiver drafted 16th that year was Santana Moss – who on his own has more receiving yards (9,142) and touchdowns (56) than the trio’s combine total. Oh, and don’t forget about the last receiver taken in the first round that year – Reggie Wayne, who has 11,708 receiving yards, 73 TDs and counting.

Richard Todd, No. 6 overall in 1976, New York Jets

This could be unfair. It probably is, but it’s New York and the Jets. Todd had a particular pedigree that worked against him. Like Jets legend Joe Namath, Todd was a first-round pick out of Alabama. While he had a 10-year NFL career, Todd also had a propensity for interceptions – he averaged more than one per game – that made him a punch line.

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The 1982 Double Play

Coming out of Ohio State Art Schlichter was never an NFL prototype QB, but the Colts took him with a No. 4 pick, ahead of the All-American signal caller from BYU, Jim McMahon. Schlichter’s gambling addiction, which started in high school, is the subtitle to the NFL career he never had. In the same draft, the Minnesota Vikings and the Atlanta Falcons used top picks to take running backs Darrin Nelson and Gerald Riggs and pass on Marcus Allen. The Raiders grabbed the Heisman Trophy winner out of USC with the 10th pick. Nelson and Riggs had respectable careers; Allen made the Hall of Fame.