Biggest Draft Busts in NFL History

it's hard enough for NFL teams to find that one player in the draft that will shape their future but we all know there have been some major busts in the NFL draft quite a lot actually but the biggest draft bust in NFL history with the 24th pick in the 2010 NFL draft he's in his home emotional beyond belief that he's a Dallas C it is the Bison they have made it nearly impossible to recover for their unfortunate franchises we have the biggest defensive player bust the biggest bust for an offensive player that wasn't a quarterback and of course a whole slew of quarterbacks that failed to live up to expectations not to mention the one famous draft pick who actually duped the team into selecting him this is the grid iron Vince Young if you're picking third overall you're excited about the player you're going to get and if you're the 2006 Tennessee Titans selecting Vince Young you're beyond excited in fact the feeling lasted another year because Young's first year was pretty good not phenomenal but with 12 passing touchdowns another seven rushing touchdowns and 13 interceptions all with an 8 and5 record for the 13 games that he started it was enough for him to earn offensive rookie of the year unfortunately it was all downhill from there the next year young threw for nine touchdowns in 15 games ran for another three and threw 17 interceptions his play was gradually declining he did have a good year in 2009 earning comeback player of the year but it didn't last long 2010 was another poor year for young and it was his last year with the Titans he played for the Eagles in 2011 he played in six Gam games started three of them and threw nine interceptions with just four touchdowns when you're throwing three times as many picks as games you're starting in that's a bad sign and it was Vince Young's last year in the NFL Trey Lance at least Vince Young had a strong start to his career Trey Lance cannot say the same sure it's still early in Trey's career there's always a chance he can turn it around and be successful but it won't be with the San Francisco 49ers who drafted him as far as it pertains to the ners Trey Lance was a massive bust the ners have been so close to winning it all recently losing to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl in 2019 and coming close to making it back several times since then their team is stacked with excellent skill position players like Debo Samuel and George KD and a stout defense all around they just need a quarterback in 2021 they thought Lance was the answer the 49ers traded away three first round picks to the Dolphins in order to get the third pick in the 2021 draft and with that they took Trey Lance whether it be inexperience injuries or not the right opportunities things just didn't pan out for Lance in 2021 he only played in six games starting in two in 2022 he started two more games and those were the only games he played he notched five passing touchdowns one rushing touchdown and three interceptions as a Niner Brock pie eventually took over Brock pie who was the last pick in the draft the guy every team passed on multiple times he took Trey Lance's job in training camp for the 2023 season perie kept the job as the starter and the new addition Sam darnold took hold of second string quarterback meaning Trey Lance would be at best the third string QB instead San Francisco traded him to Dallas after giving up three first round picks to get him all they got in return was one fourth round pick but at least Tre Lance didn't actually fool them into drafting him the histic on the game looks great and it feels great but on the field on Saturdays the hitstick is the best thing in the world Aaron Curry the biggest defensive player bust would have to go to Aaron Curry the Seattle Seahawks took him number four overall in 2009 Curry was a linebacker but Seattle wanted to get him rushing the passer a good deal too something that was somewhat new for curry whether you look at him as a pass rusher or as a straight linebacker the numbers aren't impressive for either in his first year he played in 14 games he had two sacks and eight QB hits in his second year he played in all 16 games he recorded three and 1 half sacks and eight QB hits nothing outstanding if you try to take a look at his tackling numbers as he was a linebacker he was notching 54 solo tackles in his first year and 60 solo tackles in his second let's compare this fourth overall pick to the 26th overall pick of the 1996 draft Ray Lewis Ray Lewis would get over 100 solo tackles a season in his early years even in his later years he averaged around 80 tackles a year and Aaron Curry was falling short of even that his play suffered he wasn't panning out and Seattle eventually traded him to the Raiders he didn't last long there either and was out of the league by 2012 only having been drafted a few years prior Demarcus Russell speaking of the Raiders they had their own big bust in JaMarcus Russell back in 2007 Russell was breaking State records back in high school and he was a college Phenom so the Oakland Raiders selected him with the number one overall pick everyone expected him to be amazing in the pros he only played in four games in his rookie year starting only one of those games but his second year was when he'd finally get a chance to shine but he did not playing in 15 games he had a lackluster 13 touchdowns eight interceptions and a 5- 10 record in his third year he was doing even worse in fact by their ninth game he was playing so poorly to the tune of two touchdowns and nine interceptions taking over 30 sacks losing five fumbles completing just 46.8% of his passes while leading the team to a dismal 2-7 record that the Raiders benched him in favor of Bruce gradowski gradowski helped the team go two and one in those next three weeks with upsets over the Bengals and Steelers throwing more touchdown passes than Russell had all season in an interview Russell even credited that difference to the receivers making plays not gr Kowski the team wanted Russell to take a pay cut but he refused and that was essentially the end of Russell's playing days Tony mandr the 1989 NFL draft was replete with Hall of Famers Troy ikman Barry Sanders Derek Thomas and Dion Sanders were drafted at 1 3 4 and five respectively but wait then who was drafted number two overall it was the biggest offensive line bust Tony mandri and no he didn't make it to K noo if you were wondering Sports Illustrated famously said mandr was the best offensive line Prospect ever mandri played for Michigan State he was first team All-American he was 66 and 330 lb in his combine he had a 30in vertical leap and his 40 yard dash time was 4.65 faster than EMT Smith Smith faster than Jerry Rice so what happened to mandr he was a freak of nature on the field but had problems off the field he would constantly show up late to meetings either drunk or hung over he even randomly challenged Mike tys into a street fight two weeks before the draft he couldn't keep his life in order and his play struggled the Packers selected him second overall in 1989 but he only played for them until 1991 he ended up doing a stin rehab returned in 1996 to play for the Colts and ended up retiring in 1998 after a lackluster career but all these teams had made calculated choices to draft these players none of them had been tricked by the players themselves Johnny Manzel the Cleveland Browns have had bust after bust year after year but their worst bust of all was the player who convinced them to pick him during the draft Manzel texted Browns quarterback coach D Logan I wish you guys would come get me hurry up and draft me because I want to be there I want to wreck this league together Logan showed this to the head coach and the owner and with that the Browns organization decided to trade up and draft Manzel at 22nd overall everyone thought the Heisman winner was indeed going to wreck the league including skip bis who said he thought the Texans should have drafted him with a first overall pick however Manzel had a partying issue issues with drinking and drugs problems with the police he couldn't keep his life in order and he couldn't perform on the field only two years he played for the Cleveland Browns seven touchdowns seven interceptions was all he had to show for it he did not wreck the league he did wreck the Browns Organization for a couple of years making them trade up to get him and they got no return on that investment some of these draft busts are rough team team are trying to fill holes in their rosters and they can miss big the worst of all is when they set a team back multiple years just by making that one wrong decision

Channel: The Gridiron

Views: 32,987

Keywords: espn, nfl fanzone, pro football talk, football analysis, nfl, true stories, nfl draft busts, biggest draft busts, biggest busts in nfl history, biggest nfl draft busts, draft busts, nfl draft, worst nfl draft busts, worst picks in nfl draft history, qb draft busts, nfl draft busts all time, biggest nfl busts, biggest busts in nfl, busts in the nfl, biggest busts, worst nfl draft picks, nfl busts, busts, nfl history, worst draft picks, draft, dallas cowboys, cleveland browns

Id: f4N47a5Bvfk

Length: 10min 12sec (612 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 15 2023