top 20 busts of all time?

Van_Slyke_CF

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I take exception to the media always trotting out Tony Mandarich as a colossal bust.

Yes, he was a flop in his 3 years with Green Bay-hampered by a bad attitude and screwed up on drugs.

But he had the guts to come back a few years later with the Colts for 3 more years, and played well as I recall.

Perhaps it was a combination of the hype surrounding Mandarich when he came out of college, and the successful players drafted around him in the top 5 of the draft that led to the unrealistic expectations.

He certainly enjoyed the hype and raked in more money because of it.

But you can be guaranteed that a number of top draft choices this year will be black sumos who will be complete flops. How will the media treat them?
 

ToughJ.Riggins

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For black DEs: Courtney Brown, Erasmus James and Cedric Jones were busts.

For black RBs: Rashaan Salaam, The troubled Lawrence Phillips, Curtis Enis and Ki-Jana Carter. Ricky Williams continues to be hyped big-time, but never lived up to his potential.

For black WRs there are lots: Biletnikoff winner Josh Reed continues to stick in the league despite being smaller and slower than Mike Hass and having a fairly unproductive career. Mike Williams, Koren Robinson (somewhat) and every 1997 1st round WR except Ike Hilliard: Reidel Anthony, Yatil Green and murderer Rae Carruth were all busts.
 

ToughJ.Riggins

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C Darwin said:
Penn St. running backs. All of them.

I see you already mentioned the Penn State RBs Darwin; sorry my bad.

There are tons of black busts dwid, just scan the names of draft picks since the late 90s and you will see plenty of them bigger than Mike (Mamaluaga?). White QB Ryan Leaf was a legit huge bust though I admit.
 
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Could it be possible to give an honorable mention to ex-Ohio Stater Archie Griffin, two-time Heisman winner? His NFL career was lackluster if anything.
 

WHITE NOISE

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Any quarterback coming out of the University of Oregon that is not white.
 

Don Wassall

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Someone with a little time should analyze how all the first round picks of the past 20 years have done. It wouldn't surprise me if a majority of the blacks selected have been busts, as measured by whether their careers were better or not than that of Mike Mamula.
 

GiovaniMarcon

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Vince Young is a huge bust even though the media won't admit what we are all watching before our own eyes. Kordell Stewart was also a bust of sorts. Daunte Culpepper stinks.

In fact, most black quarterbacks in general seem to be lots of hype with ultimately little production, sort of like a big bun with a shriveled little hamburger inside. They could probably be more useful to society delivering UPS parcels than trying to catch or run with or throw footballs.

Having said all that, though, yeah Ryan Leaf really sucked. I think though that the appropriately named Keith McCANTS is worse.
 

ToughJ.Riggins

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Can you imagine being the Chargers that year. They must have known enough to want Peyton Manning, but got stuck with Leaf. Akili Smith was just as big a bust as Leaf, but doesn't get mentioned nearly as much.
 

Van_Slyke_CF

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I went through the draft lists from 1987-2006, and here are some names for you guys to chew over:

1988-Aundray Bruce     
1989-Tim Worley
1990-Blair Thomas, Keith McCants, Andre Ware
1991-Huey Richardson
1994-Bernard Williams
1995-Ki-Jana Carter
1996-Cedric Jones, Lawrence Phillips, Jamain Stephens
1997-Rae Carruth, Jon Harris
1998-Curtis Enis
1999-Akili Smith, Dimitrius Underwood
2000-Courtney Brown, Sylvester Morris, Rashard Anderson, R. Jay Soward
2001-Willie Middlebrooks
2003-Charles Rogers
2004-Rashuan Woods, Ahmad Carroll
2005-Pac Man Jones
2006-Vince Young

When I was looking up this information, I realized that quite a number of these clowns ended up trying to extend their careers in Canada.

But didn't they go to college to get an education so they would be prepared for life after football?
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Edited by: Van_Slyke_CF
 

Don Wassall

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Besides Pacman Jones, the first 18 picks of the 2005 Draft spawned WR Mike Williams, WR Troy Williamson and DE Erasmus James, all of whom are already certifiable, colossalbusts as bad or worse than Tony Mandarich and Ryan Leaf. Other dubious first round picks in '05 include injury prone and underachieving RBs Ronnie Brown, Cadillac Williams and Cedric Benson, WR Braylon "80 Percent Drops" Edwards, DB Carlos Rogers, overrated OT Jamal Brown, OT Alex Barron, CB Fabian Washington, QB Jason Campbell, and WR Mark Clayton. That's 14 of the 25 blacks drafted who are busts or potential busts. Of the 11 others, only LB Shawne Merriman and WR Roddy White are among the top third at their position (though many would put Braylon Edwards there based on potential).


Of the 7 whites drafted in the first round in '05, David Pollack suffered a career ending neck injury, and QB Alex Smith has been plagued by injuries and a lousy team. The jury is still out on him even though many DWFs long ago wrote him off. G Logan Mankins, TE Heath Miller, QB Aaron Rodgers, and DE Luis Castillo are all already established among the top third at their position. Matt Jones has had a checkered career, but CFers know what he has faced being taken by Africa's Team and then continually being privately and publicly jerked around by Jack Del Rio and his coaches and even some of his teammates.
 
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Don Wassall said:
Besides Pacman Jones, the first 18 picks of the 2005 Draft spawned WR Mike Williams, WR Troy Williamson and DE Erasmus James, all of whom are already certifiable, colossal busts as bad or worse than Tony Mandarich and Ryan Leaf.  Other dubious first round picks in '05 include injury prone and underachieving RBs Ronnie Brown, Cadillac Williams and Cedric Benson, WR Braylon "80 Percent Drops" Edwards, DB Carlos Rogers, overrated OT Jamal Brown, OT Alex Barron, CB Fabian Washington, QB Jason Campbell, and WR Mark Clayton.  That's 14 of the 25 blacks drafted who are busts or potential busts.  Of the 11 others, only LB Shawne Merriman and WR Roddy White are among the top third at their position (though many would put Braylon Edwards there based on potential). 


Of the 7 whites drafted in the first round in '05, David Pollack suffered a career ending neck injury, and QB Alex Smith has been plagued by injuries and a lousy team.  The jury is still out on him even though many DWFs long ago wrote him off.  G Logan Mankins, TE Heath Miller, QB Aaron Rodgers, and DE Luis Castillo are all already established among the top third at their position.  Matt Jones has had a checkered career, but CFers know what he has faced being taken by Africa's Team and then continually being privately and publicly jerked around by Jack Del Rio and his coaches and even some of his teammates.


 

Many years ago, I heard an NFL personnel director discuss what a 1st round draft choice is supposed to do for a team. He said that the player you draft on the 1st round is supposed to start for you in his rookie year. A QB may need a year of watching from the bench, but a first-rounder is expected to fill a need you had coming into the draft.

It is interesting that in 2005, you had 14 busts among the black players drafted in the 1st round. That doesn't say much for the supposed superior scouting and the Combine you have now.
 
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I just made a cursory check of the 1st round picks for the 1969 draft, 40 years ago. Some teams had traded away their 1st pick so I counted the 2nd (or 3rd) choice as the first. There were 15 white players picked 1st in 1969 and 11 black. Three of the blacks (Grady Caveness, Eugene Epps, and Leroy Keyes) were busts, Keyes a very big one. Eddie Hinton played for several years but was a mediocre WR. The Colts 2nd pick after Hinton was Ted Hendricks.

Of the white players that year, only Rich Moore of the Packers was a bust. Some were average, but many were outstanding. Greg Cook had a great rookie year at QB for the Bengals, but hurt his arm. Oddly, some of them were traded and did well for other teams. I haven't checked that closely, but my memory is that there were fewer 1st round busts back in those days. Why did scouting seem to be better 40 years ago?
 
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