There are a variety of factors that can lead to a highly-touted NFL player having a disappointing career: Injuries, off-the-field issues, attitude problems, personnel fit, the lack of a strong supporting cast… and the list goes on and on…
When it comes to these 12 all-time NFL draft busts? Well, let’s just say there were plenty of warning signs from the beginning, which suggested that their careers would flop.
Ryan Leaf
Remember when Peyton Manning AND Ryan Leaf were both considered generational can’t-miss quarterbacks? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
While Manning more than lived up to the hype after going first overall to the Indianapolis Colts in 1998…Leaf went down as one of the biggest busts in NFL history. The QB-needy San Diego Chargers traded up with the Arizona Cardinals into the No. 2 spot so they could select Leaf.
Sadly, Leaf’s attitude and work ethic ruined his career from the get-go. He was fined for missing a mandatory rookies conference and infamously had a screaming meltdown at a San Diego reporter in the team locker room.
Reports also stated that Leaf would prioritize golfing over film studying. Team leaders Junior Seau and Rodney Harrison quickly grew fed up with his antics and spoke to management about it. Throw in shoulder surgery that kept him out for all of 1999, and Leaf’s career was essentially over as soon as it started.
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Regardless of talent, you can’t be successful in the pros if you don’t have the right attitude and if you don’t put in the necessary work. Leaf was out of football entirely by 2002.
Johnny Manziel
If Jerry Jones wasn’t talked into passing on Manziel by his son Stephen Jones, who knows how different things would’ve played out for Johnny Football?
Cleveland drafted Manziel 22nd overall in the star-studded 2014 draft, but it was a mess from the get-go. Their clown-show organization couldn’t get Manziel to commit to proper study habits. One player even described Manziel’s rookie year as a “100 percent joke” to ESPN.
Manziel was also known for his hardcore partying off the field, reportedly showing up hungover at meetings. The Browns released Johnny Football after two seasons, and a subsequent stop in the CFL did nothing to revive his career.
Manziel just didn’t have the drive to be successful at the NFL level. And sadly, the circus in Cleveland only further derailed his career.
David Carr
You simply have to feel for the older Carr brother. It wasn’t his attitude, a lack of skill, or any off-the-field issues that prevented him from reaching his potential in the NFL. He was just stuck in the worst possible situation.
As an expansion franchise, the Houston Texans were granted the first overall pick of 2002. They used it on the Fresno State quarterback, who was coming off one of the best college seasons in history.
But Carr just never had a chance on a terrible expansion franchise. The Texans’ o-line allowed Carr to take 76 sacks, a single-season record to this day.
Dom Capers wasn’t at all cut out for the head coaching position. Andre Johnson was Carr’s only Pro Bowl-caliber offensive playmaker. The defense was always bad, and it also didn’t help sharing a division with MVP winning QBs Steve McNair and Peyton Manning.
It wasn’t all for naught for Carr, though. He did win a Super Bowl 46 ring with the New York Giants as Eli Manning’s backup in the 2011 season! And younger brother Derek has pieced together a pretty solid career!
Lawrence Phillips
Phillips was a star running back at Nebraska but kept getting himself into trouble. He was charged for allegedly assaulting a 21-year-old college student in 1994, but the Cornhuskers gave him a second chance anyway.
Early in the 1995 season, Phillips broke into a teammate’s apartment and viciously attacked his ex-girlfriend. Despite pleas from school staff and media to cut him, head coach Tom Osborne only handed Phillips a suspension and continued using him down the final stretch of the season.
Even though they already had a future Hall of Fame running back in Jerome Bettis, the Los Angeles Rams desperately wanted Phillips. So they picked him sixth overall in 1996, and Bettis was dealt to the Pittsburgh Steelers in a lopsided move for the ages.
Phillips struggled over his two seasons with the Rams, and his attitude issues and legal problems became too much. He was subsequently released during the 1997 season, and stops in Miami and San Francisco did nothing to revive his career.
Phillips did find some success in the CFL, winning the Grey Cup championship with Montreal in 2002. But attitude issues and an assault charge led to him being out of pro football for good by 2003.
Phillips’ legal issues continued to pile up in his post-playing career. Sadly, he died in prison in 2016.
Akili Smith
The Cincinnati Bengals drafted Smith third overall in 1999 — right after future superstar QB Donovan McNabb went second overall to the Eagles.
The next five guys taken after Smith were Edgerrin James, Ricky Williams, Torry Holt, Champ Bailey and David Boston. All of those men were Pro Bowlers, and both James and Bailey are Hall of Famers.
Smith missed much of training camp and offseason activities because of a contract dispute, until Cincy finally gave in and threw him up to $56 million over seven years. Well, the holdout did nothing to help Smith prepare for the NFL. And it didn’t help that he was stuck on a lousy Bengals team.
Ex-Bengals offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski also criticized Smith for not doing enough studying. Smith made just 17 starts over four seasons in Cincy, losing 14 of them while completing less than half his pass attempts for five touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
Smith was out of football for a while before landing with Calgary’s CFL team in 2007. He saw limited action as a backup and was out of pro football for good after that year.
Justin Blackmon
The star Oklahoma State wideout won back-to-back Fred Biletnikoff Awards in 2010 and 2011. Blackmon was one of the most highly-touted wide receiver prospects ever entering the 2012 NFL Draft, and rightfully so.
The Jacksonville Jaguars traded up two spots with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers so they could select the can’t-miss prospect. Blackmon showed promise as a rookie by recording 64 catches for 865 yards and five touchdowns. Sadly, a plethora of off-the-field issues quickly derailed his career.
Suspensions limited Blackmon to four games in 2013. He also missed the entire 2014 and 2015 seasons stemming from an offseason arrest. Blackmon spent the next several years getting his life on track, but he never wound up playing in the NFL again after the 2013 season.
It’s a shame, but Blackmon’s NFL career never had a chance. There were too many run-ins with the law, and the Jaguars organization clearly wasn’t capable of helping him stay on the field.
Huey Richardson
Richardson was a star defensive end at Florida, earning First-team All-SEC nods in 1989 and ‘90, as well as First-Team All-American honors in the latter year. The Pittsburgh Steelers took Richardson 15th overall in 1991, but the way they handled him gave the Florida standout zero chance of succeeding.
The problem was that the Steelers didn’t think his size would work in their 3-4 defensive scheme, so head coach Chuck Noll tried him at inside linebacker. After Bill Cowher stepped in as the new head coach in ‘92, he tried using Richardson as an outside linebacker.
Neither worked, and Richardson wound up playing just five games — all in his rookie year — with the Steelers. Richardson was traded to Washington and split the ‘92 season in DC and New York, as a member of the Jets. He was out of the NFL after two seasons.
A nickel’s worth of advice: Maybe don’t draft a guy in the first-round if you have no clue how to use him?
Josh Rosen
Like David Carr, Rosen had the misfortunes of being drafted to a horrible team with little talent and an unproven head coach. But Carr AT LEAST had a few years to prove himself in Houston, whereas Rosen never got that opportunity in Arizona.
The Cardinals traded up with the Oakland Raiders to select the UCLA signal-caller 10th overall in 2018. A month earlier, the front office curiously handed injury-prone journeyman Sam Bradford a $20 million contract.
With quarterbacks guru Bruce Arians retiring, the Cardinals hired Carolina Panthers’ defensive coordinator Steve Wilks for their head coaching position. Arizona also relied on a 35-year-old Larry Fitzgerald as their only decent receiver. You can see where we’re going with this.
After three lousy starts from Bradford, Rosen took over as the Cardinals’ new starting QB. He completed 55.2 percent of his pass attempts for 2,278 yards and 11 touchdowns against 14 interceptions.
Wilks was fired after just one season, and Arizona wound up hiring Kliff Kingsbury as their new head coach. Then, with the top selection in the 2019 draft, the Cardinals selected Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray.
Rosen was then traded to the Miami Dolphins during the draft, but they wound up using journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick as their main starter for 2019. Rosen was waived ahead of the 2020 season and has since bounced around several team’s rosters and practice squads.
You can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Rosen had been given a fair crack at a starting job during his first few years in the NFL. No team ever really gave him that opportunity, essentially dooming his career from the get-go.
Isaiah Wilson
This is one of the sadder stories as far as draft busts go. Isaiah Wilson never gave himself a chance to shine in this league — even on a player-friendly Tennessee Titans’ organization led by head coach Mike Vrabel.
The Titans drafted the Georgia offensive tackle 29th overall in 2020. Three days before the club’s Week 1 season opener, Wilson was arrested for DUI. He played just one game in his rookie year because of a team violation as well as multiple appearances on the COVID list.
In January, Wilson was again arrested for carrying weed and leading police on a high-speed chase. After the season, Wilson stated on Twitter he wouldn’t play for Tennessee again.
They traded him to the Miami Dolphins in March 2021, but he was cut from the team after missing team activities. Wilson was out of the NFL by the end of his sophomore year.
Tony Mandarich
Sports Illustrated infamously hyped up Mandarich as “The best offensive line prospect ever” heading into the 1989 draft. 6-foot-6 and 315 pounds of pure strength. He felt like an absolute sure bet to succeed.
Four of the top five picks in 1989 went on to become Hall of Famers, including Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas and Deion Sanders. Mandarich — who was taken second overall by the Green Bay Packers — was the exception from the top five.
Mandarich entered a lengthy holdout that was only resolved in the nick of time before Week 1. Mandarich was also quoted as saying the following:
“I am not like other players, I am Tony Mandarich, and they have to understand that. If they don’t like it, that is just the way I am and they are going to learn to like “
He talked the talk, but he couldn’t walk the walk. Mandarich never came close to living up to expectations. The Packers released him after three seasons. After four years away from football, he joined the Colts in 1996. But a three-year stint there did nothing to revive his career.
With his cocky attitude, are you surprised that he doomed himself from the start?
JaMarcus Russell
The Oakland Raiders were easily the NFL’s worst team at drafting in the 2000s. But absolutely nobody stands out as a bigger bust than JaMarcus Russell.
The LSU quarterback was taken first overall in the dream 2007 class. His lack of work ethic, coupled with the Raiders’ circus show, however, was the perfect roadmap to disaster.
Russell endured a lengthy holdout after being drafted, even missing the Raiders’ season opener before finally agreeing to a deal. Throw in the disastrous Lane Kiffin coaching tenure and a tremendous lack of playmakers around him, and Russell was doomed to fail from day one.
And this sums it all up: Ex-New York Giants offensive lineman David Diehl told a story about how the Raiders gave Russell “blank” cassettes to watch, claiming it was game film. He came back and told them the tapes were blitz packages.
Russell was out of football after the 2009 season.
Brian Bosworth
Hoo boy. Where do we start with Bosworth?
- He was suspended from playing in the Orange Bowl as a junior after being caught taking steroids
- He wore a t-shirt during a game that read “NCAA: National Communists Against Athletes”
- He wrote a letter to several NFL teams where he threatened to not report if they drafted him
Those were all early warning signs, but he still went 1st overall to the Seattle Seahawks in the 1987 supplemental draft.
The issues continued to mount, though, as Bosworth held out and refused to play before finally inking a $11 million deal. But it proved to be a huge waste of money.
Bosworth continued his childish antics in the Emerald City. He arrived at a Seattle Seahawks practice in a helicopter, sued the NFL for permission to wear his college number 44, and infamously promised to “contain” Bo Jackson, only to get completely dominated by the Raiders’ star running back.
Injuries limited “The Boz” to 24 games over three years. Shoulder problems forced him to retire after the ‘89 season, and he proceeded to move into a more successful career of acting.
Which other NFL careers were doomed from the beginning?
