NFL Draft Busts Draft

NFL Draft Busts Draft

This article is part of our NFL Observations series.

For our Daily Draft on the RotoWire SiriusXM show for Wednesday, we changed gears and did a football-specific draft. We brought on RotoWire's College Football Editor and NFL Draft expert John McKechnie to participate in an NFL Draft Busts Draft. Each team gets to select 10 draft busts, with a maximum of five quarterbacks, as the importance of the position naturally pushes teams to overdraft quarterbacks, and thus they are disproportionately represented here.

Because John was the guest for this show, we gave him the choice where he wanted to draft, and he opted for the first slot. Liss opted to go third, and double up his picks on the turn. Here are the results, first in overall order, then by team:

RdTeamPlayer
1JohnJaMarcus Russell
1JeffRyan Leaf
1LissTony Mandarich
2LissKi-Jana Carter
2JeffAkili Smith
2JohnTrent Richardson
3JohnAaron Curry
3JeffMike Mamula
3LissKevin Dyson
4LissCurtis Enis
4JeffRobert Gallery
4JohnKevin White
5JohnJake Locker
5JeffJeff George
5LissSebastian Janikowski
6LissJohnny Manziel
6JeffRussel Erxleben
6JohnVernon Gholston
7JohnJustin Gilbert
7JeffLam Jones
7LissArt Schlichter
8LissTim Couch
8JeffCourtney Brown
8JohnHeath Shuler
9JohnDee Milner
9JeffDan Wilkinson
9LissJustin Blackmon
10LissTodd Blackledge
10JeffSteve Emtman
10JohnTravis Taylor

Results by team:

JohnJeffLiss
JaMarcus RussellRyan LeafTony Mandarich
Trent RichardsonAkili SmithKi-Jana Carter
Aaron CurryMike MamulaKevin Dyson
Kevin WhiteRobert GalleryCurtis Enis
Jake LockerJeff GeorgeSebastian Janikowski
Vernon GholstonRussel ErxlebenJohnny Manziel
Justin GilbertLam JonesArt Schlichter
Heath ShulerCourtney BrownTim Couch
Dee MilnerDan WilkinsonJustin Blackmon
Travis TaylorSteve EmtmanTodd Blackledge

Liss, as per the custom, added extra weight to players who busted in part because they had off-the-field issues. I had my own players that qualified there, including Russell Erxleben, who merits special notice. Not only did the Saints draft Erxleben in the first-round as a punter/kicker, they barely used him as a placekicker - with eight attempts over five seasons. Even as a punter, he was mediocre, averaging 40.6 yards per punt. But even if he were Ray Guy reincarnated, it would be a bad pick, but that he wasn't made the pick even worse. The cherry on top for Erxleben was that he eventually jailed for securities fraud.

One thing about this draft - we probably should have added a fourth drafter and gone 15 players deeper. There were plenty of big busts not taken - including a near-entire Browns QB wing, plenty of Bengals, Jets and Raiders to boot. Names like Brandon Weeden, Brady Quinn, Charles Rogers and Blair Thomas among many others.

Who else was a notable omission? Who would you defend on this list as "not a bust?"

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jeff Erickson
Jeff Erickson is a co-founder of RotoWire and the only two-time winner of Baseball Writer of the Year from the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. He's also in the FSWA Hall of Fame. He roots for the Reds, Bengals, Red Wings, Pacers and Northwestern University (the real NU).
Chris Liss
Chris Liss was RotoWire's Managing Editor and Host of RotoWire Fantasy Sports Today on Sirius XM radio from 2001-2022.
John McKechnie
John is the 2016 and 2021 FSWA College Writer of the Year winner. He is a Maryland native and graduate of the University of Georgia. He's been writing for RotoWire since 2014.
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