Top 50 NFL Draft Busts: Where Are They Now?

[California Husker]

 

I was thinking the same thing (except for the Husker paranoia). I'm also certain he wasn't leading the NFC in rushing when he was suspended by the Rams because he had 633 yards in 10 games while that was the year Barry Sanders went over 2000. LP also only averaged a little over 3 yards a carry so he wasn't doing all that well.

Phillips end up at #2 on this list when he was leading the NFC in rushing yards when he was suspended by the Rams?

I realize the fact that someone who was doing so well, became an incredible disappointment....but a draft bust?

 

I guess you're right, but I do think he was leading the conference in rushing at some point early that season (but I could be wrong about that too)

[California Husker]

I see they put Trev Alberts in the bonus bust category and put Rick Mirer as a Nebraska QB instead of Notre Dame.....We can add Vince Young to that list and likely Jake Locker as well as Blaine Gabbert to that list too shortly.

I had not looked at the "bonus bust category". Now I am sure this guy hates Nebraska. He describes Alberts as an "ESPN college football analyst troll".

[Guy Chamberlin]

Lawrence Phillips at #2 is a little overblown because he came into the NFL as a huge risk, and didn't really surprise anyone with his talent or his demons, having a combination of both.

 

Jerry Tagge in the Top 10 is a reach. If you have to go all the way back to 1971, you'll find tons of serviceable college quarterbacks from the last 40 years who simply didn't translate into the pros. Tagge was coming off a national championship team, but I don't recall any Tagge hype, and I was a huge Tagge fan at the time. Go back to the 2011 draft and you'll find three First Round quarterbacks the equal of Jerry Tagge: Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder. Of the Top 20 Career Passing leaders in NCAA history, only Phillip Rivers has had an envialbe NFL career. Case Keenum? Landry Jones? Graham Harrell?

 

The majority of Heisman winners turn out to be busts, too.

 

As I recall, many considered Dave Rimington a major bust; the surest bet you could have made in the 1982 draft, the most heralded offensive lineman of his day, but not the pass blocker the NFL needed and out of the league after 6 seasons.

[VA Husker Fan]

 

 

I was thinking the same thing (except for the Husker paranoia). I'm also certain he wasn't leading the NFC in rushing when he was suspended by the Rams because he had 633 yards in 10 games while that was the year Barry Sanders went over 2000. LP also only averaged a little over 3 yards a carry so he wasn't doing all that well.

Phillips end up at #2 on this list when he was leading the NFC in rushing yards when he was suspended by the Rams?

I realize the fact that someone who was doing so well, became an incredible disappointment....but a draft bust?

 

I guess you're right, but I do think he was leading the conference in rushing at some point early that season (but I could be wrong about that too)

 

Nope, LP got off to a good start

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/PhilLa00/gamelog/1997/

and Sanders started, slowly, but Robert Smith started better

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SmitRo00/gamelog/1997/

 

Not trying to be anal or pick on you, but this is what I often find when people claim an anti-Husker bias. Those people often have their own factually incorrect Husker bias. Not just you. And again, I agree with you that LP is not the 2nd biggest draft bust ever.

[California Husker]

 

 

 

I was thinking the same thing (except for the Husker paranoia). I'm also certain he wasn't leading the NFC in rushing when he was suspended by the Rams because he had 633 yards in 10 games while that was the year Barry Sanders went over 2000. LP also only averaged a little over 3 yards a carry so he wasn't doing all that well.

Phillips end up at #2 on this list when he was leading the NFC in rushing yards when he was suspended by the Rams?

I realize the fact that someone who was doing so well, became an incredible disappointment....but a draft bust?

 

I guess you're right, but I do think he was leading the conference in rushing at some point early that season (but I could be wrong about that too)

 

Nope, LP got off to a good start

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/PhilLa00/gamelog/1997/

and Sanders started, slowly, but Robert Smith started better

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SmitRo00/gamelog/1997/

 

Not trying to be anal or pick on you, but this is what I often find when people claim an anti-Husker bias. Those people often have their own factually incorrect Husker bias. Not just you. And again, I agree with you that LP is not the 2nd biggest draft bust ever.

 

I couldn't get the links above to work, but it doesn't really matter. My memory may have exaggerated LP's contribution, but I do remember him being successful...for a while, and like you, I wouldn't have put him at #2 as "biggest busts".

 

As far as the anti-Husker bias goes...I do think there are those people out there who just don't care for Nebraska and it comes out in their reporting/stories/play-by-play. I know this is an old argument, but when you think about the things that Salsa Boy has said (for example) and Craig James, and Mark May...it's hard not to see some lingering negative feelings they have for the Huskers. I don't know if it's the success that the Huskers have had over the last half-century or just because they all had Dr. Tom dead and buried just before he won 3 out of 4 national championships and they were embarrassed that they all called it so wrong. Whatever the case, there are those who just seem never to have anything nice to say about the Huskers. I think this list (putting LP at #2, Tagge at #10 and calling Trev Alberts a "troll" is sort of an example of what I am talking about.

[AFhusker]

Who posts this without including #1 in the original post??

This X2

[jimk]

Ray Lewis found God and the ESPN.

[southernoregonhusker]

The biggest bust is part of their bonus bust section. JaMarcus Russell was a number one overall pick. He decided he liked grape juice laced with codeine more.