Top 15 WORST NFL Draft Picks of the Decade

How funny is this picture in hindsight?

With the recent announcement that Jamarcus Russell was cut by the Oakland Raiders, I started to think about who the worst NFL Draft picks were from the last decade (1998-2007 cause '08 and '09 can't be determined as of yet). In order to qualify as a Top 15 Worst NFL Draft pick, you had to have been picked in the top 5 of your draft class. Why, you ask? Well those guys were almost all drafted to horrible teams who were desperately in need of a young stud to build a team around. Those horrible teams gave a ton of guaranteed money to this top 5 pick thinking he was the man for the job. Clearly it didn't work out as planned. So who would be more qualified for the title of Worst Draft Pick? And really for the title of Most Likely To Be Killed By An Enraged Fan If Seen Alone On The Street.

When you take the time to do the research and really look into it, you realize that most of these GM's who are supposed to be these "Talent Guru's" don't really know dick. The failure rate on first round draft picks, especially top 5 picks, is flat out frightening. It's immensely frustrating because what other job in the world could you be one of only 32 people qualified, but in reality not be any better than you or I? Take your time. Think about it. Got it yet?..........NONE!! Exactly. It pisses me off daily that 20 of these 32 morons, I mean men, make like a million plus a year and suck big hairy elephant balls at doing their job. A job that mostly all of us would kill for. And be better at. Anyway, there's been so many horrible picks this past decade, but here are the 15 worst I came up with.

First off here's the number of 1st round Pro Bowlers from each draft over the last decade (plus 2 years):
1998 - 10 (definitely the worst draft despite having the best player come out of it - Peyton Manning
1999 - 14
2000 - 13
2001 - 16
2002 - 10 (out of the top 6 the only player who is any good at all is Julius Peppers)
2003 - 13
2004 - 14
2005 - 10
2006 - 11
2007 - 8
2008 - 5 **atleast 5 more to come in the next 2 years out of this group (Ryan, McFadden, Mayo, McKelvin, Stewart, Flacco, Otah, F. Jones, Mendenhall, Keller)
2009 - 4 **atleast 5 more to come in the next 3 years out of this group (Stafford, Sanchez, J. Smith, Curry, Crabtree, Moreno, Maclin, Pettigrew, Oher)

Now, on to the WORST. First off, the Honorable Mentions:

Honorable Mention BUSTS

*Yes, her bust is most definitely honorable. And also worth a mention


Dewayne Robertson (NYJ, 4th, 2003)
-16 total sacks in 6 NFL seasons. Bum. I may have been able to accidentally get 16 sacks over that many years.

Reggie Bush (NO, 2nd, 2006)
-Only because he was supposed to be the next Barry Sanders and he's now the #2 RB on his own team. He's decent but nowhere near his expectation level. He's not even good enough to keep a Kardashian happy.

Gaines Adams (TB, 4th, 2007)
-Not real fair because tragically he died at a very young age, but even when he played he had no production and was traded for a 4th rd pick only 2 years after being taken 4th overall. Was that too much? Too soon? Sorry to the Adams family and not the one that names their kids after days of the week.

Glenn Dorsey (KC, 5th, 2008)
-Wasn't he supposed to be the next coming of Warren Sapp? Dude has 2 sacks in 2 years. Awesome. I wonder who KC fans hate more, him or Brody Croyle.

Cedric Benson (Chi, 4th, 2005)
-Ironically he recently turned out to be a real good player, but in Chicago he was as worthless as the 5 you drunkenly brought home from the bar who wouldn't sleep with you. Or even blow you. And that was putting it gently.

Alex Smith (SF, 1st, 2005)
-I guess the jury is still out on him, but I don't see him ever being a productive NFL quarterback. And certainly never worthy of a number 1 draft pick. Or even oxygen at times.

The Biggest BUSTS


Beach balls


Basketballs


Soccer balls


Bowling balls



Volley balls


Blue balls.......if you stare too long








Ohhhhh, wait, I didn't mean those kind of busts. My bad. Ok here are the Top 15 NFL Draft Busts since 1998


15. Mike Williams (Buf, 4th, 2002)

This 6 foot 7 inch behemoth of a man was supposed to be the anchor of the Buffalo Bills line for a decade. Two years, and about 50 sacks allowed later, Williams was sent packing and was out of the league for 5 seasons. He was picked up by Washington last year due to a ton of injuries on their line. He still wasn't a starter. How does a team miss so badly on a pick? The 4th overall pick of the draft lasted about as long as an undrafted rookie free agent. Maybe the Bills should stop allowing 95 year old Marv Levy to make their decisions.

14. Quentin Jammer (SD, 5th, 2002)


The fifth and final pick of the worst top 5 of all time (4 of the top 5 of the 2002 draft were complete busts, and are on this list). Jammer has less career interceptions (14) than millions of dollars in signing bonus (14.5). Exactly what fans are looking for in their top 5 pick. At least Jammer led the league in one stat for two straight years.....most pass interference calls against. Way to go Quentin.

13. Robert Gallery (Oak, 2nd, 2004)


Not only has Gallery been a tremendous disappointment in Oakland, but what makes things worse is that the other 7 picks in the top 8 of the 2004 draft are all perennial probowlers. Gallery came in as the expected rock of the of the Oakland line. Within 1 season he lost his job as the starting left tackle and got shifted to guard so that he couldn't fuck up as much. Really the only reason he wasn't outright released was because he made too much guaranteed money and would have been too big of a salary cap hit if let go. At least he's not ugly. Hahahah.

12. Gerard Warren (Cle, 3rd, 2001)

This "Don't you ever fuck with me" looking, mammoth of a man was fairly decent, never good, and certainly never close to great. 32 sacks in 9 NFL seasons, and about 107,000 headaches to his teammates, coaches, GMs, and owners. Not the worst pick ever, but when you are drafted 3rd overall a little more is expected of you. Oh yea, and perennial probowl linemen Justin Smith and Richard Seymour were taken 4th and 6th respectively. Who was 5th you ask? Just some bum named Ladainian Tomlinson.

11. Peter Warrick (Cin, 4th, 2000)

First team All American 2 years in a row, set Florida State's receiving touchdowns record at 32, led his team to 2 National Championship games, and looked like a can't miss guaranteed stud playmaker at the next level. He may have ended up being a stud, I just can't tell because I can't find stats for the Las Vegas Gladiators, Montreal Alouettes, California Redwoods, and Bloomington Extreme. Those are the teams he's played for since being released from Cincy after 4 disappointing years that saw him find the endzone a total of 10 times. Another glorious Florida State Alum.

10. Andre Wadsworth (Ariz, 3rd, 1998)


I'm guessing he didn't think this was going to be his hardest hit in the NFL. Too bad for him, and his wallet, that it was. By far. He was regarded as the only "sure thing" in the 1998 Draft, the draft that featured Peyton Manning, and he finished his career with 8 total sacks. For those counting at home, that's roughly $4 million per sack. At least he looks menacing. And can crush a football.

9. Charles Rogers (Det, 2nd, 2003)


Ummmm, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's a bad thing when the first google image that pops up for you is a mugshot. Especially when you're a famous football player. Playin' at Michigan State, Rogers looked like the next Randy Moss. When he got to the league......not so much. His first 3 years resulted in 2 broken collarbones, 3 failed drug tests, and a 4 game suspension. He forfeited $8.5 million of his signing bonus, came back, and then rallied for an incredible 197 yards and 1 touchdown.

8. Curtis Enis (Chi, 5th, 1998)


Hahaha, he looks like a defensive tackle running with the ball after picking up a fumble. This dude was a top 5 draft pick from an incredibly talented school and somehow looks like he swallowed his younger brother. Or maybe older fatter brother. Enis played 36 games in 3 years, scored 4 touchdowns, and didn't even crack 1,500 total rushing yards for his career. Great success.

7. Joey Harrington (Det, 3rd, 2002)

Easily the douchiest looking, gayest named quarterback ever drafted in the top 3. How could the Lions have seen this kid at the combine next to real athletes and thought to themselves, "Oh my, we need to take Joey. He almost can do 2 pushups and constantly makes faces like he's complicated." Needless to say, it didn't work out. 3 years and less than 10 wins later, Harrington was benched for Jeff Garcia. Ladies and gentlemen, Detroit Lions Football. Someone explain to me how the fuck Matt Millen kept his job for as long as he did? I'll never understand professional sports owners.

6. Tim Couch (Clev, 1st, 1999)


Yea, sure, pick of the retarded litter. At least you can't say that they made the wrong choice. Either one would've been a complete fuckin' disaster. Couch's career lasted 4 and a half seasons, not one of which being a winning season, and his career numbers were about as good as mine would have been. Only 64 touchdowns with 67 interceptions, and a QB rating of 75. Good stuff Mr. Couch. You made Ashley Judd proud.

5. Courtney Brown (Clev, 1st, 2000)


Playing at Linebacker U, Brown took over the team and the spotlight as a defensive end. He was a first team All American and Defensive Lineman of the year his senior season. The Browns took him #1 overall in a fairly loaded draft based in large part because Brown set an NCAA record of 33 sacks and 70 tackles for loss. Of course that led to a whopping 19 sacks in 8 seasons in the NFL. You disappoint me Courtney. You disappoint all of Nittany Lion country.

4. David Carr (Car, 1st, 2002)

Being drafted 1st overall to an expansion team and being given the reins to that team immediately certainly has its perks. Like getting $10 million per season and roughly that many girls as well. It also comes with expectations. And those expectations were definitely not going 4-12, 2-14, 6-10, and 6-10 before being benched so the team can sign a free agent QB, Matt Schaub, for over $100 million. If his goal coming into the league was to ruin the first decade of Texans football, the kid was super successful. Way to go David.

3. Akili Smith (Cin, 3rd, 1999)


Whenever you play more seasons for the Calgary Stampeders than the NFL team that drafted you 3rd overall, you are a safe bet to be one of the worst draft picks of all time. In 4 seasons Smith started 17 games and threw for 5 touchdowns with 13 interceptions. Look at the picture, even Jon Kitna and David Klinger were embarrassed to be associated with him. Maybe he taught some NFL teams a lesson - it's probably not a good idea to draft someone 3rd overall when they've only had 11 collegiate starts. Gotta love that NFL intelligence.

2. Ryan Leaf (SD, 2nd, 1998)


The poster child for how to completely fuck up your franchise for about 5 years. In the "What if" game in the NFL draft, the question of, "what if the Colts took Leaf over Manning in 1998" has to take the cake. Leaf has the pleasure of owning the title of the only quarterback ever who's career QB rating was almost less than his first contract (50.0 rating and $32 million contract). Oh yea, not to mention he was the craziest quarterback ever drafted into the league. Fun times all around.

1. Jamarcus Russell (Oak, 1st, 2007)

The kid was drafted out of LSU in 2007 where he led his college team to a National Championship. When he signed for $41 million guaranteed he looked like the savior of the Raiders (the pic on the left) but he ended up turning out to be a fat, overpaid, garbage quarterback (the pic on the right) who couldn't even beat out Bruce Gradkowski for the starting job in Oakland. If I was an Oakland fan I would file a private criminal complaint against Russell for stealing that $41 million. I'm not sure he will ever get another contract offer let alone make it in the league for more than a few more seasons. I would say that he'll be fine cause he already got that $41 million but with an appetite like that, who knows? Readers of Sports and Shit, let's clap it up for the Worst NFL Draft Pick of The Decade. And probably of all time.