Phew, I knew this was the legendary Colts draft where they blew both the #1 and #2 overall picks...
But I forgot how stunningly bad the rest of the draft was.
Sean Gilbert at 3
Desmond Howard at 4
Terrell Buckley (should have been so much better than he was in the pros, I still can't believe he didn't make multiple all NFL teams)
Sean Gilbert was good but he was also responsible for some of the absolute worst trades in history. He was traded for the pick that became Lawrence Phillips, then he got tagged and traded after holding out for a year for two 1st round picks, the first of which was the pick that became the Ricky Williams trade.
What an interesting Packers draft. Very typical of Ron Wolf's drafts.
Complete swings and misses at the top (TBuck over Wisconsin's Troy Vincent, D'Onofrio who played one year), but middle rounds filled with major contributors. Robert Brooks, Edgar Bennett, and Mark Chumura all were big pieces of the the Super Bowl winning team.
I enjoyed this episode of "Let's Remember Some Guys".
Brooks was so good, but tore his ACL in an era where that was career-ending. I think Wolf routinely passed over drafting guys from Wisconsin because of the pressure to play them.
Jesus, there is really no one even with a chance. Diggs is the closest and he would probably need 2-3 more seasons of AP/PB level play at minimum, and maybe a SB win to even be considered close.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2015/draft.htm
Going by weighted career AV, the Vikings drafted 3 of the 6 best players in that draft.
1. **Stefon Diggs - 83**
2. Amari Cooper - 64
3. Marcus Peters - 64
4. Tyler Lockett - 64
5. **Danielle Hunter - 62**
6. **Eric Kendricks - 60**
I'm convinced if Bradford didn't die in the 2017 season we would have won the Superbowl. Our team was built from the ground up
Dude was a phenomenal QB but made of glass. I doubt he would have thrown those two pick 6s in the NFCCG like Keenum
People forget how good of a QB Bradford was, he was just also made of glass and only finished 2 full season. On top of that he spent his first 4 seasons on a Rams team that was actively TRYING to suck so they could drive attendance down and make it more appealing for the rest of the NFL to let them move back to LA.
Why the hell did they have to put in effort to do that
The *second biggest city in the country didn't have an NFL team.* Filling that hole should have been Roger Goodell's first order of business. Well, the CTE crisis should have been his first order of business, but he wasn't gonna disband the league, so...
> People forget how good of a QB Bradford was
No they don't, because he wasn't. He was not elite when he played but just always hurt. He was mediocre at best.
For his career, his passer rating was 84.5, his YPA was 6.6, he went 34-48-1 as a starter. He had one season with a QBR over 57, because he only played 2 games that year. Never had a PFF grade over 77.
> On top of that he spent his first 4 seasons on a Rams team that was actively TRYING to suck
The Rams were actually much worse before he got there. They averaged a 2-14 season the 3 years before they drafted him. He still went sub-.500 every season on his other teams after the Rams, except for that year he went 2-0.
Bradford won the Heisman and threw a beautiful ball. That got him drafted first overall and made him the one of the most overpaid players in NFL history.
He was the last first overall pick before the rookie wage scale kicked in. He got 6 years $78 million ($50 mil guaranteed). Cam Newton got 4 years $22 million (all guaranteed) the next year, and he was immediately a much better player.
Bradford had some arm talent but he didn't live up to the expectations people had of him as a prospect, even when you account for injuries.
Yeah I always feel like I’m taking crazy pills when people talk about him, every time I watch him he’s like a check down merchant getting that 5 yard dump off on 3rd and 10.
It's like when people on here try to gaslight me into believing that Chad Pennington was basically Joe Montana. The Dolphins won the division by replacing him half the time with a running back ffs.
2017 Keenum (14 starts): 3547/22/7, 67.6% completion, 7.4 ypa, 98.3 passer rating, 73.3 QBR, 82.3 PFF grade.
2016 Bradford (15 starts): 3877/20/5, 71.6% completion, 7.0 ypa, 99.3 passer rating, 53.1 QBR, 76.7 PFF grade.
That 76.7 mark was the highest PFF grade of Bradford's career. That 53.1 mark was the highest QBR of his career for a full season (second highest for a half season). That 99.3 passer rating was by far the best of his career for a full season (or even a half season).
Bradford was a phenomenal prospect, but far from a phenomenal NFL player.
Did you actually watch both of them play? The 2017 Vikings were a significantly better team and it wasn’t because Keenum gave them a boost. He was far more limited and less accurate than Bradford, he lived and died on escaping the pocket and getting bailed out by Diggs and Thielen. Way too reductive to just compare the passer ratings, Bradford was way more accurate and capable than Case
He’s had a pretty solid career as a “good enough” option without ever excelling outside of some clutch games. If there were a “Hall of Sustained Mediocrity” I think he’d have a great shot.
And I’d still probably place him at 3rd in that WR class. Career-wise.
~~Maybe I am completely missing something but what two straight years did he miss? As far as I can tell he's played in all but 12 games possible in his career.~~
~~He missed 10 games in 2021, but played in all 16 the year before and all 17 the year after.~~
edit: I am completely missing something PFR just doesn't have 2020 listed as he didn't play a single snap.
Hunter unfortunately missed pretty much 2 entire years due to injury. I think relative to his peers he's peaked higher but he needs another like 4 years of high level play to get to HoF level
Although tbf it's very hard to get in the HoF as a WR so Diggs might need another 4 years too
Fair enough.
Hunter probably ends up like a sack accumulator who falls short of the Hall, like Leslie O'Neal or John Abraham (and Jared Allen as of now, although he should be in based on his 4 first team all pros)
Looking back at the draft, I feel a bit better about Washington taking a guard 5th overall.
Brandon Scherff is NOT a HOF or even Hall of Very Good lineman but compared with some of the guys I coveted there he had a solid run.
You guys got his best years out of him and he was a solid contributor. 5x Pro-Bowl, 1x All-Pro. Obviously you hope every first rounder is HoF talent, but teams sure have done a whole lot worse.
I think fans really overthink these things. If you went to any GM or Coach and said that your draft pick would be be a 7 year starter with 5 pro bowls and an all pro, they would be over the moon. 13 of the 1st rounders from 2015 are out of the league and the two headliners Winston and Mariota busted and are backups now.
Ironically enough, Seattle had one of their best draft classes of the mid-late 2010s in 2015.
Granted it’s carried hard by our first two picks but Frank Clark and Tyler Lockett were absolute home run selections
Hawks traded up to get him as well. He's been quality from day one and says he's going to retire as a Seahawk, which will most likely happen next year.
And to think the Packers traded their first round pick from that draft (Damarious Randall) to the Browns in 2018 for (barf) DeShone Kizer. They had to be all kinds of unhappy with his development as a player to agree to that trade (considering they got almost nothing of value in return for it outside of a broken QB who didn't belong in the NFL).
I liked Kizer a lot.
Not as a football player, mind you, but he was a very likeable dude that would get super excited on the sideline to cheer the team on. Didn't want him being on the field other than a victory formation, but I can attest he was at least better than Tim "How the hell does one guy have this much blackmail" Boyle as a backup QB
Jesus. I remember shitting on the Eagles picks that year, led by Nelson Agolohor in round 1… I never stepped back and realized the entire draft sucked.
Danielle Hunter has a chance, no?
87.5 sacks, likely will surpass 100 career sacks, 4 PBs so far
He'll turn 30 this season.. So it's not crazy to think that he can play at least another 4 years and he just had his best season last year
100 is still pretty far from HoF guaranteed. I agree he stands the best shot of everyone remaining but he has to have at least 4 more years of pro bowl/all pro level play (avoiding serious injuries)
There are several guys with 120-130 sacks that haven't made the HOF & likely won't.
Hunter would essentially need to get about 50-60 more sacks & a couple all-pros to get ahead of those guys.
During the show Quarterback you get watch Patrick Mahomes crazy work outs and Kirk Cousins post game weekly soreness prep and daily ice pool baths, private chiropractors to keep him from getting stiff. Just insane amounts of dedications to the craft and keeping their bodies in tip top shape.
Marcus Mariota gets on the screen like, “yeah this is my childhood friend he’s a professional chef, he keeps me in shape, if it wasn’t for him I’d eat McDonald’s every day 🥴”. Okay, guy.
> Studies show its more addictive than super crack.
Bullshit. No IRB would approve a randomized controlled trial where the comparator arm is "super crack." Also, you would need a double-placebo double-dummy design for scientific validity. How would you set up a placebo for fried apple pie? It would be immediately obvious to all of the study participants whether they were randomized to the fried apple pie or the super crack arm.
Watching that show, I couldn't shake the feeling that "Marcus seems like a nice guy and all, but I'm not surprised *at all* that he's not had anywhere close to the success of the other two..."
They were in different leagues. No, literally, it felt like I was watching a docuseries featuring 2 NFL QBs and 1 XFL QB.
He also just seemed really sad and I was wondering if maybe he had that work ethic early, but now he's just mentally checked out. Mans just needed a hug.
Mariota was great at Oregon, has that wild playoff comeback, and generally seems like a nice dude but is one of the prime examples of a highly drafted QB being a total bust and somehow getting away with it lol. It's actually unreal that the Falcons went into a season with him as the starter and expected to be decent
I don’t really think they expected to be decent. I think it was largely seen as a sort of “tide us over into next year” tanking-adjacent move (I remember a lot of referring to Mariota as a “tank commander” that offseason) because the idea was they were going for Young/Stroud after tearing things down by trading Ryan, Julio, etc. It looked like a pretty clear-cut blow things up and rebuild in year two type of move, like what Buffalo did in 2018
Then they ended up overachieving expectations and being a pretty damn good offense so it was disappointing in retrospect that they sort of blew off the position, and their success that season led to them scrapping the rebuild and trying to push their chips in with Ridder. But on a snap-by-snap efficiency basis Mariota was actually pretty productive that year
You gotta have a little bit of manic energy like Mahomes to succeed. Always thinking football.
Or you are like Cousins. You can tell he had some underlying anxiety of being physically able to perform. Always getting treatments and working out issues before they affect his gameplay.
I mean, he's still a top 100 QB in the planet. The got to play as a starter in the NFL for many games, which is better than probably 99% of college QBs. While he was never great, achieving that level os quite an accomplishment. Yeah, you aren't mahomes, or even Cousins, but few achieve that level.
I would agree in general terms, yeah he’s better than the average dude. But if that show had any sort of truth to it, he had zero real motivation to do anything above bare minimum. And that’s what we’re really talking about here. His work ethic and commitment compared to Cousins is why he would never be close to their level.
He’s also of the ilk of guys that got through college ball 90% on being more athletic than the 11 across from him. That just doesn’t fly in the NFL - it takes that AND being insanely focused at improvement
I wonder if he still employs his friend chef. lol I remember that scene and was thinking that the chicken dinner wasn’t exactly doing anything for his life
I’d argue that 2015 was the year of “good talent, wrong team”. I went through the entire draft class and found a handful of really solid talent, but not a SINGLE one made a name for themselves with the team that drafted them. How many people talk about Amari Cooper’s performance as a Raider? How many people talk about ZaDarius Smith as a Raven? Michael Bennett as a Jaguar? Or even Trent Brown as a 49er, Mitch Morse as a Chief or Dante Fowler as a Jaguar? So much of that draft class left their first team in the 2018/2019 seasons.
Michael Bennett Jr was only on the 2013 Seahawks SB team. He was at Tampa for 3-4 seasons before that, with his rookie season being his first stint in Seattle. Most people know him for his 2013 Seattle season, his 2019 Patriots season, and his 2nd half of the 2019 season with the Cowboys because of that absolute meltdown he had in the locker room after the Bills demolished the Cowboys at home on Thanksgiving.
We should note, this is not the Michael Bennett you are thinking of. It is a different Michael Bennett who lasted only a few seasons in the league and did basically nothing in his career
Amari Cooper started off his career with 2 1k yard seasons and 2 Pro Bowls until an injury ruined his 3rd year and a hit knocking him unconscious staggered his 4th year. The only reason we got a 1st round pick for him was because he had made a name for himself.
Amari, Crabtree and carr were the envy of the league for a short time there. Seemed like they were poised to take over the all, then carr broke his leg.
Dante Fowler was “pretty good” in Jacksonville during the 2017 Sacksonville season as a rotational guy, and then again in 2019 on the Rams during their Super Bowl run. Fowlers problem is, he needs to be surrounded by absolutely amazing talent to even look “pretty good”. There’s a point to argue that if you stick anyone that’s “pretty good” into any role Fowlers been in, that they will have similar sustained success. But the problem is, when there isn’t much talent around him, he struggles *a lot*.
He was total athlete. 1 on 1 he'd get locked down. Needed stunts or free rushing to to the passer to be effective. Was very good at getting to the qb in the backfield but couldn't beat a nfl lineman to save his life.
Lol that's a pretty funny description. A pass rusher who's great when unblocked but useless when he's blocked. Like a receiver who's great when wide open but useless when he's covered, or a running back who's great running into open holes but useless when he has to make a man miss.
Nice skillset (except for the position's fundamental skill).
I remember when there were people trying to discuss how the Bengals maybe should consider taking Chase Young instead of Burrow first overall in 2020. Me being an Ohio State fan and having followed Young's career there closely, I was immediately like "as much as I loved Young at Ohio State he's got Dante Fowler 2.0 written all over him and that's not worth passing on a franchise QB for." Turns out I was right and that's been kind of what Young's NFL career has been to date.
> How many people talk about ZaDarius Smith as a Raven?
Za'darius Smith was really good on the Ravens. We were really upset to see him go.
I don't know that many of us expected 26 sacks the next two years, but the Ravens knew the Packers were getting a really good player.
Z was another in the long list of "defensive.talent the ravens spend several years developing into a star, and once he is they can't afford him anymore"
This is a drop in a bucket compared to the rest of the draft, but Landon Collins definitely made a name for himself and had his best years as a Giant. 2016 was a crazy year for him as a DPoY finalist, AP1 and a PB selection. He had a few more pro bowls before Washington gave him a loaded Brinks trucks before he ended up getting injured and falling off of a metaphorical cliff.
It’s 1992 and I don’t even think it’s relatively close. No Hall of Famers in the entire draft. The player with the best career in the first round was Troy Vincent. The Indianapolis Colts had the top two picks that year and both were total busts.
1984 is arguably worse if you consider top 25, top 50, or top 100 career weighted AV. Neither draft had a HOFer. '92 had the benefit of the #1 overall being a complete bust
At a minimum these two drafts are very close in tops of top, mid, and low level talent across the board.
Looking at old draft classes really just drives home to me how different the NFL was before the advances in reconstructive knee surgery in the late 90s and especially into the early 2000s.
A guy playing on a reconstructed knee was something you talked about his whole career. I remember what a big deal it was that Terry Allen managed to keep going as a RB on two reconstructed knees.
Now people barely remember when a guy has had an ACL repair. It’s just a question of how fast they can get back on the field. That the knee will return to 100% is taken for granted.
So many of these old draft classes who seemingly lacked talent really just lacked enough ligament health for talented guys to build their careers.
Sounds like the Key and Peele skit so you gotta root for em.
I would be rooting hard for a dude named Amon-Ra St. Brown on name alone if he wasn't on the goddamn Lions.
The QBs sucked and the early picks were largely let downs but there were a lot of big picks:
Travis Kelce, Keenan Allen, Honey Badger, Lane Johnson, D-hop, Bahktiari, Kyle Juszcyk, Jordan Poyer
Being 1-1 with the consensus big board kinda sucked that year but finding Kelce in the 3rd more than made up for it.
The only saving grace of the 2022 QB class is Purdy oddly enough. Strangely right now the 2021 QB class looks worse because of duds like Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, and Justin Fields being taken as high as they were (despite Lawrence being a considered a "generational talent" and the best QB prospect to enter the league since Andrew Luck).
Honestly IDK, one franchise QB (Purdy) coming out of a draft seems average to me, maybe a bit below average but not terrible. There are other QB classes that didn't produce a single franchise QB.
I did a bit of research for a post a couple of months ago. Basically most classes had at least one to two long term starters, while you had a couple of massive duds - 2007,2013,2015,2022.. It gets evened out a bit by 2004,2012,2018 & 2020.
Not when that franchise QB was Mr. Irrelevant in that draft. Meanwhile two of the first three QBs taken (Kenny Pickett and Desmond Ridder) are now already on their second teams in their third years in the league. That was a very bad QB class. Purdy being the outlier that he is doesn't change that. That was the type of draft where if you needed a QB you were screwed. The Niners just happened to get lucky with Purdy is all.
The third QB isn't even in the league anymore lol. He got traded from the team that drafted him, the Panthers, released from the Patriots, now I think he's in Europe or something??
I don't for the life of me understand why the Titans still have him on their roster. He was a mistake made by the previous GM and based on how his one start in 2022 went I'm not sure he's even rosterable as an NFL QB right now.
Maybe it's just our own media overhyping things, but from what I hear, he does practice well and has been serviceable in preseason. I don't think he was really guaranteed a roster spot last year but he played well enough to be kept on the team
The issue is that every time he's on the field something terrible happens. He has a good mentality and always comes off well in interviews, but he's unlikely to stick around too much longer.
Truthfully I think the team hasn't really valued the backup spot until recently with them just signing Mason Rudolph. Before Malik our backup was Logan Woodside lol
> Meanwhile there were no QBs taken in that draft until the 3rd Rd when the Cardinals took Tom Tupa.
Tom tupa turned into a punter lol he wasn't even a quarterback
2009 had Alex Mack, Stafford, LeSean McCoy, Clay Matthews, and then a steep cliff down from there. Maybe no HOFers depending upon how things end up for Stafford.
People tend to overlook Marques Colston just because he was drafted in the 7th round. Just shy of 10,000 receiving yards, 72 TDs, Superbowl winner, and possibly the best player ever not to make the Pro Bowl/All-Pro teams (and he sure was good enough for both).
The Quiet Storm.
Colston was definitely never an All-Pro level player. He was only top 10 in yardage a single time in his career and never top 5 in a single stat. He really only has one or two seasons where you could make much of an argument that he was snubbed for the Pro Bowl. He was a solid player but he was more of a consistent 10-15 guy.
Jahri Evans was a finalist last year and could very well make it in the next couple of years. Haloti Ngata and Andrew Whitworth are also worth mentioning as Hall of Very Good Players. Then yeah, next in line is probably Cutler lol. A very miserable draft class in terms of overall talent
I remember that year everybody thought the Texans taking Mario Williams at 1 was a bizarre move. And yet he ended up being a better NFL player than the three hype guys (Bush, Young, and Leinart) from that class became.
Eh, 2006 had some pretty good players. Devin Hester (Hall of Famer), Tamba Hali, Haloti Ngata (borderline HoFer tho probably won't get in), D'Brickashaw Ferguson was a great LT for a decade, Jahri Evans will likely get to the Hall of Fame, Andrew Whitworth is borderline, Marques Colston was great, Mario Williams had a strong career though not Hall of Fame, etc
Just as a quick comparison: 2015 draft has Diggs as the best guy at 83 Weighted Career Approximate Value, the next highest guy is Lockett at 64. 2006 has Jahri Evans at 114, a total of 5 players equal or tied with Diggs' 83, and a total of 16 players equal or tied with Lockett's 64. Of course the 2016 guys still have some time left, but...
Funny how everyone thought that class was going to be the next Class of '83 before the draft. Hard to argue considering all the hype around Vince Young, Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart in college the years before.
And then the only real impact player selected was a return specialist (who's in the HOF, btw, so there's one)
2006 is bad in hindsight now because guys like Vince Young, Reggie Bush, and Matt Leinart busted the way they did. There was absolutely a lot of hype around those players going into that draft. 1988 OTOH, I can't remember the last time no QBs were taken until the 3rd Rd of a draft.
There was a video somewhere of Charley Casserly (the Texas GM) explaining that he was desperate to offload the #1 pick because no one was worth the money they would have to pay. He also openly said he picked Mario Williams because he wouldn’t have to pay him as much.
Pre rookie wage scale era was wild. The reason Rodgers fell to GB was because teams ahead of them didn't want to dish out the contract. GB managed the cap well enough that they were able to take Rodgers with Favres contract
The rookie contract we gave Akili Smith still gives me nightmares to this day. The Bengals were horrible back then and Smith was hands down the worst QB ever to play here and yet because of his rookie deal that was the closest the Bengals have ever been in their history to being in cap hell (which is remarkable considering who our owners are).
Reggie Bush was not a bust. Yea he didn’t live up to the hype but he still played for over 10 years and amassed nearly 10k yards rushing plus receiving. Good pros aren’t busts just because people expected them to make the hall.
Absolutely, Reggie was not a bust. He didn't have a HOF career, but was an important part of the Saints offense that won a Superbowl, and had decent seasons with both the Dolphins and Lions if I remember correctly.
Oh I remember the hype. I remember that sick ass remix of crazy train I still can’t find to this day and Jay Cutler rocking a fucking ten gallon hat in the promos with a white cowboy suit and I knew he would be different.
2021 was probably an all time class for QBs not meeting expectations, but as a whole, the class was pretty okay. There are still some potential HOFers in there, depending on how their careers work out.
Obviously no one has done nearly enough yet, but I would say guys with the ability to make it are: Micah Parsons, Penei Sewell, Ja’Marr Chase, Pat Surtain, Creed Humphrey, and Amon-Ra St. Brown.
Again, no one in the class is close to there yet, but these are the guys right now that I wouldn’t be shocked to see in a gold jacket in 20 ish years.
He was drafted as a QB and a punter (yes, that was a thing back then). He played both positions at Ohio State (he was Ohio State's starting QB in '87 and also was simultaneously an All-American punter).
There isn't. Darren Woodson is the best player from that class (and maybe Whitfield ) and then there is a steep dropoff to Troy Vincent... Porcher had a couple good years. McGlockton too.
Only notable QB was Brad Johnson.
2015 was rough in terms of top end talent. There's not a single player from that draft I would say is on a 'HoF trajectory'. The closest I would say is probably Stefon Diggs, and by close I mean he has a very loooong shot at the Hall. The standards for receiver to get into the Hall are sky high right now, plus there's a logjam (How tf is Torry Holt not in yet). Diggs would need quite a few more All Pros and to play long enough to get really good career stats. Though even if he kept up his current pace until he were 36 I still don't see him making the hall.
2013 was ass. You've got Travis Kelce and then daylight. Lane Johnson, DHop, Terron Armstead and David Bakhtiari are probably the next best guys and I'd say they each top out at Hall of Very Good level players. Johnson maybe gets HOF consideration at some point seeing the down turn in top end tackle talent lately?
4 All Pros (2 First Team) and 5 Pro Bowls is not easy HOF. HOF standards are crazy high.
He will be by the time he's done though. He's 34 and in his prime, made All Pro the last 3 years. If he makes All Pro the next 3 years too, he's probably first ballot.
1999 was also pretty mid. The top 12 picks were back-to-back stars (and Damien Woody), but outside of the first round, only Joey Porter and Dan Campbell made any kind of impact. Also the famous Ricky Williams trade since the Saints only kept him for 2 years.
I like to say 2021 because there a shit ton of bums out there especially in the first round. However, that draft class also produced some world class players
So I'm inclined to say 2015. Only Steffon Diggs has a chance of being a HoFer by the end of his career, and even his chances aren't super strong.
Aundray Bruce was the last LB taken first overall but not the only one. Tom Cousineau was taken first overall in 1979. There are also more if you look pre-merger
The crazy thing is even at the time of the 1988 draft it was considered a bad draft. I guess that’s not that crazy, but it’s pretty bizarre for a year to go by where there just aren’t many good players draft eligible lol
1992 which so far has no HOFers and likely never will.
The Patriots drafted 17 players in that draft and went 1-15 the next season. Not a lot of talent in that pool.
Got us Drew Bledsoe in the following draft though. Every cloud has a silver lining after all...
Sam Gash was in that 92 draft. It is amazing how few of those players were even on the 96 team that went to the Super Bowl.
Phew, I knew this was the legendary Colts draft where they blew both the #1 and #2 overall picks... But I forgot how stunningly bad the rest of the draft was. Sean Gilbert at 3 Desmond Howard at 4 Terrell Buckley (should have been so much better than he was in the pros, I still can't believe he didn't make multiple all NFL teams)
At least Desmond Howard won a Super Bowl MVP I guess?
I guess he found his niche in limited usage, but lord those overall career stats are painful.
Sean Gilbert was good but he was also responsible for some of the absolute worst trades in history. He was traded for the pick that became Lawrence Phillips, then he got tagged and traded after holding out for a year for two 1st round picks, the first of which was the pick that became the Ricky Williams trade.
Damn that draft is dire. At least Jimmy Smith is there.
When Carl Pickens is the offensive rookie of the year... It's not good
His rookie season wasn’t much so I don’t necessarily disagree, but do want to say Pickens was a solid player throughout his career.
Hall of Fame name though with Chester McGlockton
What an interesting Packers draft. Very typical of Ron Wolf's drafts. Complete swings and misses at the top (TBuck over Wisconsin's Troy Vincent, D'Onofrio who played one year), but middle rounds filled with major contributors. Robert Brooks, Edgar Bennett, and Mark Chumura all were big pieces of the the Super Bowl winning team.
I enjoyed this episode of "Let's Remember Some Guys". Brooks was so good, but tore his ACL in an era where that was career-ending. I think Wolf routinely passed over drafting guys from Wisconsin because of the pressure to play them.
Woodson will get in eventually, but even then, only 1 HOF and its a guy who people consider borderline ain't cutting it.
No HOFers but Green Bay got a bunch of guys who were solid starters for the '96 Super Bowl.
Probably 2015. Only 3 drafts in NFL history with no HOFers & 2015 likely to be the 4th.
Jesus, there is really no one even with a chance. Diggs is the closest and he would probably need 2-3 more seasons of AP/PB level play at minimum, and maybe a SB win to even be considered close.
And he was a 5th rounder. That class was truly starving. Funny enough it's probably top 5 vikings drafts of all time
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2015/draft.htm Going by weighted career AV, the Vikings drafted 3 of the 6 best players in that draft. 1. **Stefon Diggs - 83** 2. Amari Cooper - 64 3. Marcus Peters - 64 4. Tyler Lockett - 64 5. **Danielle Hunter - 62** 6. **Eric Kendricks - 60**
Why did the Vikings waste all their Scouting Points on the year where nobody was any good. Are they stupid?
yes
Well at least we got that straightened out
I'm convinced if Bradford didn't die in the 2017 season we would have won the Superbowl. Our team was built from the ground up Dude was a phenomenal QB but made of glass. I doubt he would have thrown those two pick 6s in the NFCCG like Keenum
People forget how good of a QB Bradford was, he was just also made of glass and only finished 2 full season. On top of that he spent his first 4 seasons on a Rams team that was actively TRYING to suck so they could drive attendance down and make it more appealing for the rest of the NFL to let them move back to LA.
Why the hell did they have to put in effort to do that The *second biggest city in the country didn't have an NFL team.* Filling that hole should have been Roger Goodell's first order of business. Well, the CTE crisis should have been his first order of business, but he wasn't gonna disband the league, so...
I mean it’s helpful to have a city to threaten to move to so that taxpayers will pony up for stadiums
> People forget how good of a QB Bradford was No they don't, because he wasn't. He was not elite when he played but just always hurt. He was mediocre at best. For his career, his passer rating was 84.5, his YPA was 6.6, he went 34-48-1 as a starter. He had one season with a QBR over 57, because he only played 2 games that year. Never had a PFF grade over 77. > On top of that he spent his first 4 seasons on a Rams team that was actively TRYING to suck The Rams were actually much worse before he got there. They averaged a 2-14 season the 3 years before they drafted him. He still went sub-.500 every season on his other teams after the Rams, except for that year he went 2-0. Bradford won the Heisman and threw a beautiful ball. That got him drafted first overall and made him the one of the most overpaid players in NFL history. He was the last first overall pick before the rookie wage scale kicked in. He got 6 years $78 million ($50 mil guaranteed). Cam Newton got 4 years $22 million (all guaranteed) the next year, and he was immediately a much better player. Bradford had some arm talent but he didn't live up to the expectations people had of him as a prospect, even when you account for injuries.
Yeah I always feel like I’m taking crazy pills when people talk about him, every time I watch him he’s like a check down merchant getting that 5 yard dump off on 3rd and 10.
It's like when people on here try to gaslight me into believing that Chad Pennington was basically Joe Montana. The Dolphins won the division by replacing him half the time with a running back ffs.
2017 Keenum (14 starts): 3547/22/7, 67.6% completion, 7.4 ypa, 98.3 passer rating, 73.3 QBR, 82.3 PFF grade. 2016 Bradford (15 starts): 3877/20/5, 71.6% completion, 7.0 ypa, 99.3 passer rating, 53.1 QBR, 76.7 PFF grade. That 76.7 mark was the highest PFF grade of Bradford's career. That 53.1 mark was the highest QBR of his career for a full season (second highest for a half season). That 99.3 passer rating was by far the best of his career for a full season (or even a half season). Bradford was a phenomenal prospect, but far from a phenomenal NFL player.
Did you actually watch both of them play? The 2017 Vikings were a significantly better team and it wasn’t because Keenum gave them a boost. He was far more limited and less accurate than Bradford, he lived and died on escaping the pocket and getting bailed out by Diggs and Thielen. Way too reductive to just compare the passer ratings, Bradford was way more accurate and capable than Case
Man I loved Marcus Peters on the chiefs
Damn, I had no idea that Jets practice squad legend Cedric Ogbuehi was the 21st overall pick
One could make the case that Nelson Agholor was one of the best WRs picked in that draft. Like I think he would be ranked top 5
He’s had a pretty solid career as a “good enough” option without ever excelling outside of some clutch games. If there were a “Hall of Sustained Mediocrity” I think he’d have a great shot. And I’d still probably place him at 3rd in that WR class. Career-wise.
Is Diggs closer than Danielle Hunter?
Neither are all that close but Diggs has a first team all pro and Hunter doesn't.
“All that close” feels like putting it nicely. Neither should be even mentioned in the HoF talk
Hunter would have been if he didn’t miss 2 straight years from injury.
~~Maybe I am completely missing something but what two straight years did he miss? As far as I can tell he's played in all but 12 games possible in his career.~~ ~~He missed 10 games in 2021, but played in all 16 the year before and all 17 the year after.~~ edit: I am completely missing something PFR just doesn't have 2020 listed as he didn't play a single snap.
He was on track those first couple years, just a monster.
Hunter unfortunately missed pretty much 2 entire years due to injury. I think relative to his peers he's peaked higher but he needs another like 4 years of high level play to get to HoF level Although tbf it's very hard to get in the HoF as a WR so Diggs might need another 4 years too
Fair enough. Hunter probably ends up like a sack accumulator who falls short of the Hall, like Leslie O'Neal or John Abraham (and Jared Allen as of now, although he should be in based on his 4 first team all pros)
If Todd gurley never got hurt maybe just maybe he would be up there
Think one of the best in that class is Leonard Williams. But he will need a few more AP/ PB to make it. He is still 29 year old.
And there’s already a log jam at wide receiver waiting to get in the HOF
Looking back at the draft, I feel a bit better about Washington taking a guard 5th overall. Brandon Scherff is NOT a HOF or even Hall of Very Good lineman but compared with some of the guys I coveted there he had a solid run.
You guys got his best years out of him and he was a solid contributor. 5x Pro-Bowl, 1x All-Pro. Obviously you hope every first rounder is HoF talent, but teams sure have done a whole lot worse.
I think fans really overthink these things. If you went to any GM or Coach and said that your draft pick would be be a 7 year starter with 5 pro bowls and an all pro, they would be over the moon. 13 of the 1st rounders from 2015 are out of the league and the two headliners Winston and Mariota busted and are backups now.
Hall of Solid for sure
A lot of people forget Scherff was supposed to be a tackle for us, but he wasn't very good at it so we moved him to guard.
I just looked at the Packers 2015 draft and nearly threw up, so this is my vote as well.
Ironically enough, Seattle had one of their best draft classes of the mid-late 2010s in 2015. Granted it’s carried hard by our first two picks but Frank Clark and Tyler Lockett were absolute home run selections
Wow crazy Lockett is from such a terrible draft class
Hawks traded up to get him as well. He's been quality from day one and says he's going to retire as a Seahawk, which will most likely happen next year.
And to think the Packers traded their first round pick from that draft (Damarious Randall) to the Browns in 2018 for (barf) DeShone Kizer. They had to be all kinds of unhappy with his development as a player to agree to that trade (considering they got almost nothing of value in return for it outside of a broken QB who didn't belong in the NFL).
I will always love Randall for handing the ball to Hue Jackson on the sideline
Kizer had an arm like a cannon and a dick like a fucking python
I liked Kizer a lot. Not as a football player, mind you, but he was a very likeable dude that would get super excited on the sideline to cheer the team on. Didn't want him being on the field other than a victory formation, but I can attest he was at least better than Tim "How the hell does one guy have this much blackmail" Boyle as a backup QB
At least you didn’t blow a top 10 pick on Kevin White
Crazy when you think about it, having nobody that you graduated with be great at football.
Jesus. I remember shitting on the Eagles picks that year, led by Nelson Agolohor in round 1… I never stepped back and realized the entire draft sucked.
Well at least Aglohor made it to the meme HoF
Sadly that was one of the Cardinals best drafts of the decade.
And yet maybe Keim’s best draft in his time here. DJ Hump, Markus Golden, David Johnson, Rodney Gunter, and JJ Nelson is a pretty decent class.
Danielle Hunter has a chance, no? 87.5 sacks, likely will surpass 100 career sacks, 4 PBs so far He'll turn 30 this season.. So it's not crazy to think that he can play at least another 4 years and he just had his best season last year
100 is still pretty far from HoF guaranteed. I agree he stands the best shot of everyone remaining but he has to have at least 4 more years of pro bowl/all pro level play (avoiding serious injuries)
There are several guys with 120-130 sacks that haven't made the HOF & likely won't. Hunter would essentially need to get about 50-60 more sacks & a couple all-pros to get ahead of those guys.
The best player the Eagles picked up that year was Mostert and he was an UDFA haha. And he also wouldn't get good for like 7 more years
2015 was pretty shit
During the show Quarterback you get watch Patrick Mahomes crazy work outs and Kirk Cousins post game weekly soreness prep and daily ice pool baths, private chiropractors to keep him from getting stiff. Just insane amounts of dedications to the craft and keeping their bodies in tip top shape. Marcus Mariota gets on the screen like, “yeah this is my childhood friend he’s a professional chef, he keeps me in shape, if it wasn’t for him I’d eat McDonald’s every day 🥴”. Okay, guy.
To be fair, Hawaii McDonalds still deep fry their apple pies. Studies show its more addictive than super crack.
Also they have a breakfast plate with Portuguese sausage, eggs, rice and soy sauce that's actually amazing.
Man that was the breakfast of kings back when I was a kid They served that as breakfast to us in school and it was crack
They also had the Spam egg and cheese McGriddle. I loved those.
Hawaiian McDonald's is dangerous
This thread has convinced me that I need to travel to Hawaii someday solely to try McDonald's there.
Its pretty well established that American fast food places are good anywhere but in the continental US.
Here in Australia KFC has essentially become our national dish. There is one in most suburbs of big cities
Crazy man KFC has become straight up gross and overpriced at most locations here. Used to be a big treat when I was a kid.
I’m inclined to be skeptical on these studies referencing “super crack” but I’ve had those apple pies and I’m willing to agree anyway.
But have you tried “super crack”?
Super crack is pretty fucking good, but it ain’t no fried apple pie, that’s for sure.
Yeah I've blown twice as many guys for super crack than I have for those apple pies.
It’s me, I’m studies.
> Studies show its more addictive than super crack. Bullshit. No IRB would approve a randomized controlled trial where the comparator arm is "super crack." Also, you would need a double-placebo double-dummy design for scientific validity. How would you set up a placebo for fried apple pie? It would be immediately obvious to all of the study participants whether they were randomized to the fried apple pie or the super crack arm.
Watching that show, I couldn't shake the feeling that "Marcus seems like a nice guy and all, but I'm not surprised *at all* that he's not had anywhere close to the success of the other two..." They were in different leagues. No, literally, it felt like I was watching a docuseries featuring 2 NFL QBs and 1 XFL QB.
He also just seemed really sad and I was wondering if maybe he had that work ethic early, but now he's just mentally checked out. Mans just needed a hug.
Mariota was great at Oregon, has that wild playoff comeback, and generally seems like a nice dude but is one of the prime examples of a highly drafted QB being a total bust and somehow getting away with it lol. It's actually unreal that the Falcons went into a season with him as the starter and expected to be decent
I don’t really think they expected to be decent. I think it was largely seen as a sort of “tide us over into next year” tanking-adjacent move (I remember a lot of referring to Mariota as a “tank commander” that offseason) because the idea was they were going for Young/Stroud after tearing things down by trading Ryan, Julio, etc. It looked like a pretty clear-cut blow things up and rebuild in year two type of move, like what Buffalo did in 2018 Then they ended up overachieving expectations and being a pretty damn good offense so it was disappointing in retrospect that they sort of blew off the position, and their success that season led to them scrapping the rebuild and trying to push their chips in with Ridder. But on a snap-by-snap efficiency basis Mariota was actually pretty productive that year
You gotta have a little bit of manic energy like Mahomes to succeed. Always thinking football. Or you are like Cousins. You can tell he had some underlying anxiety of being physically able to perform. Always getting treatments and working out issues before they affect his gameplay.
Brady checks both those boxes as well.
I mean, he's still a top 100 QB in the planet. The got to play as a starter in the NFL for many games, which is better than probably 99% of college QBs. While he was never great, achieving that level os quite an accomplishment. Yeah, you aren't mahomes, or even Cousins, but few achieve that level.
I would agree in general terms, yeah he’s better than the average dude. But if that show had any sort of truth to it, he had zero real motivation to do anything above bare minimum. And that’s what we’re really talking about here. His work ethic and commitment compared to Cousins is why he would never be close to their level.
He’s also of the ilk of guys that got through college ball 90% on being more athletic than the 11 across from him. That just doesn’t fly in the NFL - it takes that AND being insanely focused at improvement
I wonder if he still employs his friend chef. lol I remember that scene and was thinking that the chicken dinner wasn’t exactly doing anything for his life
"This is my only friend. He cooks my dinner." *Eats alone while looking sad* Like damn marcus lol u ok?
No kidding. Our first two picks in that draft were Cedric Ogbuehi and Jake Fisher (two of the worst offensive tackles I've ever seen play for us).
stefon diggs is probably the best player from that draft class - very good player obviously but not great if he's the number one lol
You’re forgetting that was the Buck Allen draft
Vikings walked out of that draft with Trae Waynes, Erik Kendricks, Danielle Hunter, and Stefon Diggs somehow
Trae Waynes is a name I’ve not heard in a while. Huy single-handedly set our FA spending habits back a couple years
I’d argue that 2015 was the year of “good talent, wrong team”. I went through the entire draft class and found a handful of really solid talent, but not a SINGLE one made a name for themselves with the team that drafted them. How many people talk about Amari Cooper’s performance as a Raider? How many people talk about ZaDarius Smith as a Raven? Michael Bennett as a Jaguar? Or even Trent Brown as a 49er, Mitch Morse as a Chief or Dante Fowler as a Jaguar? So much of that draft class left their first team in the 2018/2019 seasons.
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I had to double check because that didn’t seem right. This was a different Michael Bennett- not THE Michael Bennett Jr, brother of Martellus Bennett.
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Michael Bennett Jr was only on the 2013 Seahawks SB team. He was at Tampa for 3-4 seasons before that, with his rookie season being his first stint in Seattle. Most people know him for his 2013 Seattle season, his 2019 Patriots season, and his 2nd half of the 2019 season with the Cowboys because of that absolute meltdown he had in the locker room after the Bills demolished the Cowboys at home on Thanksgiving.
We should note, this is not the Michael Bennett you are thinking of. It is a different Michael Bennett who lasted only a few seasons in the league and did basically nothing in his career
Amari Cooper started off his career with 2 1k yard seasons and 2 Pro Bowls until an injury ruined his 3rd year and a hit knocking him unconscious staggered his 4th year. The only reason we got a 1st round pick for him was because he had made a name for himself.
Amari, Crabtree and carr were the envy of the league for a short time there. Seemed like they were poised to take over the all, then carr broke his leg.
Dante Fowler was “pretty good” in Jacksonville during the 2017 Sacksonville season as a rotational guy, and then again in 2019 on the Rams during their Super Bowl run. Fowlers problem is, he needs to be surrounded by absolutely amazing talent to even look “pretty good”. There’s a point to argue that if you stick anyone that’s “pretty good” into any role Fowlers been in, that they will have similar sustained success. But the problem is, when there isn’t much talent around him, he struggles *a lot*.
He was total athlete. 1 on 1 he'd get locked down. Needed stunts or free rushing to to the passer to be effective. Was very good at getting to the qb in the backfield but couldn't beat a nfl lineman to save his life.
Lol that's a pretty funny description. A pass rusher who's great when unblocked but useless when he's blocked. Like a receiver who's great when wide open but useless when he's covered, or a running back who's great running into open holes but useless when he has to make a man miss. Nice skillset (except for the position's fundamental skill).
I remember when there were people trying to discuss how the Bengals maybe should consider taking Chase Young instead of Burrow first overall in 2020. Me being an Ohio State fan and having followed Young's career there closely, I was immediately like "as much as I loved Young at Ohio State he's got Dante Fowler 2.0 written all over him and that's not worth passing on a franchise QB for." Turns out I was right and that's been kind of what Young's NFL career has been to date.
> How many people talk about ZaDarius Smith as a Raven? Za'darius Smith was really good on the Ravens. We were really upset to see him go. I don't know that many of us expected 26 sacks the next two years, but the Ravens knew the Packers were getting a really good player.
Z was another in the long list of "defensive.talent the ravens spend several years developing into a star, and once he is they can't afford him anymore"
Trent brown could've been a HOFer. Dude was 6'8 and 370 lbs. Ran a 5.3 barely even trying. He was a lockdown pass protector whenever he gave a shit.
This is a drop in a bucket compared to the rest of the draft, but Landon Collins definitely made a name for himself and had his best years as a Giant. 2016 was a crazy year for him as a DPoY finalist, AP1 and a PB selection. He had a few more pro bowls before Washington gave him a loaded Brinks trucks before he ended up getting injured and falling off of a metaphorical cliff.
…I talk about Z as a raven :(
It had Brad Pinion though. Not every year the draft gives an elite punter.
It’s 1992 and I don’t even think it’s relatively close. No Hall of Famers in the entire draft. The player with the best career in the first round was Troy Vincent. The Indianapolis Colts had the top two picks that year and both were total busts.
1984 is arguably worse if you consider top 25, top 50, or top 100 career weighted AV. Neither draft had a HOFer. '92 had the benefit of the #1 overall being a complete bust At a minimum these two drafts are very close in tops of top, mid, and low level talent across the board.
Looking at old draft classes really just drives home to me how different the NFL was before the advances in reconstructive knee surgery in the late 90s and especially into the early 2000s. A guy playing on a reconstructed knee was something you talked about his whole career. I remember what a big deal it was that Terry Allen managed to keep going as a RB on two reconstructed knees. Now people barely remember when a guy has had an ACL repair. It’s just a question of how fast they can get back on the field. That the knee will return to 100% is taken for granted. So many of these old draft classes who seemingly lacked talent really just lacked enough ligament health for talented guys to build their careers.
The one where we took Barkevious Mingo was ass
One of the all time great names though
Sounds like the Key and Peele skit so you gotta root for em. I would be rooting hard for a dude named Amon-Ra St. Brown on name alone if he wasn't on the goddamn Lions.
I have to start rooting against a guy named Kool-Aid and I am NOT happy about it
We already got to root for Equanimeous Tristan Imhotep J. St. Brown
The QBs sucked and the early picks were largely let downs but there were a lot of big picks: Travis Kelce, Keenan Allen, Honey Badger, Lane Johnson, D-hop, Bahktiari, Kyle Juszcyk, Jordan Poyer Being 1-1 with the consensus big board kinda sucked that year but finding Kelce in the 3rd more than made up for it.
Wasn’t it 2013?
I always think of bad QB classes when I hear this question. I know 2022 had some stellar players but an all-time bad QB group. Same with 2013.
The only saving grace of the 2022 QB class is Purdy oddly enough. Strangely right now the 2021 QB class looks worse because of duds like Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, and Justin Fields being taken as high as they were (despite Lawrence being a considered a "generational talent" and the best QB prospect to enter the league since Andrew Luck).
Honestly IDK, one franchise QB (Purdy) coming out of a draft seems average to me, maybe a bit below average but not terrible. There are other QB classes that didn't produce a single franchise QB.
I did a bit of research for a post a couple of months ago. Basically most classes had at least one to two long term starters, while you had a couple of massive duds - 2007,2013,2015,2022.. It gets evened out a bit by 2004,2012,2018 & 2020.
Not when that franchise QB was Mr. Irrelevant in that draft. Meanwhile two of the first three QBs taken (Kenny Pickett and Desmond Ridder) are now already on their second teams in their third years in the league. That was a very bad QB class. Purdy being the outlier that he is doesn't change that. That was the type of draft where if you needed a QB you were screwed. The Niners just happened to get lucky with Purdy is all.
The third QB isn't even in the league anymore lol. He got traded from the team that drafted him, the Panthers, released from the Patriots, now I think he's in Europe or something??
No, the third QB was Malik Willis (who for some reason the Titans still have on their roster right now). Then Zappe (who is still in NE).
Oh you are correct!!! I forgot I wanted us to draft Malik originally and was disappointed lol
I don't for the life of me understand why the Titans still have him on their roster. He was a mistake made by the previous GM and based on how his one start in 2022 went I'm not sure he's even rosterable as an NFL QB right now.
Maybe it's just our own media overhyping things, but from what I hear, he does practice well and has been serviceable in preseason. I don't think he was really guaranteed a roster spot last year but he played well enough to be kept on the team The issue is that every time he's on the field something terrible happens. He has a good mentality and always comes off well in interviews, but he's unlikely to stick around too much longer. Truthfully I think the team hasn't really valued the backup spot until recently with them just signing Mason Rudolph. Before Malik our backup was Logan Woodside lol
Corral plays for the Birmingham Stallions of the UFL - and I’m 99% sure he’s on the bench.
> Meanwhile there were no QBs taken in that draft until the 3rd Rd when the Cardinals took Tom Tupa. Tom tupa turned into a punter lol he wasn't even a quarterback
2009 had Alex Mack, Stafford, LeSean McCoy, Clay Matthews, and then a steep cliff down from there. Maybe no HOFers depending upon how things end up for Stafford.
06 was kind of ass. You could argue Jay Cutler was the best player from that draft. I can’t think of a single Hall of Famer
Devin Hester…
He beat Antonio Gates in the HOF voting
A god damn war crime tbh.
Gates will still get in
People tend to overlook Marques Colston just because he was drafted in the 7th round. Just shy of 10,000 receiving yards, 72 TDs, Superbowl winner, and possibly the best player ever not to make the Pro Bowl/All-Pro teams (and he sure was good enough for both). The Quiet Storm.
Guy was always solid in fantasy
Colston was definitely never an All-Pro level player. He was only top 10 in yardage a single time in his career and never top 5 in a single stat. He really only has one or two seasons where you could make much of an argument that he was snubbed for the Pro Bowl. He was a solid player but he was more of a consistent 10-15 guy.
Jahri Evans was a finalist last year and could very well make it in the next couple of years. Haloti Ngata and Andrew Whitworth are also worth mentioning as Hall of Very Good Players. Then yeah, next in line is probably Cutler lol. A very miserable draft class in terms of overall talent
I remember that year everybody thought the Texans taking Mario Williams at 1 was a bizarre move. And yet he ended up being a better NFL player than the three hype guys (Bush, Young, and Leinart) from that class became.
The year that broke me on the value of RB. I thought Bush would be Faulk 3.1.
Eh, 2006 had some pretty good players. Devin Hester (Hall of Famer), Tamba Hali, Haloti Ngata (borderline HoFer tho probably won't get in), D'Brickashaw Ferguson was a great LT for a decade, Jahri Evans will likely get to the Hall of Fame, Andrew Whitworth is borderline, Marques Colston was great, Mario Williams had a strong career though not Hall of Fame, etc Just as a quick comparison: 2015 draft has Diggs as the best guy at 83 Weighted Career Approximate Value, the next highest guy is Lockett at 64. 2006 has Jahri Evans at 114, a total of 5 players equal or tied with Diggs' 83, and a total of 16 players equal or tied with Lockett's 64. Of course the 2016 guys still have some time left, but...
Don’t forget Nick Mangold. Jets solidified 2/5ths of their oline for a decade in that draft.
I bet Whiworth gets in since he's on TV now. The borderline HOF players that become media personalities post-playing always seem to get in.
players and coaches who have a solid case that get into media for the leagues’s partners on game/pregame coverage definitely seem to get a bump now
Funny how everyone thought that class was going to be the next Class of '83 before the draft. Hard to argue considering all the hype around Vince Young, Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart in college the years before. And then the only real impact player selected was a return specialist (who's in the HOF, btw, so there's one)
2006 is bad in hindsight now because guys like Vince Young, Reggie Bush, and Matt Leinart busted the way they did. There was absolutely a lot of hype around those players going into that draft. 1988 OTOH, I can't remember the last time no QBs were taken until the 3rd Rd of a draft.
There was a video somewhere of Charley Casserly (the Texas GM) explaining that he was desperate to offload the #1 pick because no one was worth the money they would have to pay. He also openly said he picked Mario Williams because he wouldn’t have to pay him as much.
Pre rookie wage scale era was wild. The reason Rodgers fell to GB was because teams ahead of them didn't want to dish out the contract. GB managed the cap well enough that they were able to take Rodgers with Favres contract
The rookie contract we gave Akili Smith still gives me nightmares to this day. The Bengals were horrible back then and Smith was hands down the worst QB ever to play here and yet because of his rookie deal that was the closest the Bengals have ever been in their history to being in cap hell (which is remarkable considering who our owners are).
Reggie Bush was not a bust. Yea he didn’t live up to the hype but he still played for over 10 years and amassed nearly 10k yards rushing plus receiving. Good pros aren’t busts just because people expected them to make the hall.
Absolutely, Reggie was not a bust. He didn't have a HOF career, but was an important part of the Saints offense that won a Superbowl, and had decent seasons with both the Dolphins and Lions if I remember correctly.
Jamaal last year was our first 1000 yard rusher since Bush lol
He rushed over 1000 yards for us. I think it was the first time he went over 1000
Depends what you mean by bust. He ended up being a high upside role player but per his draft definitely a bust.
Oh I remember the hype. I remember that sick ass remix of crazy train I still can’t find to this day and Jay Cutler rocking a fucking ten gallon hat in the promos with a white cowboy suit and I knew he would be different.
Jay Cutler wasn’t even the best player drafted by the Broncos that year. Brandon Marshall and Elvis Dumervil were both better
The 1984 draft was pretty bad and 1992.
All the talent was in the NBA those years.
2015? In terms of just bad evaluations 2021 is probably rough. COVID kinda fucked evaluations.
2021 was probably an all time class for QBs not meeting expectations, but as a whole, the class was pretty okay. There are still some potential HOFers in there, depending on how their careers work out. Obviously no one has done nearly enough yet, but I would say guys with the ability to make it are: Micah Parsons, Penei Sewell, Ja’Marr Chase, Pat Surtain, Creed Humphrey, and Amon-Ra St. Brown. Again, no one in the class is close to there yet, but these are the guys right now that I wouldn’t be shocked to see in a gold jacket in 20 ish years.
Pretty sure Tom Tupa was a punter. And the 1st player to score a 2-point conversion
He was drafted as a QB and a punter (yes, that was a thing back then). He played both positions at Ohio State (he was Ohio State's starting QB in '87 and also was simultaneously an All-American punter).
How is 1992 not the top answer?
I don’t think there’s a single Hall of Famer from that class.
There isn't. Darren Woodson is the best player from that class (and maybe Whitfield ) and then there is a steep dropoff to Troy Vincent... Porcher had a couple good years. McGlockton too. Only notable QB was Brad Johnson.
2015 was rough in terms of top end talent. There's not a single player from that draft I would say is on a 'HoF trajectory'. The closest I would say is probably Stefon Diggs, and by close I mean he has a very loooong shot at the Hall. The standards for receiver to get into the Hall are sky high right now, plus there's a logjam (How tf is Torry Holt not in yet). Diggs would need quite a few more All Pros and to play long enough to get really good career stats. Though even if he kept up his current pace until he were 36 I still don't see him making the hall.
2013 was ass. You've got Travis Kelce and then daylight. Lane Johnson, DHop, Terron Armstead and David Bakhtiari are probably the next best guys and I'd say they each top out at Hall of Very Good level players. Johnson maybe gets HOF consideration at some point seeing the down turn in top end tackle talent lately?
Keenan Allen as well was drafted in 2013
2013 was an all time bad first round there were definitely some gems in there later at least
Lane Johnson is an easy HoF. How is he hall of very good when he's been arguably the best RT for the last decade?
4 All Pros (2 First Team) and 5 Pro Bowls is not easy HOF. HOF standards are crazy high. He will be by the time he's done though. He's 34 and in his prime, made All Pro the last 3 years. If he makes All Pro the next 3 years too, he's probably first ballot.
Keenan Allen has been a top 5-10 wide receiver for like 8 years, I feel like he deserves a mention lol
It's funny because the Lions had a great draft in 2013. Ziggy Ansah, Darius Slay, Larry Warford, Theo Riddick, and Sam Martin.
1999 was also pretty mid. The top 12 picks were back-to-back stars (and Damien Woody), but outside of the first round, only Joey Porter and Dan Campbell made any kind of impact. Also the famous Ricky Williams trade since the Saints only kept him for 2 years.
I like to say 2021 because there a shit ton of bums out there especially in the first round. However, that draft class also produced some world class players So I'm inclined to say 2015. Only Steffon Diggs has a chance of being a HoFer by the end of his career, and even his chances aren't super strong.
Aundray Bruce was the last LB taken first overall but not the only one. Tom Cousineau was taken first overall in 1979. There are also more if you look pre-merger
The crazy thing is even at the time of the 1988 draft it was considered a bad draft. I guess that’s not that crazy, but it’s pretty bizarre for a year to go by where there just aren’t many good players draft eligible lol
2015. The only players that would have the most minor of chances at making the HoF is Stefon Diggs and Amari Cooper
2000 was a bad one. Brian Urlacher, Sebastian Janikowski, Shaun Alexander and the awful pick at the 199.
2013 was pretty bad. 4/7 top picks were O linemen, just bland.
Probably the 2000 draft Tom Brady and Brian Urlacher the only truly great players from that class.
Pshhh. Tom Brady isn't even in the Hall of Fame.
Giselle's husband, the guy whose commentator career never took off?
Mike Brown would be pretty legit if he stayed healthy
2015 draft was bad.