Over the past 15 years, there have been many mistakes made
by every single franchise when it comes to drafting in the NFL. Tom Brady stands out the most of course, but
not even the top scouts across the country could have predicted what was going
to come from Tom Brady over the next decade.
Looking back with the knowledge that we have now, it’s really easy to
see who messed up over the years, and who made the correct selections. Yet, I still think there were situations in
which the teams knew exactly what they could have drafted, but decided to go in
a different route anyway. I.e. Any team
could’ve traded up with the Saint Louis Rams to select Robert Griffin III, who
should go down as one of the better quarterbacks of this generation. It was an open auction for 30 NFL franchises,
and a couple of organizations could have really helped themselves. (Dallas
Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs – I’m looking at you.) For the next four years, RG3 would likely be
better than their current quarterbacks, and he’d cost half the price. Here are my top 5.
#5. Tim Couch going
#1 to the Cleveland Browns. (1999) For
those that don’t remember, the Kentucky Wildcats were one of the first teams in
the NCAA to switch to the spread offense, when the West Coast and Pro-Set were still
in high demand. Yes, Tim Couch threw
some fantastic numbers while playing for Kentucky . But they threw deep, and they threw a
lot. There wasn’t much to see in his
case as far as accuracy was concerned, and he never really had to beat a pass
rush. I believed that Donovan McNabb was
the best quarterback prospect in that draft, but better for the Browns would’ve
been Ricky Williams or Edgerrin James.
Their line was crap (they were an expansion team), and Tim never really
had the quality, coaching, or teammates to take him to a high level. Credit to him though, he did avoid the rush
adequately, and his rookie season showed more passing TD’s than
interceptions. But, Donovan’s wheels may
have helped him avoid an ever-consistent pass rush, and either of the two
running backs would’ve taken the pressure off of a quarterback playing
immediately. The Browns running back
that year? -- Terry frickin’ Kirby.
#4. Courtney Brown going #1 to the Cleveland Browns. (2000)
Yes, the Browns defense was pretty bad in their inaugural season, but that
offense couldn’t move the ball either. I
really enjoyed the tandem of Courtney Brown and LaVar Arrington at Penn
State
#3. David Carr going #1 to the Houston Texans. (2002) I already believe that the Houston Texans
understood their mistake when years later they decided to draft Mario Williams
#1 overall, when most believed that three players should have been drafted
prior to him. The mistake that led to
this selection. - Passing up on one of the greatest physical specimen in NFL
history, that of Julius Peppers. He
played two college sports at a high level.
He had one of the greatest scouting combine performances in
history. Even watching him, one could
tell he was a great player waiting to happen.
Yet, the Texans thought that a quarterback coming out of Fresno
State Oregon . And even though things led to the Texans
drafting Mario Williams years later, many would probably agree that Julius
Peppers is and would have been the better player for the Houston Texans.
#2. The Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens select Todd
Heap with the #31 pick. (2001) Don’t get
me wrong, this pick could have been way worse.
They actually drafted quite the player at the end of the first
round. Yet the entire world knew what
the Baltimore Ravens didn’t have at the time, and that was a quarterback. The quarterback selected right after
Heap? Drew Brees. Now, there are many reasons why this
happened. First, no one wanted a short
quarterback in those days. Drew might be
six feet tall on a good day. Second, his
arm strength was lacking. When a Mr.
Russell is selected #1 in an NFL draft, you know what is valued and what is
overlooked. But I still haven’t seen
someone come out of college with the throwing accuracy of one Drew Brees. RG3 is quite close though. Matt Ryan does well in this department
too. But Drew had the most overlooked attribute
in the NFL in abundance when he came out of Purdue in 2001. Intangibles!
He is a born leader. He shows no
fear. He doesn’t feed into all the
criticisms. Joe Flacco has been to the
NFL playoffs every year of his NFL career, but how much of that can be
attributed to him? This defense would’ve
been a gift for Drew, and Drew would’ve been the same for them. Baltimore
could’ve challenged New England and Indianapolis
year after year if they had just been ahead of the curve and drafted a short
quarterback without great arm strength out of an Indiana
school by the name of Drew Brees.
#1. The aforementioned JaMarcus Russell is taken #1 before a
number of NFL greats. (2007) With the
exception of Jamaal Anderson going #8 to the Atlanta Falcons, the Oakland
Raiders could have selected any other top ten player and gotten more
production.(Calvin Johnson, Joe Thomas, Adrian Peterson, etc) Or they could’ve guessed correctly and
drafted Darrelle Revis or Pat Willis and been set for 10 years. I doubt that would’ve happened; I don’t think
anyone knew that two Hall of Famers were about to go #11 and #14 in this
draft. But the whole world knew that
Calvin Johnson would probably be one of the all-time greats. A scout had said that prior to the draft that
he had seen 3 perfect prospects during the 25 years of scouting for the NFL. Two of them were the #1 pick in their drafts
(John Elway, Peyton Manning). The other
was Calvin Johnson, and he went #2.
Shame, I say. JaMarcus Russell
might be the only player in NFL history that didn’t have a single productive
game.* On top of that, they had Daunte Culpepper and Josh McCown at the time.
Give Daunte Culpepper a Calvin Johnson instead of what they had, (Ronald Curry
& Jerry Porter) and the Raiders may have had a fighting chance.
*Note – He had one.
18 for 25, 236 yards with 2 touchdowns and 0 turnovers. Against the Houston Texans in 2008.
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