May 7, 2025
Biggest Draft Busts Since the 1990s
For as long as the NFL Draft has been around, there have always been players who’ve never lived up to the hype put on them by sports analysts and fans alike. Often called “busts.” these athletes end up failing when they get to the league; this could be due to a variety of factors that all come down to how well the player is able to transition from a college football player to a multi-million-dollar professional athlete. This week, we’ll be looking at two of these players and discussing how they were projected to do in the league by sports analysts and scouts, and how they ultimately ruined their careers once in the NFL.
Starting off strong, we have a second overall pick by the name of Ryan Leaf, who was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the 1998 NFL Draft. Watching Leaf during the 1998 Combine, many scouts and football-analysts praised him for his arm strength and overall potential to do well in the league. However, there were others who took issue with his performance during the combine, stating that they saw a lack of maturity, leadership, work-ethic, and overall football understanding from the young prospect. These analyses of him and his performance at the combine frustrated and infuriated Leaf, who often called them “lies” and “bullshit.” However, they would all come to be right as Leaf’s career in the league was plagued with obstacles both on and off the field. He struggled to develop at the professional level, battled substance abuse, arrests, and even ended up serving a prison sentence. With such a dramatic downfall, it’s safe to say that Ryan Leaf’s NFL career was over even before it began.
Another notable bust was JaMarcus Russell, who was picked first overall by the Oakland Raiders in the 2007 NFL Draft. During his combine performance, scouts and football analysts alike all thought very highly of Russell, citing his impressive arm strength, massive size at 6-foot 5-inches tall and 265 pounds, and movement within the pocket and on the run. For the most part, everyone viewed him positively and considered him to go #1 overall in the draft, as he did. However, much like Ryan Leaf, Russell struggled upon making it into the NFL. Most notably in his work ethic, which was made evident in one instance where the Raiders coaching staff sent Russell home with blank films of practice footage to study. The next time they saw him, the staff asked him about the film, to which he stated that he’d been studying “blitz packages” on the tapes. Knowing the films where blank and that Russell was lying, the team benched him for the entirety of his third season and released him shortly thereafter … marking the end of his NFL career.
—Seth VanEss, Sports Editor