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Familiar Busts

Andrew: One of the risks in taking a player in the first round, is all the attention that surrounds your selection. A player taken that high, should be starting within his first couple of seasons and should be performing well in camp. But that doesn't always happen. More often than not, the player doesn't respond in camp and his GM quietly hopes that no one has noticed so he can get the most value in return in a trade.

The pressure is intense with lottery selections, meaning the top ten picks in each draft. Even more so for the top three picks. It's a golden opportunity to be selecting in the top three and you have to come away with a player who is ready to start and is willing to prove it in training camp.

Countless times it has happened. A player looks so good in the College Draft. A GM gets all excited about the possibilities with his potential. Then he brings him to camp. It only takes one camp to realize this player is not all that he appeared to be. Sure he can probably still play in the league, but he's not going to be a super star. And if you are like me, you want him off your roster ASAP. To me, guys like that are bad luck! I could care less if he would be a quality guy off the bench. I don't want my other players seeing that I allow high draft choices to coast their way through their careers! Poison, I tell ya! They're poison!

Sounds like I've had a bit too much experience in selecting players like this? SHHH - I don't even wanna talk about it! Oh the shame of it all.

No one is exempt from drafting a bust. It happens to everyone. We all dread it every time we make a first round selection. Check out the draft busts these fine gentlemen selected!

Bill: see #4. :)

Todd: The 2012 draft, DL Neville Carter - taken in the 1st round. He was incredibly promising, on paper! Didn't have much of a rookie season, playing in the shadow of rookie phenom DL Clarke Wilson, and was traded just a few short seasons later to Dallas as part of a 2 player deal for a 1st and 2nd in 2018.

Fred: Tough to say since I didn't really have any high picks in my career so far. Let say my only draft bust was showing up 1 hour late in 2006, which resulted in skipping a first pick.

Ben: Ricardo Collins was the best DL I had ever seen come out of a draft, so I shipped a boatload of picks and a couple players to Aaron Streepy in GB for the pick, but he busted MAJORLY, he was a real disappointment from what I had hoped he'd develop into, and he's currently playing for Flip Sides and the Cowboys.

Tom: My first real "bust", I guess you could say, would be DE Russell Hobbs, who also came out in 2002. I refuse to personally call him a bust, because I kept faith in him, and he improved, albeit slowly, through the years. He was drafted too high, but we needed a defensive end badly, and the only one of real value (Hassan Tuten) had gone with the third overall. I got trashed for the pick, but I kept stating that he'd prove his draft status. He ended up starting for me in 2006 (our first championship) and then I took a season off for my honeymoon, leaving the Dolphins in my assistant GM's hands. When I came back near the end of the 2007 season, Hobbs was on the bench, and he retired after the 2007 season, after only 6 seasons in the league. This is why I don't have an assistant GM anymore.

Hey, want another bust? Elijah Zollinger. Back in 2004, people were still trying to figure out draft plans. Back in the old USAFL, quarterbacks weren't players actually "drafted". You'd get them in the third round, that type of thing. We went out and picked Zollinger late in the first in 2004 with our second pick of that round (we had taken linebacker Mike Jackson first overall before that). He was the best quarterback available since we had restarted the league, and I know one GM over in Oakland silently thought out death threats because we stole his pick (he later went on to pick Terry Oland, who won a Rookie of the Year award and have a pretty good career with the Raiders). I think the pick itself changed the perspective people in the league placed on quarterbacks (with the playbook changed that came later affecting it even greater), but as for the player himself, he sat in the 3rd string slot while Eric Flores sat in the 4th string slot, on the inactive list. So, what happens that offseason? Zollinger retires, Flores sticks around. No problem though, as I finally gave up trying to bury Flores and gave him the chance to start...two seasons later, he carried us to a Super Bowl victory. Elijah, if you're out there right now, kiss my ass.

Joe: Eric Oates, I'd say.. +3 in SP when I trained him. EWWW.

Garritt: wow. no one really sticks out in my mind but i know there are lots out there :(

Jean: My 1st (and only BUST .. hehe) was probably OL Tab Fryar selected in early 2nd round. Honestly after the draft, I realized he was a useless player. i finally traded him to Denver :)

Flip: OK well after Lee Tardits I took QB Charles Lynch in the second round….need I say more! Also in 2008 I selected DL Ron Gentry with the #15 pick, he had a real nice camp and then retired at the end of the season.

Mike: Well to be honest I can't think of any real BUST's. The bad thing about all those playoff appearances is that I always pick in the middle of the draft. I don't think I have ever had a pick in the top four. Always did wonder. Now if you want to talk about Free agent Busts! check out my LB Smith.........his ST sucked when I got him and never has gone up. ed note. He is now on the "I" list.

For even more historical data, visit the USAFL History Page to view tons of stats from earlier versions of the USAFL. This page can always be accessed through the USAFL FAQ.