Regardless of how irrational it may seem, or the empirical evidence that proves there are more “busts” than “hits” from players drafted at that position, nothing brings on more hope for NFL teams – and their fans – than when the team selects a quarterback with a first round pick in the NFL Draft.
But as we all know, those players are – statistically speaking – less likely to change the trajectory of their franchise (like a John Elway or Dan Marino) than they are to completely make a mess for several years and force the team to make a way-too-early pick in the NFL Draft just a few years later.
Want proof? Check out this list of 32 quarterbacks selected in the first round of the NFL Draft that turned out to be so disastrous that they both tanked their own careers, and ravaged the immediate futures of their franchise in the process.
32. Todd Blackledge (1983, Pick #7)
Todd Blackledge is the product of teams being too enamored with the idea of a player being “a winner,” and overlooking his shortcomings in favor of that totally subjective judgment. In 1982, Blackledge led the Penn State Nittany Lions to a national championship, culminating a four-year career in which he went 31-5 as a starter.
The Kansas City Chiefs thought so highly of Blackledge that they made him the seventh pick of the 1983 NFL Draft, ahead of future Hall of Fame quarterbacks like Jim Kelly and Dan Marino. Even Blackledge himself admitted to being surprised that the Chiefs selected him over some of the other quarterbacks in the draft, and expected to hear his name called somewhere closer to the second round of the draft.
He spent most of his career being pulled in and out of games by the Chiefs coaching staff, never throwing for more than 1,707 yards in a season. After seven forgettable seasons in the NFL, Blackledge retired.
31. Tony Eason (1983, Pick #15)
Another team that infamously passed on Dan Marino in the famed 1983 NFL Draft, the New England Patriots instead took quarterback Tony Eason from the University of Illinois. They took Eason despite the fact that head coach Raymond Berry knew that Eason was too frail to hold up against the brutality of playing quarterback in the NFL (especially in the 1980’s).
He’s the only quarterback in NFL history to start in a Super Bowl (when the Patriots lost to the Chicago Bears in 1986) and not complete a pass in the game. Eason might’ve led the Patriots to a Super Bowl in his third year, but as we all know, Marino rewrote the record books in his second year, leading the Miami Dolphins to a Super Bowl the year before.
30. Kelly Stouffer (1987, Pick #6)
The quarterback whose last name sounds like stove top stuffing basically played as well as stovetop stuffing for the team that coveted him.
The then-St. Louis Cardinals drafted quarterback Kelly Stouffer with the 6th overall pick in the 1987 NFL Draft, but Stouffer and the Cardinals could not come to a contract agreement, leading the former to sit out his entire rookie season.
That didn’t stop the Seattle Seahawks from trading for Stouffer, sending three picks for his services. In four seasons in Seattle, Stouffer threw only seven touchdowns, juxtaposed with 19 interceptions.
29. Jeff George (1990, Pick #1)
Jeff George is that guy who’s preternaturally talented at his job, but never became a success because of his own sense of entitlement and total inability to get along with anyone in the workplace. George backed out of two different college scholarships because he coaches wouldn’t cater their offense to him.
But because of his rare arm talent, he was still the #1 overall pick of the 1990 NFL Draft, taken by the Indianapolis Colts. But the Colts had enough of antics after just four seasons (he had a winning record in only one of them), trading him to the Atlanta Falcons, where he famously had the sideline blow up with then-coach June Jones.
28. Andre Ware (1990, Pick #7)
Andre Ware is one of the poster children for why NFL teams would shy away from quarterbacks who were products of “run and shoot” offenses in college. At the University of Houston, Ware broke many passing records set by his predecessor (fellow NFL Draft bust David Klingler), setting 26 NCAA passing records of his own.
Despite being warned by his own internal scouting directors, Detroit Lions head coach Wayne Fontes made Ware the #7 overall pick in the 1990 NFL Draft. Fontes would then spend the next four years doing everything he can to effectively stunt Ware’s development as a passer, shuffling him to and from the bench in a rotation alongside incumbents Rodney Peete and Erik Kramer.
By 1995, the Lions made Ware eligible for the NFL’s Expansion Draft, when he was taken by the Jacksonville Jaguars. But before their inaugural season in the NFL, the Jaguars cut Ware, and he would finish out his career playing in the CFL.
27. Dan McGwire (1991, Pick #16)
Among the many differences between professional football players and basketball players is that unlike in the latter situation, taller isn’t always better in the NFL. Case in point: Dan McGwire, the 6’8″ quarterback from San Diego State University who tantalized NFL teams with his height and size.
The Seattle Seahawks used the 16th overall pick on McGwire in the 1991 NFL Draft, and whether it was because they realized he was outright terrible (evidenced by putting him at 3rd string during his rookie season), or whether they thought quarterback Rick Mirer was too good to pass up with the 2nd overall pick in the 1993 NFL Draft (a disaster in its own right), McGwire ended up playing in a grand total of 13 games in his NFL career.
26. Todd Marinovich (1991, Pick #24)
The kid was effectively nurtured since his earliest days to become a professional quarterback, Todd Marinovich is yet another example of a famous celebrity or athlete who had their childhood taken away from them, only to suffer catastrophic downfalls as an adult (which could directly be attributed to their upbringing).
But whether he was predestined to it because of his upbringing, or whether he just fell victim to the circumstances overall, Marinovich’s career was completely derailed by major substance abuse issues. After being drafted in 1991 by the then-Los Angeles Raiders, he was out of the NFL by 1994.
25. David Klingler (1992, Pick #6)
If you want to make a pie chart of the reasons why David Klingler ended up being one of the biggest busts in NFL history, you could cut the pie right down the middle, attributing half of it to being a product of the run-and-shoot offense at the University of Houston (and struggling to acclimate to the NFL game as a result), and the other half as simply being drafted by one of the most hapless NFL organizations throughout the 1990’s (the Cincinnati Bengals).
Regardless, after winning a grand total of four games in his first 24 starts over three seasons, the Bengals — who had used the 6th overall pick in the 1992 NFL Draft on Klingler — found themselves with the worst record in the NFL after the 1994 season, and the first pick in the ensuing NFL Draft.
24. Rick Mirer (1993, Pick #2)
If you’re looking for a cautionary tale of why you should never anoint someone as “the next [legendary player],” look no further than the case of Rick Mirer. A prolific quarterback at Notre Dame University, finishing among the school’s historical leaders in several passing categories, Mirer was anointed by some zealous college football fans and Fighting Irish alumni as “the next Joe Montana.”
That’s why there was a riveting debate leading up to the 1993 NFL Draft, when teams evaluated Mirer versus the other quarterback stud in the draft, Drew Bledsoe. Bledsoe would end up going #1 overall, with the Seattle Seahawks then taking Mirer at #2.
After a somewhat promising rookie season, Mirer would go on to throw 39 interceptions over his next three years as the Seahawks’ starting quarterback, culminating in Seattle trading him to Chicago in 1997. He subsequently demanded a release, and spent the rest of his career as a journeyman backup.
23. Ryan Leaf (1998, Pick #2)
Ryan Leaf was such a big, strong, and gifted athlete that coming out of high school, he considered playing football at the University of Miami… as a linebacker. But after former Washington State head coach Mike Price convinced Leaf that the two of them could win a Rose Bowl if Leaf came to Pullman, Leaf would go on to set a number of school records, and lead them to their first-ever Pac-10 championship (and that Rose Bowl win Price foresaw).
But the second overall pick of the 1998 NFL Draft turned out to be perhaps the biggest bust in history, between a combination of horrible attitude (like his famous berating of a San Diego reporter) and even worse work ethic (like when he skipped a San Diego Chargers practice go play golf).
22. Cade McNown (1998, Pick #12)
One of the five quarterbacks taken in the 1998 NFL Draft, Cade McNown was a spark plug quarterback from UCLA who didn’t have the desired measurables which teams sought, but was dubbed with the ever vague “winner” description. In the great folly of quarterbacks that the Chicago Bears have had in franchise history, McNown is right up there with the worst.
After taking McNown with the 12th pick in said 1998 Draft, he showed flashes of promise in his rookie year, but played poorly and dealt with repeated injuries in his second season, finishing with a 1-6 record as a starter. The Bears decided to cut their losses with McNown after just two seasons, trading him away prior to the start of the 2001 season.
21. Akili Smith (1999, Pick #3)
After a brilliant senior season at the University of Oregon, in which he threw for 3,763 yards and 30 touchdowns, Akili Smith became the third overall pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, which famously saw quarterbacks taken with the first three picks; Smith was taken behind Tim Couch and Donovan McNabb that year.
Smith showed flashes of his dual-threat ability during his rookie season with the Cincinnati Bengals, but Cincinnati offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski openly groused about how Smith never really took his responsibilities as a professional quarterback as seriously as he should have.
During his four-year stint with the Bengals, Smith started only 17 games, throwing five touchdown passes and 13 interceptions. After he was released in 2002, he never played a snap in the NFL again.
20. David Carr (2002, Pick #2)
Throughout the 2001 college football season, there was no question that defensive end Julius Peppers from the University of North Carolina was the best player in the nation, and should be the #1 pick in the NFL Draft. But as the draft process approached, quarterback David Carr began shooting up the draft boards, and ended up being taken by the expansion Houston Texans in the 2002 NFL Draft.
Carr would spend his career in Houston getting absolutely battered behind a terrible offensive line, while Peppers thrived for the Carolina Panthers, who took him one pick after Carr (#2 overall), finishing with double-digit sacks six times during his eight years in Carolina.
19. Joey Harrington (2002, Pick #3)
Even though Joey Harrington wasn’t drafted to an expansion team in the 2002 NFL Draft, he suffered a lot of the same fate as David Carr, who was drafted two picks before him: suffering from a lack of talent, especially along the offensive line, as the quarterback of the Detroit Lions. The Lions tried to find Harrington a wide receiver in the 2003 NFL Draft in Charles Rogers, but the latter’s career was destroyed because of injuries and substance abuse issues.
After one (disastrous) season with Marty Mornhinweg as head coach, Harrington struggled Steve Mariucci’s “win-now” approach, which culminated in the coach bringing in Jeff Garcia and Jon Kitna to replace Harrington. In the end, the Lions suffered nine straight losing seasons since they drafted Harrington.
18. Patrick Ramsey (2002, Pick #32)
Among the many follies by the Washington Redskins during the first decade of the 2000’s was thinking that head coach Steve Spurrier had any interest in or patience with a quarterback who didn’t play under him at the University of Florida. The ultimately doomed career of Patrick Ramsey, whom the Redskins selected in the 2002 NFL Draft, can be almost entirely attributed to Spurrier’s blatant negligence as a head coach.
Teams blitzed — and pounded — Ramsey early in his career, causing the young quarterback to become “gun shy’ from the pounding he suffered in two years playing for Spurrier. While future Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs showed little more patience than Spurrier had in developing Ramsey into an NFL quarterback, the truth was that Gibbs had already inherited damage goods.
17. Kyle Boller (2003, Pick #19)
Before Josh Allen did it prior to the 2018 NFL Draft, Kyle Boller was the original version of the quarterback prospect who wowed NFL scouts with his arm strength, when kneeled on one knee at the 50 yard line of a football field, and threw the football through the goalposts.
It’s great that Boller had that type of arm strength, but it didn’t mean anything if he couldn’t throw it with a modicum of accuracy. Even in his 5th year in Baltimore, Boller was still terrible, throwing for nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions in eight starts, and finishing with a record of 2-6 in those games. The Ravens cut their losses with Boller that ensuing offseason, and his career was effectively over after that.
16. Rex Grossman (2003, Pick #22)
The old joke about Rex Grossman was his undying love of the deep ball, with virtually no regard for where his long throws would end up (or whether the offense or defense was the recipient of said passes).
The Chicago Bears, who drafted Grossman late in the first round of the 2003 NFL Draft, might’ve advanced to the Super Bowl in 2006 with Grossman as their starting quarterback, but any Bears fan will readily tell you that they advanced to the Super Bowl in spite of Grossman being their quarterback.
Grossman went 2-6 over the next two seasons as the starting quarterback for the Bears, leading them to eventually trade two first round picks to acquire Jay Cutler (after getting rid of Grossman, of course).
15. JP Losman (2004, Pick #22)
JP Losman already had the reputation of being a self-centered jerk when he was drafted out of Tulane University. But he later developed the nickname of “JP Loser-man” (with emphasis on the “loser” part) after winning 10 games… in 33 starts between 2005 and 2010.
In his first season as the team’s starting quarterback (in 2005), the Bills were 1-7 under Losman, and two seasons later, the Bills eventually replaced him with then-rookie quarterback Trent Edwards.
Losman didn’t take too well to the benching, and after his contract expired in 2008, Buffalo made virtually no effort to bring him back. After leaving the Bills in 2008, Losman threw a grand total of 11 passes over the remainder of his NFL career.
14. Jason Campbell (2005, Pick #25)
Things started off on the wrong foot for Jason Campbell the day that Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder’s total nincompoop of a personnel executive (Vinny Cerrato) acquired an additional first round pick late in the 2005 NFL Draft, and all but shouted from the rooftops that they intended to draft Jason Campbell with said selection.
The Redskins drafted followed through by drafting Campbell, and despite showing occasional flashes of potential during his first couple of seasons in Washington, then-head coach Joe Gibbs always seemed to prefer the veteran types ahead of him (like Mark Brunell and Todd Collins), and after Gibbs retired, the Redskins made another blunder by hiring Jim Zorn as their head coach to “fix” Campbell. As we all know, Zorn lasted only two hilariously bad years there.
13. Jamarcus Russell (2007, Pick #1)
How can we not include the non-studying, Sizzurp-drinking, belly-expanding quarterback with the golden arm and the aluminum foil work ethic?
If you carved a Mount Rushmore of the biggest busts in NFL Draft history, Jamarcus Russell is unquestionably on the short list of people who’d be carved into it.
In 25 games as the starter for the Oakland Raiders, he won only seven of them, completing less than 49% of his passes in 2009, his third (and final) season in the NFL.
12. Mark Sanchez (2009, Pick #5)
For all the “pro-Mark Sanchez” arguments you can make, like the fact that he took the New York Jets to two AFC Championship games, they can all be countered with Sanchez’s numerous follies and foibles as a quarterback — with none of those more representative than “the butt fumble.”
Considering that Sanchez was able to ride a stout Jets’ defense for his first two years as a starter, you would’ve thought that by his third season in the NFL, when the proverbial lights should go on for a quarterback, Sanchez would’ve improved.
Instead, the Jets had back-to-back seasons with losing records, leading to the team signing Tim Tebow and drafting Geno Smith, making a bad situation at quarterback even worse.
11. Josh Freeman (2009 Pick #17)
Josh Freeman had an electrocardiogram-type NFL career: random spikes in between substantial valleys. In 2010, he looked like he’d be the franchise quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In 2011, he looked like he’d never played the quarterback position anymore. In 2012, he looked much closer to the guy we saw in 2010.
In 2013, you wondered if he was suffering from a case of amnesia, forgetting everything about football he’d ever learned. Freeman’s success led to the facade of the Buccaneers thinking that Raheem Morris would be a viable head coach, and then after firing Morris, replacing him with the hated Greg Schiano.
10. Tim Tebow (2010, Pick #25)
Maybe the most discussed — and even fabled — college football quarterback of this century, Tim Tebow came to the University of Florida as a ballyhooed high school All-American from nearby Ponte Vedra, Florida, and after sitting behind veteran Chris Leak during his freshman year, Tebow became the only player in program history to be named the team MVP three years in a row.
Tebow would lead the Gators to two National Championship titles, while racking up an entire trophy case worth of awards, including the 2007 Heisman Trophy.
But NFL Draft analysts warned that Tebow’s erratic accuracy, poor passing mechanics, and general lack of passing abilities would hinder his success in the NFL. Between all of those (which were proven right), plus the media attention he brought upon each team (because of his strong Christian beliefs), Tebow bounced around four NFL teams before his career ended after just three seasons.
9. Jake Locker (2011, Pick #8)
Nobody denied the fact that Jake Locker was one hell of an athlete coming out of the University of Washington. The question of whether he would be a good quarterback was always on the table, considering he completed less than 54% of his passes in college.
Despite that, the Tennessee Titans selected him with the 8th overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. But Locker’s inaccuracy and injuries followed him to the NFL. In 23 starts, Locker won only nine games, and retired after the 2014 NFL season after saying his heart was no longer in the game.
8. Blaine Gabbert (2011, Pick #10)
The quarterback who really inspired terror in scouts and personnel guys in the league, about selecting guys who played in spread offenses. Gabbert’s stats weren’t terrible, but it was painfully clear that his destiny wasn’t to be even an above-average quarterback in the NFL.
Not only did the Jacksonville Jaguars move on from him just three seasons after drafting him, but they’ll forever be scarred by the fact that they took Gabbert one spot before the Houston Texans selected J.J. Watt in the 2011 NFL Draft.
7. Christian Ponder (2011, Pick #12)
Another “body beautiful” quarterback who was much more an athlete than a quarterback, Christian Ponder won less than 40% of the games he started with the Vikings.
The first round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft spent most of his last two years either being shuttled in and out of the lineup due to injuries, or backing up other players (including Teddy Bridgewater, whom the Vikings drafted to replace him only three years later).
6. Robert Griffin III (2012, Pick #2)
Thanks to a meteoric rise during his senior year at Baylor University, Robert Griffin III not only became a household name among college football fans, but with the help of a very catchy nickname (“RG3”), he became an outright phenomenon who would go on to win the 2011 Heisman Trophy.
In the ensuing NFL Draft, the Washington Redskins traded three first-round picks to move up six spots in order to put themselves in position to draft Griffin. Griffin had a downright magical rookie year, being named to the Pro Bowl after his first year, winning the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year, and putting on several spectacular performances.
But Griffin would let the fame — and his favoritism from owner Daniel Snyder — go to his head, clashing with former Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan (which led to the latter eventually being dismissed). Three years later, the Redskins made Griffin a game day inactive for the entire season, leading to his release just four seasons after he was drafted.
5. Brandon Weeden (2012, Pick #22)
In 2012, NFL scouts and teams were first learning the drawbacks of drafting a quarterback who played in a spread offense in college. But after watching what Brandon Weeden looked like when he got to the NFL, it made front offices downright terrified of taking quarterbacks from those offenses.
There were plenty of analysts who cautioned against taking Weeden with an early draft pick, but true to form, Cleveland threw all wisdom to the wind, selecting him with the 22nd pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.
It was clear from the get-go that Weeden wasn’t ready when, in his first game, he finished with a 5.1 passer rating after throwing four interceptions in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. He was such a hopeless case that the Browns were forced to spend another first round draft pick on a quarterback just two years later.
4. EJ Manuel (2013, Pick #16)
In fairness to Erik Rodriguez “EJ” Manuel Jr., the Buffalo Bills screwed him over from the day he arrived in the NFL, because Manuel really had no business being a first-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. Manuel had all the physical tools you could ask for, but was miles away from being ready to contribute in the NFL.
Nonetheless, the hapless Bills franchise decided to push him into starting as a rookie, and the results were just about what you’d expect: marred with a few highs and a lot of lows. His 4-6 record wasn’t exactly anything to be inspired by, which is why he started 10 games as a rookie, only to see his number of starts decrease each of his four seasons in Buffalo.
3. Blake Bortles (2014, Pick #3)
Blake Bortles is a quarterback version of Frankenstein: all body, no brain. Or put another way, he’s what happens if you take the body of a Spartan warrior, and infuse him with the athletic talent and IQ of the village idiot.
After a rookie season in which he went 3-10 as a starter, the fantasy football aficionados were seduced by Bortles’ 35 touchdowns and 4,428 passing yards in 2015 (though the team went 5-11), failing to realize how much of those stats were generated in “garbage time.”
Even when the Jaguars went 10-6 and advanced to the AFC Championship game in 2017, they lost because the New England Patriots forced the Jaguars to beat them with the arm of Bortles. Mercifully, the Jaguars parted ways with Bottles after the 2018 season, and handed a big money contract to Nick Foles.
2. Johnny Manziel (2014, Pick #22)
Unless you’ve been living under a rock over the last several years, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the meteoric rise and even-more-meteoric fall of quarterback Johnny Manziel. After breaking the single-season record for offensive production in the SEC (4,600 yards), Manziel would become the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy.
Manziel’s troubles began from there, after drawing the ire of the NCAA for allegations of making money from autographs, publicly feuding with any public personality who criticized him, and numerous reports of his wild-partying ways.
That led a lot of NFL teams to avoid drafting him, but Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam decided his franchise would draft Manziel after supposedly being urged by a homeless person to take him. Manziel would last less than two seasons in the NFL, after numerous reports had him partying his off-the-field life away.
1. Paxton Lynch (2016, Pick #26)
Paxton Lynch was another example of NFL scouts falling in love with a big-bodied, big-armed quarterback, overlooking the glaring flaws. It was reported that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones desperately tried to trade up to take Lynch, and after failing to do so, eventually “settled” on taking Dak Prescott later in the draft.
As far as Lynch, he played in a spread offense in college, meaning he would face a steep learning curve in the NFL. Also, there are plenty of whispers in Denver that Lynch simply doesn’t have the work ethic to succeed as an NFL quarterback, which is why the Broncos went out and signed Case Keenum.