Biggest Draft Busts

by TerraByte on May 7, 2008 1:21 PM EDT

Being a single-minded Giants fan, when I think of draft busts I think mostly of the color Brown. Twice, in fact. There was a Bunch of others, I'm sure. Then there was a DE and a WR we must have been blind to pick.

What I don't often think about is how much better the Giants have fared compared to other teams. USA Today has, though, and with the exception of our new backup QB David Carr, there are no Giants on the list.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/gallery/football/s080423_draftbusts/flash.htm?gid=489&aid=2418

There have been players who underperformed because of injury, because they couldn't make the transition from college to the pros, and because the GM totally misjudged their abilities. Any thoughts on who the biggest busts were for the Giants (who cares about anybody else)?

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Gotta be WillieJoe and Dayne. Do you know how much you have to suck to fail as a first round tackle. I mean your job is basically taking up space. Dayne’s problem was the same you see from a lot of skill players transitioning from one level to the next when they were, as I like to say “Men among Boys” at the previous level. Dayne continuously never looked for the hole, and tried to drive the pile like he was able to do against smaller Big-10 defenders. That and I assumed he had a huge conditioning problem, he would start off strong and be useless by week 5.

by queler on May 8, 2008 5:11 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Interesting that you mentioned

Joseph. One of the knocks against him in the draft was his low test score. I seem to recall that they said it had more to do with English not being his first language than with his IQ. But now I’m thinking about Manningham who also had a low test score. Will he be more like Joseph or Dan Marino, who also had a low score.

I’m kinda looking forward to the call, “Manning to Manningham for a TD.”

by TerraByte on May 8, 2008 8:58 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Coaching is also a part of it

Sometimes a player clicks with his college coaching staff, or the staff just knows how to put the player into a position to win. Maybe the surrounding team for the player was the right complement – for example, a great defensive line can make cornerbacks look very good.

If the player doesn’t get the same level of support in the pros, either from the coaches or from the rest of his team, the player could become a bust

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by NYERinSF on May 8, 2008 8:13 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Terrabyte

If you go back in the archive you’ll see a previous discussion of this initiated by jr, I think. I voted for Rocky Thompson, but others came up with better names. Joe Don Looney comes to mind, but the Giants dumped him in training camp (he played for 5-7 years, though and drove coaches crazy in the process.) Dayne was a bust but he’s still playing. Joseph was a bigger bust, but he lasted a few years. Believe me (and sorry to say) we’ve done worse than those two.

by george cronin on May 10, 2008 6:15 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

couple of other names

Derek Brown is a big one, and George Adams comes to mind

We are only considering first round picks, right?

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by NYERinSF on May 10, 2008 11:12 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Was

Adams the big running back who had some degenerative hip problem?

by TerraByte on May 11, 2008 7:02 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

I think so.

Brown’s a good choice. Adams I don’t even remember, which is telling in more ways than one. Was he a first-rounder?

by george cronin on May 11, 2008 7:54 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Yes

I found a list of the giants first round picks http://www.kffl.com/article.php/88571/115

Adams was a fullback – He hardly played for the Giants, then went to pats for a while, but didn’t do much there either

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by NYERinSF on May 11, 2008 7:28 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Thanks efs.

Amazing how many first round RB picks the Giants used to make. Teams seem to value them less these days. I read somwhere that the average career of an NFL RB is 4 years. You have to hand it to little guys like Sanders and Payton (well, short, at least) for lasting so long, yet alone bangers like Taylor and John Henry Johnson (or Eric Dickerson, who was a big target and ran straight up.) The list of great RBs whose careers have been cut short by injury is long.

by george cronin on May 11, 2008 9:28 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

We can't forget....

Big time Giant Busts….going back a little here but how can we forget….

Dave Brown (1992)
Cedric Jones- at (1996
Thomas Lewis (1994)
Jarrod Bunch (1991)

There drafts in the years since 2002, with the exception of William Joseph has been pretty solid, top to bottom.

by Cochran86 on May 11, 2008 12:20 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

My favorite Dave Brown story

is that when the Giants picked him in the supplemental draft, they gave up their first round pick in the following draft. So with their first pick, in the second round, they got Michael Strahan. Talk about the fickle finger of fate.

by TerraByte on May 11, 2008 7:13 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

i've made this point before

One of the reasons I felt great about Reese was the first round picks in Ernie’s era were very based on upside, and recently (other then Shockey, and possibly Eli) have not been great. The lower rounds, however, have been nothing but great value, which I attributed to Ernie having more input on the 1st rounder and leaving a lot of detail to the rest of the staff, which would primarily have been Reese. So far most of the picks in the Reese ere certainly seem to back this up.

Obviously it’s tough judge the drafting of Eli because of what we gave up, but as a fan, I’m convinced it was a success. Not because of the Championship. Just because we don’t have to root for Phillip Rivers. Man is that guys a douchebag or what. How could you possibly feel good in that jersey?

by queler on May 11, 2008 2:45 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

I think youre on to something, q.

We know Eli was Ernie’s boy. I thought we gave away too much to get him until the last four games of last year. I now feel mildly positive. If Eli keeps playing the way he ended last year’s season, I’ll be wildly enthusiastic.
I beleive in recent years Reese had more say than anyone about picks after round one. E.g., he had to fight like hell to get Osi, vociferously arguing that he was a steal.

by george cronin on May 11, 2008 5:14 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Wow, I didn't know that.

Having looked at the busts other teams have had, I didn’t think the Giants had done bad at all under Young and Accosi. Knowing that Reese correctly read Osi’s abilities makes me even more optimistic for the future.

by TerraByte on May 11, 2008 7:08 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs