7
May
2010
Is JaMarcus Russell the #1 Draft Bust of All Time?
Has Jamarcus Russell failed badly enough to make him the biggest flop in league history? (Original photoshop/hack job by ArtieFufkin)
When news broke that the Raiders released former #1 draft pick JaMarcus Russell yesterday, the sports blogosphere collectively wondered weather Russell had claimed the throne as the biggest draft bust in the history of the NFL. And while it would be easy to place the Rotund Raider at the top of the list, we’re not going to hand him the crown just yet.
Until now, the general consensus has been that Ryan Leaf – the #2 overall pick of the San Diego Chargers in 1998 - is the biggest draft bust of all-time. For our money, it’s Tony Mandarich, who the Packers selected with the #2 overall pick in 1989 (you can read our previous pieces on Mandarich here and here). But most people seem to think it’s Leaf, and since both he and Russell are QB’s, it makes things much easier for the purpose of this conversation.
The guys at Shutdown Corner put together a nice statistical comparison between the two quarterbacks, and while both players were godawful, the numbers paint Russell in a more favorable light:
So based on these figures alone, Leaf has the edge (for being worse, that is … 14 TDs vs 36 INTs?!? Ouch.) And when you take into account Leaf’s locker-room outbursts and the fact that he was universally hated by his teammates, Russell doesn’t really even come close to eclipsing the train wreck that was Ryan Leaf.
For us, the question of how big a draft bust someone is always comes down to one main thing: expectations. Sports Illustrated took a look back at the pre-draft hype on JaMarcus Russell from 2007, which includes some incredible gems from some of the draft’s top prognosticators, including Mel Kiper:
JaMarcus Russell is going to immediately energize that fanbase, that football team — on the practice field, in that locker room. Three years from now you could be looking at a guy that’s certainly one of the elite top five quarterbacks in this league. …You’re talking about a 2-3 year period once he’s under center. Look out because the skill level that he has is certainly John Elway-like.”
Way to go Mel. Good call. But he wasn’t alone … at the time, Todd McShay, Terry Bradshaw, and a slew of other “experts” were all drooling over Russell’s physical skill set.
Let's face it, we all saw this one coming
But while everyone seemed to agree that Russell’s physical skills warranted a roll of the dice, there were plenty of questions about his mental state of mind from the beginning. In the linked SI article, Peter King and Gil Brandt were among those who expressed serious doubts as to whether or not JaMarcus had the desire & work ethic to be a top-level NFL quarterback.
When Russell – who was the best QB in a weak draft class for the position – went to the Raiders, it seemed like a bust made in heaven. After all, Al Davis has made a living out of spending draft picks on physical specimens with questionable heads. And with Lane Kiffin taking over at the helm (if temporarily) for Art Shell, the Oakland organization was entering a dysfunctional heyday in 2007. We all knew how this story was going to play out, didn’t we?
23
May
2009
Tony Mandarich Is Doing Alright These Days
The Ryan Leaf story from yesterday got me thinking about our pre-draft piece on Tony Mandarich, and wondering what he’s up to these days.
Well wonder no more, thanks to this fascinating report from ESPN. (I guess this came out around around the draft this year, but I must have missed it. Probably because in general I loathe ESPN’s draft coverage … but they knocked this one out of the park.)
In this candid interview, Mandarich tells the story of downing a pharmacy worth of steroids while at Michigan State, and being tested for drugs less than 5 times in his career there. But things went south when Mandarich got to Green Bay as a rookie and attempted to go off the juice, cold turkey. The problem was, instead of his usual steroid cocktail, Mandarich began taking, and then shooting, painkillers – including during practice. And he says he never spent a sober day in his 4 years with the Packers.
Watch and see for yourselves:
In this piece, Mandarich comes of as a sober, contrite, intelligent & self-aware person, who fully understands the enormity of his failure in the NFL. He takes full ownership of his drug addiction, and lets the blame for his fall rest squarely on his own shoulders.
Tony Mandarich could be doing worse for himself
People (myself included) forget that Mandarich came back to play with the Colts, where he had a 3-year career as a serviceable NFL lineman.
There’s a particularly poignant section of the video (around the 6:45 mark), where Mandarich says as part of his recovery, he had to try to “make amends for the disaster you created in the NFL. You had wronged the fans, you had wronged the Packers, you embarrased the sport … how do you right that wrong?”
It seems as though Mandarich has at least taken the appropriate steps to make amends for his past sins. And maybe – just maybe – he doesn’t deserve to be lumped with some of the other draft busts that he is always associated with ( Leaf, Marinovich, Phillips, etc).
And don’t forget the happy ending: today, Mandarich runs his own Glamour/Boudoir photo company. So he’s taking pictures of hot women for a living. And this is his wife. Not bad. Not bad at all.
5
Apr
2009
Biggest Busts of the NFL Draft – #1 Tony Mandarich
As we continue our countdown to NFL Draft Weekend, I thought it fitting to take a look at one of my favorite aspects of any draft: the BUST.
First off, it’s important to define the term “bust”. For our purposes here, we’re talking about high-profile college players who went high in the draft and were projected as can’t-miss prospects, but never made it in the pros for one reason or another. Whether due to injury, inability to make the jump to the next level, or just plain laziness once they got the big payday, there is an ever-growing list of high draft choices who will forever be known as huge piles of wasted talent. I tend to give guys who suffered an injury right away a pass, and focus more on the flops who simply wasted their golden opportunity.
The fine folks over at NFLMocks.com are currently conducting a Worst Man Drafted Tournament, in honor of March Madness, and it really brings to mind just how many “sure things” have failed miserably once they got to the NFL. The names – Ryan Leaf, Steve Emtman, Brian Bosworth & Todd Marinovich, to name a few of the most notable – are forever etched in NFL draft lore.
For me, the definitive NFL Draft bust will forever be Tony Mandarich. A lot of people will say Ryan Leaf, but with Leaf there was argument over whether he was even the best QB in his draft class (vs Peyton Manning). A lot of people questioned Leaf’s maturity and intelligence from the beginning. When Mandarich came out, the opinion was unanimous. He was the “best OL prospect ever”. I’ll never forget that 1989 Sports Illustrated with Mandarich – the massive OT from Michigan State – on the cover, declaring him to be the next Anthony Munez, and the safest pick of the draft that year. The article told tales of Mandarich’s ridiculous seven-meal-a-day diet, and his workouts consisting of insane, Guns ‘n’ Roses-fueled lifting sessions. The term “pancake” was literally invented for him at MSU. As an undersized sophomore linebacker in high school, I pinned the SI cover to my wall, attempted to mimic his workout routine, and used Mandarich as inspiration to gain size, muscle and meanness on the field.
Mandarich was selected 2nd overall by Green Bay, and was cut after 3 years of a 4 year contract. The Packers cited a failure to live up to expectations. Because of his drastic weight loss upon entering the NFL, there was speculation that his success at the collegiate level was fueled by the use of steroids (gasp! shocking!). Compounding the negative stigma is the fact that Barry Sanders was selected right after Mandarich, at No. 3 by the Lions.
