In just two short days, all 32 teams will attempt to add talent to their roster -- talent that will last for the long term -- when the first round of the NFL draft gets underway. We'll likely hear on Thursday the names of quarterbacks like Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, receivers like Amari Cooper and Kevin White, and defensive standouts like Leonard Williams and Dante Fowler Jr. All will have high expectations attached to their names, and it will take the NFL world at least a few years before we can determine if those first-round picks were actually the correct decisions.
Such is life in the NFL. The draft can be grand and transform your team from a joke into a Super Bowl contender, or it can be a disaster and lead to massive organizational disarray, usually leading to massive organizational job loss.
While every team will be confident it's made the right decision next Thursday, here are 10 cases in the past 10 years when a first-round draft pick didn't lead to the success the picking organization surely would have predicted. In other words, these are 10 of the draft-day disasters that teams will try their best to avoid.
10. QB Sam Bradford, QB, Rams, 2010: The last of the No. 1 overall picks to get a humongous guaranteed contract, it's hard to think of Bradford ($50 million guaranteed) as anything but a bust. He couldn't stay healthy in St. Louis, and when he was, he simply wasn't as good as most observers expected. He's not in the same realm as busts like JaMarcus Russell (see below) and Ryan Leaf, but there's a reason the Rams traded Bradford this past offseason to the Eagles. The good news for Bradford: former No. 1 overall pick Alex Smith helped turned around his career when he went from San Francisco to Kansas City. Maybe Bradford can, too.
9. CB Morris Claiborne, Cowboys, 2012: Dallas has had solid drafts for the past several years, basically building up one of the best offensive lines in the entire league. But thus far, it appears as if the Cowboys, who traded up a second-round pick to move up eight spots in the first round, missed on Claiborne. He started 15 games his rookie season, but since then, he's been bothered by injuries and has played in only 14 contests in the past two years. And when he plays, he hasn't been very good, as evidenced by Pro Football Focus measuring him as the 88th-best cornerback (out of 110) in 2013.
8. LB Rolando McClain, Raiders, 2010: Huge credit goes to McClain, who had one of the best comeback stories in 2014 when he became a productive defensive player for the Cowboys. But prior to that, McClain was a disaster on the field (with Oakland) and off the field (multiple arrests and questions about his work ethic and attitude). Though he finally showed off his talent in 2014, he was flagged last month for violating the league's substance abuse policy. Once again, there are questions about McClain.
7. OT Eric Fisher, Chiefs, 2013: The top 10 picks from the 2013 draft are mostly horrendous so far, but none has been more disappointing than Fisher. According to the Pro Football Focus metrics, Fisher ranked as the seventh-worst tackle in the league (out of 75 tackles studied) as a rookie and 12th-worst in 2014. The Chiefs haven't given up on him -- and he did move from right tackle in his rookie season to left tackle last year -- but the signs so far aren't great.
6. QB Johnny Manziel and CB Justin Gilbert, Browns, 2014: It's still too early to determine for sure if these picks will work. But for Cleveland, which had two first-round draft picks, seemingly whiffed on both of them. Gilbert seemed in over his head during his rookie season, and he took criticism for his work ethic and attitude, and Manziel has simply been an outright disaster ever since the Browns called his name. As for 2015, Gilbert is "taking steps to grow," while Manziel just got out of rehab.
5. RB Trent Richardson, Browns, 2012: As evidenced by this and by the Manziel and Gilbert picks, it hasn't been a great couple of seasons for the Cleveland brain trust (and to be fair, the front office turned over from Richardson to Manziel and Gilbert). Richardson, selected No. 3 overall, has been a major disappointment in his NFL career, but give Cleveland credit for trading Richardson to the Colts for a first-round pick. Which the Browns then parlayed into selecting, ahem, Manziel.
4. QB Jake Locker, Titans, and QB Blaine Gabbert, Jaguars, 2011: We're cheating a little by putting two quarterbacks here, but they were selected only two spots apart (Locker was No. 8 overall and Gabbert was No. 10). Both were expected to be franchise players for their respective teams, and though Locker had some good moments, he couldn't stay healthy long enough to make a significant impact. He's since retired. Gabbert was awful in Jacksonville, and now, he's a backup in San Francisco where, if he ever gets another chance to start, he likely will be awful again. Making matters worse for both teams who could've used help on defense: the No. 11 overall pick in 2011 was J.J. Watt.
3. LB Aaron Curry, Seahawks, 2009: He was supposed to be one of those "can't miss" projects, but Curry certainly missed, cashing in his guaranteed $34 million contract and accumulating just 203 tackles and 5.5 sacks in five seasons of action. After he got released in the preseason by the Raiders, the second team to give him a chance, he retired before the 2013 season.
2. DE Vernon Gholston, Jets, 2008: When New York selected Gholston, the defender might have been doomed from the start, because former coach Rex Ryan apparently didn't like him as a player. Ryan was spot on, because in three seasons in New York, Gholston made just five starts. And he accumulated exactly zero sacks. Let's repeat that: the man who recorded 22.5 combined sacks during his junior and senior seasons at Ohio State collected exactly zero in three seasons with the Jets.
1. QB JaMarcus Russell, Raiders, 2007: He's on par with Ryan Leaf as one of the biggest draft busts ever -- Russell, though, has an edge because he was selected No. 1 overall while Leaf went No. 2 in 1998 --and forever more, Russell will be remembered as an overweight quarterback who didn't work hard enough at his craft to succeed in the NFL. The Raiders have been mostly terrible at drafting in the early rounds, and this was no exception.
