intro by james
Cleveland Browns — ALLLLLLL of them
The Browns draft history is pathetic, almost all of it. There are only a few first-rounders since “The Return” in 1999 that got second contracts, including Joe Thomas, Joe Haden and Myles Garrett. Cleveland fans have had the NFL draft as their Super Bowl for years and, year after year, have been failed.
To give an actual answer, two stand out: Trading down one spot with their bitter rival Baltimore Ravens, so the Ravens could draft Hall of Famer Haloti Ngata while the Browns took Kamerion Wimbley.
Also, Johnny Manziel.
— Jared Mueller
Carolina Panthers — Everette Brown (2009)
This is one of those picks that haunts Panthers fans not just because it was a bad decision, but all the dominoes that went into it. To set the scene: Carolina is middling in the late 2000s (as they’ve been for much of their existence), and the franchise is on the verge of the most brutal blow it’s ever faced. Franchise legend Julius Peppers, the first legitimate superstar the organization produced, wants out at the end of the season to play in a bigger market.
Carolina is desperate entering the 2009 NFL Draft. They need a pass rusher to learn under Peppers for a year and become a new star, hopefully reducing the loss of Pep. It’s the second round, and the Panthers trade their 2010 first round pick to the 49ers for the 43rd pick in 2009, and a fourth rounder. They then pick Florida State DE Everette Brown to be the guy.
It was bad from the very start. Brown was undersized, projected more as a 3-4 EDGE than a 4-3 pass rusher, and had only two speed rush moves. The team hoped they’d get Dwight Freeney, but ended up getting six sacks in two seasons and was waived entering year three.
The worst part? In 2010 that pick would have been 17th overall. The Niners took Mike Iupati, a multi-Pro Bowl guard and franchise staple. The others guys the Panthers could have taken with that pick, but didn’t have because of the Brown trade?
Maurkice Pouncey, Jermaine Gresham, Demaryius Thomas, Dez Bryant, Devin McCourty — all Pro Bowlers. I guess the silver lining is that if they kept the pick there’s a good chance they would have taken Tim Tebow.
— James Dator
New England Patriots — 2019
The 2019 NFL Draft still haunts me.
The 2018-2019 NFL season ended on a high note for New England Patriots fans. A team that looked in serious trouble in December — punctuated by a disastrous loss to the Miami Dolphins on the final play of the game — righted the ship just in time for a run to Super Bowl LIII and a 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams.
Super Bowl LIII marked New England’s third consecutive Super Bowl appearance, and coupled with their win over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, they had won two-of-three big games. While Tom Brady was showing some signs of decline, the hope entering draft season was a deep and fascinating wide receiver class would provide the future Hall of Fame quarterback with a dynamic target for another few seasons of playoff football.
The thing about dynasties is you never quite know when they end, until you have the benefit of hindsight. On that night in April the New England Patriots were on the clock with the final pick of the first round, and indeed drafted a wide receiver.
N’Keal Harry, out of Arizona State.
To be fair to Harry, he was an intriguing prospect coming out of college. Harry racked up consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons his final two years in college, and turned in a solid performance at the Scouting Combine, although his 40-yard dash did turn some heads.
He was also the consensus WR4 that season according to the media, behind DK Metcalf, Hollywood Brown, and A.J. Brown.
Yet there he was, coming off the board as WR2 behind Hollywood Brown, as the first WR drafted in the first round by Bill Belichick during his tenure with the Patriots.
And ahead of A.J. Brown, Deebo Samuel, and Mecole Hardman, among others.
Harry’s New England tenure was rocky at best. He and Brady never seemed to get on the same page, and the rookie was slowly iced out of New England’s game plans on offense. The team got out to a 10-1 start but stumbled down the stretch, losing three of their final five games, including a brutal loss in the season finale — again to the Dolphins — that cost New England a first-round bye.
Instead they hosted the Tennessee Titans on Wild Card weekend and fell by a final score of 20-13. After the loss Brady walked off the stage at Gillette Stadium, and the next time he would return, it would be as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
— Mark Schofield
San Francisco 49ers — Jim Druckenmiller over Jake Plummer (1997)
Younger 49ers fans will pick Trey Lance or maybe the Solomon Thomas/Reuben Foster double-dip. And I don’t blame anybody for suggesting Alex Smith over Aaron Rodgers. But I’m going a little further back. Let’s go with the 49ers decision to pick Jim Druckenmiller over Jake Plummer in 1997.
That year, Dwight Clark was the GM and Steve Mariucci was a rookie head coach after his QB whisperer years with the Packers. One of the biggest regrets was that the 49ers went with Druckenmiller even though former head coach Bill Walsh, then serving in a consultant role, pushed for them to take Plummer.
A little over two seasons later, Steve Young’s career finished due to concussions and Jeff Garcia was the new starting quarterback. Garcia turned out to be a solid enough QB, but was never quite good enough to get the 49ers where they needed to go. Druckenmiller effectively washed out of the NFL after two seasons, whereas Plummer had a solid enough rookie year in Arizona before breaking out in his late 20s in Arizona and then Denver.
If the 49ers had picked Plummer, my gut tells me getting a chance to work with Mariucci and Walsh would have helped him boost his career earlier. We already know he wasn’t going to be a washout like Druckenmiller, but more importantly, his upside was considerably higher than Garcia. We’ll never know what could have been, but it still feels like a missed opportunity.
— David Fucillo
Buffalo Bills — Torrell Troup over Rob Gronkowski
Heading into the 2010 NFL Draft, the Bills had a big need at tight end. Arizona State’s Rob Gronkowski fell into the second round with injury concerns, but he was literally from Western New York and somewhat of a hometown hero.
The Bills instead picked Torell Troup, a defensive tackle from the University of Central Florida, one spot ahead of Gronkowski. Troup started just two games for Buffalo — both in his rookie season — before a debilitating back injury cost him the rest of his career. He ended up with 21 NFL games, 31 tackles, one QB hit, and two TFLs.
Gronk on the other hand became a Hall of Famer with the New England Patriots and later the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Facing him twice a season while he was with Tom Brady continued to rub salt into the wounds of Bills fans who wanted to add the explosive tight end back in 2010. Gronkowski played in 16 games against Buffalo catching 74 passes for 1132 yards, 57 first downs, and 12 touchdowns at a clip of 9.4 yards per target. They held him without a catch just once. Gronk’s record in those games? 14-2.
There are others I could have listed in recent memory — T.J. Graham over Russell Wilson, Marcell Dareus over Julio Jones and J.J. Watt, trading up for Sammy Watkins to bypass Khalil Mack and Mike Evans — but none resonated as much as getting throttled by Gronk twice a year.
It also needs to be addressed that the Bills traded away the pick that eventually became Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City. That’s not a regret for me. The Bills’ OC at the time under first-year coach Sean McDermott was Rick Dennison. That man would have ruined Mahomes and Buffalo wouldn’t have picked Josh Allen the next year. The Bills also got All-Pro CB Tre’Davious White out of the move, so it was a win for both sides though obviously a roadblock for the current iteration of the Bills.
— Matt Warren
Chicago Bears — Mitchell Trubisky (2017)
“All of them” was already taken, so I guess we can get specific. There really are no shortage of options – Curtis Enis in 1998, Marc Colombo in 2002, David Terrell in 2001, Cedric Benson in 2005, Chris Williams in 2008, Gabe Carimi in 2011. But only Shea McClellin (drafted two spots ahead of Chandler Jones) in 2012 comes close to this pick.
Mitchell Trubisky was a bonkers pick in just about every sense of the word. There was no defense for it at the time, and it looked worse and worse at every turn. The Bears traded up one – *1* – spot to draft Trubisky No. 2 overall. The one-year starter from North Carolina was the first quarterback off the draft board. The second was Patrick Mahomes. It’s not hindsight to say the Bears should have drafted Mahomes, he was among the very viable options at the time. Passing on possibly the greatest quarterback of all time is already worthy of being included in this. But what puts it over the top is everything to come.
Trubisky was inserted as a starter a few weeks into his rookie season with marginal results. He had a “breakout” sophomore season on the backs of new head coach Matt Nagy and a dominant defense. He was fine in his third year, but clearly wasn’t getting better. By his fourth season he was getting benched in favor of Nick Foles. Then he was out of town.
It’s not Trubisky’s fault that the Bears were once again looking for a quarterback, but it’s exactly what happened. They used their first first-round draft pick in three years to trade up and draft Justin Fields, who was gone after three seasons. Now on their third top-ten draft pick at quarterback in fewer than 10 years, the Bears are still digging out of 2017.
And Patrick Mahomes has won three Super Bowls.
— Kyle Thele
Jacksonville Jaguars: The 2020 NFL Draft
There are many, many draft blunders by the Jacksonville Jaguars to really dig into. Drafting Taven Bryan over Lamar Jackson, Bryan Anger over Russell Wilson, the Derrick Harvey draft, and many more that sent the franchise into the doldrums of the NFL. However, the 2020 NFL Draft was uniquely terrible for the Jaguars because almost none of their picks in that class turned out to be anything more than average starters. While other teams around the league boosted their roster with cornerstones like CeeDee Lamb, Justin Jefferson and Tristan Wirfs, the Jaguars had two picks in the first round and spent them on CB CJ Henderson and EDGE K’Lavon Chaisson. Both of those guys are no longer on the team. It gets worse as you dig deeper into the draft. Laviska Shenault? No longer on the roster. Ben Bartch? See ya. Jake Luton started in one of the worst Jaguar games of recent memory–and is no longer on the team. The only players left from this entire draft class on the Jaguars’ 53-man roster are DT Davon Hamilton and S Daniel Thomas, and even then Thomas is a core special teamer and Hamilton might be getting replaced in this upcoming draft. This draft was supposed to help the Jaguars get off on the right foot in a new era for the sport, and instead features a bunch of guys who are no longer on the roster.
Amidst many bad Jag fumbles, this one stands out a lot.
—JP Acosta
