The 2023 NFL Draft is just hours away and for most fans this is the night that will give them hope for a bright future with a young star that can help them win a title.
But NFL history is littered with some of the worst picks and busts that sports have ever seen. Nearly all are cautionary tales about buying into hype or taking a risk on players with character concerns.
Here are the five worst draft picks in NFL history:
5. QB Christian Hackenberg – New York Jets, No. 51 overall, 2016
There are many quarterbacks taken higher than Hackenberg who rank among the biggest draft busts in NFL history. But most of those quarterbacks were at least good enough to simply step foot onto an NFL field and take a single snap.
Not so with Hackenberg. In two seasons with the Jets and a third as a journeyman, he never so much as saw the field and was only active for a single game.
When he was with the Jets, amid crisis after crisis at the quarterback position, Hackenberg simply wasn’t good enough to get a single snap for them. His luck wasn’t any better with the Oakland Raiders in 2018 or the several other teams that signed him to their practice squads that year.
He may not be the biggest draft bust from a value perspective, but Hackenberg is easily one of the worst picks in NFL Draft history.
4. QB Johnny Manziel – Cleveland Browns, No. 22 overall, 2014
The red flags with Johnny Manziel were abundant enough during his historic career at Texas A&M, but not so bad as to keep the Browns from drafting the polarizing player in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft.
Unfortunately for Cleveland, his play on the field was about as bad as his behavior off of it for his two short years with the team. He went 2-6 as a starter with seven touchdowns, seven interceptions, seven fumbles and a lot of headaches.
A domestic violence dispute in 2016 marked the end of his NFL career and he’s spent the last five years trying to keep his football dream alive however he can.
Manziel ranks among the biggest cautionary tales of quarterbacks with even the most seemingly benign pre-draft red flags.
3. OT Tony Mandarich – Green Bay Packers, No. 2 overall, 1989
In 1989, Tony Mandarich was so hyped as a star offensive tackle out of Michigan State that Jimmy Johnson and his Dallas Cowboys staff had serious talks about drafting him No. 1 overall over future Hall of Fame QB Troy Aikman.
The Packers wound up drafting Mandarich No. 2 overall – ahead of future Hall of Famers Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas and Deion Sanders – and quickly regretted it when it became abundantly clear that Mandarich was not what he was hyped up to be.
Steroids, drug use and poor play resulted in his release after just three seasons and a lengthy battle with substance abuse ensued.
Thankfully, Mandarich has managed to turn his life around and returned to the NFL in 1996 as a solid if unremarkable offensive lineman for the Indianapolis Colts for three seasons. He now enjoys a comfortable, sober life as a professional photographer.
2. QB JaMarcus Russell – Oakland Raiders, No. 1 overall, 2007
It’s hard to known where to begin with the litany of failures that marred JaMarcus Russell as one of the worst No. 1 overall picks of all-time.
The former BCS National Championship-winning quarterback at LSU might have had the biggest rocket for an arm in NFL history aside from Brett Favre. But he had no accuracy, was surrounded by incompetency at every level of the team and lacked leadership at the pro level.
Perhaps the most memorable aspect of Russell’s career is how shockingly difficult it was for him to simply keep his weight in line. By his third year in the league, he had visibly ballooned in size with outlets reporting his weight somewhere between 270 and 300 pounds.
Soon after his release in 2010, he was arrested for possession of codeine syrup. He has stayed out of the public eye for the most of the past decade other than the occasional appearance at LSU events and a piece in the Players’ Tribune.
1. QB Ryan Leaf – San Diego Chargers, No. 2 overall, 1998
There may not be a more legendary failure of a draft selection than Ryan Leaf – and if you don’t believe it you can just ask the man himself.
In 1998 the Indianapolis Colts were legitimately torn between drafting Leaf or Peyton Manning No. 1 overall. They wound up taking Manning while the Chargers traded up to draft Leaf. Unfortunately, there were red flags pretty much from the get-go.
Leaf dealt with an obscene number of turnovers on the field and alcoholism off the field. He frequently clashed with everyone from media members to his own teammates to the Chargers’ front office.
In four seasons he went 4-17 as a starter with 14 touchdowns and 36 interceptions but the worst was yet to come after his career was long over.
Leaf now works as a football analyst, embracing his status as one of the worst draft picks in NFL history and more often than not taking it on the chin.
**
Will any members of the 2023 NFL Draft be added to this list in future years?