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John looks at the worst first-round NFL Draft picks of all time. Who are the worst NFL players taken in the first round in all of NFL history? Read the expert draft analysis.
The first round of the NFL Draft, especially the early picks, is where the team's future destinies are primarily forged. The opportunity to get college football's best prospects, many of whom end up evolving into elite players, and pay them on a rookie contract scale is absurdly valuable.
It's the driver of many teams' playoff runs and Super Bowl championships. Some of the NFL's most elite players aren't paid very much money, because they're bound to their rookie contracts for at least the first few years of their tenures. And the teams who select them get huge returns for them.
However, enduring a losing season, acquiring a high draft pick, and using it on a player that ends up being a massive bust has an arguably equally devastating effect on teams who are unfortunate enough to do so. Prospect evaluation isn't and will never be a perfect thing, though, so it happens. So let's break down the ten worst first-round draft selections in all of NFL history.
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10. Cade McNown, Chicago Bears
One of the more forgotten busts in NFL Draft history, McNown was selected with the 12th overall pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, and he proceeded to do virtually nothing. He threw 16 touchdowns and 19 interceptions in his two seasons combined for the Bears.
Cade McNown https://t.co/jksrZsChMe
— TW (@Tylow237) April 7, 2025
Chicago has a long history of bad and middling quarterbacks, but McNown takes the cake.
9. Blaine Gabbert, Jacksonville Jaguars
Sometimes, and rather fittingly, a player who everyone knows is bad is actually somehow worse than everyone thinks. Gabbert was drafted with the 10th pick in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft, and his chart-bustingly terrible play led the team that drafted him to move on from him after just three seasons.
QB efficiency over the last 15 seasons (2010 - 2024)
x = EPA per Dropback
y = Completion % Over Expected
Upper right = good | Bottom left = bad pic.twitter.com/4TwNxgLdYZ— Stat Acccount (@AcccountStat) January 24, 2025
He's had a pretty long career since then, but only as a backup, and certainly not as a franchise savior that Jacksonville drafted him to be.
8. Tim Couch, Cleveland Browns
There are plenty of quarterbacks that the Browns drafted in the first round that we could put on this list, but Couch was perhaps the most reviled by fans. He played five seasons with the team, ending with 64 touchdowns and 67 interceptions. He wasn't totally terrible all the time, but that was part of the problem.
QB Leaders by Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt [Since 1955]
+ min. 650 career throws1. Pat Mahomes (8.01)
2. Aaron Rodgers (7.35)
...
231. Tim Couch (4.40)
237. Justin Fields (4.35)
243. David Carr (4.34)
246. Milt Plum (4.25)
253. Zach Wilson (4.17)
267. Jamarcus Russell (3.93)— Scott Barrett (@ScottBarrettDFB) September 20, 2023
Rather than moving on from him after just a few years, Cleveland stuck with him a little longer and did not get impressive results. He was remarkably inefficient and his play was completely uninspiring.
7. Charles Rogers, Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions chose Rogers with the second pick in the 2003 NFL Draft. He caught 22 passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns in his first five games with the team. Great, right? Well, not really. He broke his clavicle during practice after that five-game stretch, missed the entire 2003 season after that, then broke his clavicle again in 2004 before the season started.
The team let him go home and spend the entire year away from the squad due to his injury. In hindsight, that wasn't the best idea, and he never returned to form. He also violated the NFL's substance abuse policy multiple times and was released by the team after an underwhelming 2005 campaign.
The 2003 #NFLDraft top 10 picks
1) #Bengals Carson Palmer
2) #Lions Charles Rogers
3) #Texans Andre Johnson
4) #Jets D. Robertson
5) #Cowboys T. Newman
6) #Cardinals B. Johnson
7) #Vikings K. Williams
8) #Jaguars Byron Leftwich
9) #Panthers Jordan Gross
10) #Ravens Terrell Suggs pic.twitter.com/FPt2bfMf00— Crazy NFL (@NFL_Crazy_) April 14, 2025
The Lions really could have drafted Andre Johnson.
6. Vernon Gholston, New York Jets
Gholston was selected by the Jets sixth overall in the 2008 NFL Draft. After racking up 14 sacks in his senior season with the Ohio State Buckeyes, he was expected to lead the Jets' pass-rush, pressure the opposing quarterback, bring him down, and thus bolster his team's defense markedly.
If you think Zach Wilson is in the running for worst draft pick in @nyjets history, I envy you for having not lived through the Vernon Gholston era.
Biggest Jets draft busts:
1) Vernon Gholston
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.2) Anyone else you can think of.
— Glenn Naughton (@JNRadio_Glenn) April 22, 2024
He did none of those things. Well maybe he got a few pressures, but he didn't log a single sack, and at such an important position, a bust of this magnitude was pretty harmful to the team's hopes.
5. Ricky Williams, New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints traded literally their entire stockpile of draft picks in the 1999 NFL Draft, as well as two early picks from the 2000 NFL Draft, to trade up to draft a running back. Yes, that's a thing that used to happen, as back then, teams believed that an elite workhorse RB could carry an offense on his shoulders and bring the team to playoff glory.
The Saints traded pick 12, pick 71, pick 107, pick 144, pick 179, and pick 218 in the 1999 draft and pick 2 and pick 64 in the 2000 draft to trade up literally seven spots from No. 12 to No. 5. Williams proceeded to play just three seasons with the Saints, and while his overall numbers were respectable, he never tallied over four yards per carry.
Ricky Williams had himself quite the career in the NFL. 10,009 rushing yards, 2,606 receiving yards, 74 career touchdowns. pic.twitter.com/HL3GjD0kHF
— Football’s Greatest Moments (@FBGreatMoments) March 27, 2025
Ironically, Williams' best seasons weren't with the team that drafted him.
4. Akili Smith, Cincinnati Bengals
Williams would have been higher on the list if RB was as important a position as QB, but it's not. Smith was taken by the Cincinnati Bengals with the third overall pick, ahead of Edgerrin James (Hall of Famer), Ricky Williams, Torry Holt (should be a HoFer), Champ Bailey (Hall of Famer), and quarterback Daunte Culpepper.
Fewest Completions per Start [Since 1991]
+ min. 10 starts1. Akili Smith, 2000 (10.7)
2. Tim Tebow, 2011 (11.1)
3. Anthony Richardson, 2024 (11.9)I've seen a few Anthony Richardson is "Will Levis with Jalen Hurts' legs" comps, but weird I haven't seen a Tim Tebow comp yet
— Scott Barrett (@ScottBarrettDFB) December 16, 2024
Smith holds the record for least completions per start in NFL history. He threw five touchdowns to 13 interceptions, lasted just four seasons in the NFL, and was benched after two.
3. Ryan Leaf, San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers technically didn't have a chance to draft quarterback Peyton Manning with their second-overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft. That privilege went to the Indianapolis Colts, who chose him No. 1 overall. Manning went on to lead his team to a Super Bowl victory and made the Hall of Fame.
Leaf, meanwhile, threw two touchdowns to 15 interceptions in his first season and lasted just three seasons there and four in the league overall. He's infamous for his penchant for fighting or yelling at fans, coaches, and reporters, being out of shape, showing poor effort and preparation, and later on, for his criminal legal troubles.
Ryan Leaf went from draft bust to tragic football story. Amazing to see how he's turned it all around to help others. Well done, @JayGlazer
— Justin Hickey (@JustinHickey87) December 24, 2016
At least he's turned it around and become successful in other pursuits in life.
2. Jamarcus Russell, Oakland Raiders
It's hard to make any list of the NFL's biggest busts or worst 1st round picks without including Russell. A remarkably talented athlete both on the ground and through the air at LSU, Russell was drafted to be the savior that lifted Oakland out of decades of pure misery.
Instead, he famously performed terribly, was often out of shape, had a terrible work ethic, and didn't watch film or do other things he should have to prepare for his games. As as result, he quickly found himself out of professional football.
It's not totally clear what motivated him, though the answer to that question might be nothing since he didn't seem to have much motivation in the first place. He lasted just three seasons in the NFL, throwing 18 touchdowns and 23 interceptions, and the Raiders' misery continued.
#Raiders draft history is pain🏴☠️
02: Picked Napoleon Harris. Next pick? Ed Reed
04: Robert Gallery. Next pick? Larry Fitzgerald
05: Fabian Washington. Next pick? Aaron Rodgers
07: JaMarcus Russell. Next pick? Calvin Johnson
'10: Traded away pick which NE used for Gronk
16:…
— ShifftttyyyQB1🏴☠️ (@raiders1022) April 7, 2025
The pick was made even worse by the fact that Calvin Johnson, a Hall of Fame wide receiver dubbed Megatron for his absurd exploits, was selected just one pick later.
1. Trey Lance, San Francisco 49ers
When taking into account first-round draft picks and how devastating they were to their teams when they didn't work out, you have to consider what was given up for them. And the 49ers gave up three first-round picks to trade up from their No. 12 spot to No. 3 to draft Lance, a player that had started just 19 games in college. That's hardly more than a full NFL regular season.
Lance was awful in the NFL. Not only did he not look like he would ever develop into a good quarterback, he was absolutely atrocious. In his second season, he played in just two games before he was replaced by QB Brock Purdy, who the team coincidentally drafted with the last pick in that year's draft. To quote... someone, some things have to be true because you just can't make them up.
The 49ers have written off Trey Lance essentially because he didn't win his first four starts and he got injured. That's tremendously unprofessional.
— Grant Cohn (@grantcohn) March 28, 2023
It's not tremendously unprofessional to bench a tremendously bad QB. Lance's most infamous exploit was throwing five interceptions in a preseason game with the Dallas Cowboys against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Trey Lance’s 5 Interceptions against the #Chargers. What do you notice?
(h/t @awthentik)
pic.twitter.com/SIaP8ZvBxF https://t.co/UsO8q9YkEa
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) August 25, 2024
Other than being able to run, he can't do much of anything in the NFL except for giving the ball over to another team. The Dallas Cowboys gave the 49ers a free 4th-round pick for Lance, in exchange for virtually nothing in return, after just two years.
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