Draft Day Busts (1 Viewer)

[Bigeasy75]

This topic is prevalent this time of year....saw an article in Sports Illustrated listing top 8 Draft Busts of all time....Saints made the list at #8-1979 #11 overall pick Russell Erxleban PK Texas....made 4 fg in 4 years... Ouch... I knew we took this guy high in the draft a long time ago but didnt realize he was #11 overall!

 

[SaintBrad]

I think they're wrong. Sullivan cost us a higher draft pick then that (or you can say two first rounders) and did less than that.

 

[Saints fan in VA]

Both were huge bust

 

[Dre]

The old Saints could have fielded an all-time bust team. Plenty of busts to go around.

 

[Bigeasy75]

But a kicker at 11? Really?

 

[Saints fan in VA]

And I believe he is in prison now..... Just dumb

 

[superchuck500]

The old Saints could have fielded an all-time bust team. Plenty of busts to go around.

Yep.

Alex Molden and Sean Knight come to mind.

 

[Kenna Kid]

what about Vaughn Dunbar

 

[St.Fury]

I think they're wrong. Sullivan cost us a higher draft pick then that (or you can say two first rounders) and did less than that.

Yeah! Sullivan never made a FG!

...he probably ate one, though.

 

[kooldak]

what about Vaughn Dunbar

I wouldn't put Dunbar in the same class as Erxleben or Sullivan. In his rookie season he actually led the Saints in rushing with over 500 yds. - not good, but not at the failure level of the aforementioned busts. Although he accomplished very little, he did do something.

Now, our very first draft choice, Les Kelley, might be a fair contestant to match up with the likes of Erxleben and Sullivan. The Saints drafted him as a FB (back then a FB ran with the ball much more than they do today, for example Jim Taylor was a FB), but quickly found that he was too slow so they moved him to LB where he failed to adapt as well.

 

[SuperRemo]

Isn't vaughn dunbar still playing for us

 

[boutte]

Yep.

Alex Molden and Sean Knight come to mind.

Rick Middleton was a long time ago but was probably the stupidest pick we ever made. Not only was he a horrible LB but he came out the same year as his team mate Randy Gradishar. Nobody but the Saints thought Middleton was a better prospect than Gradishar who went on the be a perennial All-Pro. Middleton sucked for about three years then was out of the league.

 

[saint_drago]

NFL history is littered with the shattered dreams and unmet hopes of Saints draft picks. I know just going back in my lifetime (born in '81) that most of the guys we picked up in the draft just never worked out. And not just in the first round either.

Just go back and look at our drafts from '96 to '99. Those were rough, starting with Alex Molden and ending with the Ricky Williams fiasco. From '00 to '02 we actually had decent drafts picking up guys like Darren Howard, Terrelle Smith, Deuce, Stallworth, Grant, and Bentley. But then '03 happened.

 

[Saint Kamara]

Yep.

Alex Molden and Sean Knight come to mind.

Sed Ellis not far behind, he cost us draft picks as well, we moved up in the draft to get him

 

[saint_drago]

I used to ask some of the Who Dat old timers why the Saints were so bad for so many years before Mora. Most people would say bad coaching, ownership, GMs, etc. Of course those reasons are true, but the best explanation came from an old timer here on SSF. Sorry to say I forget who it was but they said, "Just go back and look at the drafts". I did and it really explained a lot.

 

[Bigeasy75]

I used to ask some of the Who Dat old timers why the Saints were so bad for so many years before Mora. Most people would say bad coaching, ownership, GMs, etc. Of course those reasons are true, but the best explanation came from an old timer here on SSF. Sorry to say I forget who it was but they said, "Just go back and look at the drafts". I did and it really explained a lot.

You are right-looking back we have had 14 pro bowler's from a total of 49 first round picks through 2011-here's the breakdown by decade:

1960's-0
1970's-4 Ken Burrough (70) A.Manning (71) C.Muncie (76) W. Chandler (78)
1980's-2 C.Heyward (88) W. Martin (89)
1990's-5 R.Turnbull (90) W.Roaf (93) Joe Johnson (94) K.Turley(98) R.Williams (99)
2000's-3 D.McAllister (01) W.Smith (04) J.Brown (05)

Obviously this is just first round picks and not completely indicative of how effective each draft was but we were talking busts so I just went with first rounders as examples here. We had pretty good run there in late 80's and early 90's with 5 out of 7 picks eventually being probowlers....