Thanks to a season-ending injury…Arian Foster has turned into a fail of a first-round pick.
First-round picks…they don’t need to be great, but you’ll certainly feel it if they aren’t any good. We’ve all had our share of bad, season-wrecking first round picks. Here is a list of every team’s worst first-round pick.
Now how did I come up with this list. Well, I ignored keepers and kept the focus on just draft picks. Also, if a team had more than one obvious bad pick, the tiebreaker would need to be the one that actually led to a shit season.
ROBIO – Marion Barber (DAL), 2009
I’ve actually been pretty successful with my first-round picks. Since 2001, I’ve drafted 11 running backs and wide receivers and ten of them gained over 1,000 yards rushing or receiving. If you go back to 1999, six of my first-round picks ended the season with All-Robio awards. Not bad. Even my one “bust” wasn’t that terrible. In 2009, Marion Barber III was expected to be the lead back in Dallas, so there was plenty of talk of 1,300 yards rushing and a shit load of touchdowns. I was coming off a second title game defeat to Don, but no matter what, I knew how to pick ’em in the first round.
Well, Barber only got 214 carries on the year, producing 932 yards rushing, although he did manage 1,153 total yards (the least amount of total yards any of my first-round picks produced). His seven scores didn’t really deliver much. In the end, his failure to become an elite back helped kill my season, marking 2009 as my worst season ever (2-11 record).
GRIFF – Cedric Benson (CIN), 2007
Mr. Coomer was a master drafter early in his career. In 2001, he landed the league’s top QB (Jeff Garcia), followed by Terrell Owens in 2002 (3rd best WR) and right when keepers kicked in, he took Shaun Alexander and rode the Seahawks back for four years. Of course Alexander’s number dipped in 2006, so Griff had to make his first decision in round one in years in 2007. That decision turned out to be a bad one.
After failing to even sniff 1,000 yards in Cincinnati, the Bengals shipped Cedric Benson off to the Chicago Bears. The new home was expected to breathe new life into the former first-round pick from Texas. Griff was coming off a disappointing 2006 where he went from being the “preseason favorite to repeat as champ,” to winning just 7 games and getting knocked out of the playoffs in round one.
With the fifth pick in the draft, Griff decided to go young and unproven and took Benson with his first pick. The decision was costly, as Benson failed to gain any traction in the Windy City. Griff would start the season losing his first seven games and Benson failed to break 70 yards rushing in six of those. He eventually ended up on Griff’s bench behind Ryan Grant. By week 11, Benson would end up on the IR, his season was done. He racked up just 674 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
MOLLY – Shonn Greene (NYJ), 2010
For the longest time there was always one guarantee is Robioland Football…Molly would draft a running back in round one. After taking Peyton Manning with her first ever pick in 2002, Mrs. Coomer rolled off eight straight years of first-round backs. Often times, these picks were successful; Deuce McAllister in 2003 finished 21st, The Edge and Clinton Portis finished 9th and 7th among all backs in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, she kept Clinton Portis and got burned. He couldn’t stay healthy and Molly ended up winning just five games, missing the playoffs.
The following year, Molly was picking third and needed to rock this pick if she wanted back into the post-season. She decided to pass on “has been’s” looking for one last year of glory and decided to bring in an unproven second year player. Shonn Greene backed up Thomas Jones the year before. In that Jets offense, Jones delivered 1,400 yards, despite being like 74 years old. Well, the Jets let him walk, so it was expected that Greene would step into that role quite easily. Sure the Jets brought in Tomlinson, but it was clear he had lost his luster and would be just a backup.
Well, the grumblings started early and Molly wisely decided to not start Greene on opening day. Molly would get the week one win over Eric, but Greene was a bust. Against the Ravens, Greene got just 18 yards on five carries, fumbling once. He would be benched for L.T. right away. Greene would never get his starting job back, rushing for 80 yards or more just once and worse yet, he would never leave the bench on Molly’s 2-11 team.
DON – Fred Taylor (JAC), 2001
Don’s career as a first-round picker has sort of a ‘Tale of Two Cities’ feel to it. In his first five seasons he couldn’t pick him a winner if you spotted him all twelve picks. His best pick was a washed up Marshall Faulk in 2003, who managed to finish the season as the 18th best back. However, since 2007, Don’s done a pretty solid job. He’s used the first pick on just running backs since then and all five have finished in the top-five. Of course three of those years (2008-2010) belong to Maurice Jones-Drew.
Now back in 2006, Don kept Dominick Davis who went out with a ACL tear even before the season start. However, since he was a keeper, he’s not eligible for this list. Besides, Don won the title that year. So let’s go back to 2001, Don’s first year in the league. With the fourth pick in the draft, Don decided to go with a homer pick and grab Fred Taylor, passing up elite quarterbacks like Manning, Warner and Culpepper. This was a balls move, because even though Taylor was coming off a 1,400-yard rushing season, he had yet to finish any of his first three seasons because of injuries. Well, Taylor wasted little time proving those health concerns were legit. He failed to make it through week two, finishing with 30 carries and 116 yards. Don would end up with five wins on the year and miss the playoffs.
ERIC – Shaun Alexander (SEA), 2007
This one was tough. Eric’s had enough failed first-round picks to last a full lifetime. Eddie George was his first ever pick back in 2001 and he failed to finish in the top-25 among backs. Of course who could forget about LaMont Jordan in 2006. He failed to rush for 500 yards despite never having an injury issue. However, can’t really kill Eric for that one. Jordan was coming off a 1,600 (total) yards season. No one could have predicted the disaster that was. There also was Brian Westbrook in 2009. He played just eight games and finished 54th among all backs. Yet, Eric did manage to replace him, so it wasn’t that tragic of a mistake.
For my money, I’m going to go with Shaun Alexander in 2007. Heading into that season, Eric had yet to crash the post-season party. It was getting pretty damn depressing. He needed to rock out the second overall pick. After David selected Steven Jackson first overall, Eric decided to go with the veteran Shaun Alexander. Now the Seahawks back had one of the most dominate five-year runs in league history from 2001-2005, yet the previous year, Alexander seemed to hit a wall. He failed to hit 1,000 yards rushing, but a lot of it had to do with the fact he missed six games. Eric figured he could get one last year out of Alexander. That didn’t happen.
Alexander was a bust, failing to reach 800 yards, getting benched before going out late in the year. Now why does Alexander get the nod over other awful picks? Because this one was costly. This was Eric’s best team (until 2012). He won eight games and made it to the playoffs. However, the one hole he was never able to fill was a RB spot. When he rolled into the post-season, he was three-wide and he had no shot against the 5-seed (and eventual champ) Matt.
ROB M – Marvin Harrison (IND), 2007
Things have not always gone Rob’s way in Robioland. However, the exception has always been his first-round pick. He’s always done well picking them. Them finishing the season…well, that’s another story. Early on though it was running backs, good ones in fact. Curtis Martin in 2002 (18th), Priest Holmes the next three years (#2, #16, #29…the latter two he ended the season on IR) and then Steven Jackson (#2). However, in 2007, Masterson decided to switch things up and grab a wide receiver in round one. At that position, Peyton Manning’s favorite target was one of the best, producing eight straight 1,000 yard seasons and eight straight double-digit touchdowns. He was fantasy gold…until Rob took him.
Harrison struggled out of the gate, falling behind Reggie Wayne in the Colts’ peeking order. He had just 247 yards in five games. However, it wouldn’t have been a true Masterson team if he didn’t go out for the year and that’s what Harrison did in week five. It was the third time Rob’s first-round pick failed to finish the season because of injury.
RICH B – Larry Fitzgerald (ARI), 2012
When you add in both draft picks and keepers, no one has had more #1 ranked players in round one than Burrier. Of course it was Ladainian Tomlinson delivering all three of those number ones. Overall, Rich has been stacked with his first pick. Prior to 2012, he had Tomlinson five times and Drew Brees twice (2010-2011) and his worst pick in the first-round pick was Brandon Jacobs, who finished just 19th among all backs.
Heading into 2012, Burrier was coming off a title game defeat and had the 11th pick in the draft. Not satisfied with that draft position, he agreed to a trade with Robio and moved up to fourth where he selected Larry Fitzgerald. That decision…yeah, that didn’t pay off. The Cardinals struggled to produce a quarterback capable of throwing a ball and Fitzgerald, coming off five straight 1,000 yard season, came up just two yards shy of 800 on the season, finishing 48th among all receivers.
RICH C – Terrell Owens, PHI (2005)
Based solely on numbers, Terrell Owens has not been Calderon’s worst pick. In 2007, he drafted Rudi Johnson. However, the Bengals back struggled to stay healthy and gained just 497 yards, finishing 50th among all backs that year. Larry Johnson (27th best back) failed to impress in 2008 and we can’t forget about Michael Vick (14th best QB) in 2011. However, I’m going with Owens as Rich’s worst pick.
Heading into 2005, Rich was coming off two solid seasons, including back-to-back trips to the semis. He grabbed Terrell Owens with the 10th pick in the draft and to start the season, the Eagles receiver didn’t disappoint. Through seven weeks, he was the league’s top receiver and had led Rich to a 4-3 record. However, in real life, Owens was a cancer in the locker room and was suddenly suspended for the season. Just like that, the top fantasy receiver was done and Rich’s season collapsed. He would ride a four-game losing streak and win just two more games, missing the playoffs for the first time in his career.
BOB – Willie Parker, PIT (2008)
Between 2005-2008, Bob made a handful of odd and unexpected picks, starting with Kevin Jones (34th best back) in 2005, followed by rookie Reggie Bush with the first pick in 2006. He finished 16th among all backs, then Bob kept him the following season, where he fell to 26th. Yet, outside of a rough 2005, these bad picks never really hurt Bob, as he rolled off 8 win seasons and trips to the semis.
In 2008, Bob picked 10th and shocked the world when he selected Pittsburgh’s Willie Parker. Now Parker had had a solid three years, where he totaled over 4,000 yards rushing. Yet, the Steelers never really showed a lot of love for Parker (taking away goal line carries in 2007, despite scoring 13 times the year before). Heading into the 2008 season, there was already Mewelde Moore breathing down Parker’s neck and the team also drafted Rashard Mendenhall. At best, Parker was a risky pick excepted to fall to the 3-4 round.
Bob said, fuck that. He took Willie Parker in round one and for two games, he looked like a genius. Parker produced 138 yards and three touchdowns in week one and then followed that up with another 105 yards in week two. Bob gloated. We all cursed. However, it was a fluke. Parker struggled to gain yards and then missed five games due to injury. When he came back, he was sharing the backfield and Bob was forced to keep his first-round pick on his bench. Now Bob still had a successful season, winning nine games. However, he never really was able to fill that running back hole, starting a combination of Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward. He scored just 1,136 points in the quarters and was knocked out of the playoffs by me.
MATT – Ryan Grant, GB (2010)
Heading into 2010, Matt was coming off a second championship in three years and was looking to create a dynasty with a third in four years. However, this year he was going to have to do it without all-world keepers Adrian Peterson and Wes Welker.
Ryan Grant was a Packers running back that came out of nowhere two years earlier and had produced back-to-back 1,200 yard rushing seasons. Good, but not elite. The hope was he was ready to make that jump to 1,400 or 1,500 yards. Instead, Grant got bit…by the injury bug and he got bit hard. He played in just one game, producing just 74 fantasy points. Matt ended up doing a fine job working the wire and pulling out a couple solid trades and managed to win 9 games, before being upset in round one by Colby.
JEFF – Ryan Mathews, SD (2009)
I decided to only focus on Jeff’s first-round picks in his solo career, since I have no idea what influence Colby had on his picks. After sharing a roster with Colby for five years, the two were split up in 2009 and Jeff ended up having a very successful first pick, as he selected Randy Moss, the league’s top receiver. The following year though, he failed to follow up the Moss pick.
Jeff took a huge gamble and selected Chargers’ rookie running back Ryan Mathews. In week one, he did get the start, but couldn’t hold onto the ball and lost his starting job. Jeff was forced to start Mark Goodson (not good) and his season quickly crumbled. However, at 4-6 Jeff was still in the playoff hunt and Mathews earned his starting job back. Things were looking good, until Mathews got hurt and was out for the year. Jeff didn’t win another game that year.
COLBY – Arian Foster, HOU (2013)
Heading into the season there were three sure-fire picks, Arian Foster, Calvin Johnson and Jamaal Charles. Colby had the third pick and would take whichever fell to him. After missing the post-season for the second time in four years, this pick was all he thought about leading up to the draft. The fact was, he had good keepers and one good pick would put him over the top.
Well, Jeff ended up taking Charles, Don snagged Johnson, which left Foster to Colby. Would he pass on him? There were huge question marks surrounding Foster heading into 2013. He would miss the entire preseason with a back injury, but this was Foster, a man who had delivered three straight All-Robio awards. Colby decided to ignore the warning signs and took the Texans back. The league awarded him the preseason championship.
At first, Foster started off slowly, as he failed to hit 140 in two of his first three games. However, as he appeared to get healthy, his numbers went up. He handed Colby two 300+ games in weeks four and six. He was looking like an elite back again.
However, after just four carries in week 7, Foster went out with an injury. After the bye-week was over the following week, he missed his next game. As long as the word “surgery” wasn’t used, there were no worries…oh wait, season-ending back surgery announced. Season done. Meanwhile, Jamaal Charles is the top rated running back and Calvin Johnson is the top rated wide receiver.
Time will tell if this will hurt Colby, as he’s in a good spot at 7-3, with a playoff spot virtually locked up.
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