Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

For this thread, the main example is the 1990's Packers. In taking Mandarich over Barry Sanders, it helped pave the way for the 90's success under Ron Wolf, Mike Holmgren, Reggie White, and Brett Favre. Some Packer fans came to that conclusion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZoJGc5qZDc

Other famous example were the 1998 San Diego Chargers after drafting Ryan Leaf. Two years later were the worst team in the NFL, but they traded the #1 overall draft pick in 2001 to the Falcons, and the Chargers drafted LaDainian Tomlinson and Drew Brees.

The Steelers with Len Dawson. He didnt make enough noise and they brought in Bobby Layne, who gave the team a taste of winning before retiring ...

JJ Stokes for the 49ers ... this one is tough to call. Had he emerged like he was drafted to do, football fans may have never seen much of Terrell Owens unless he went to another team but with Stokes having injury and production problems, Owens was able to develop with Steve Young with mentoring from Jerry Rice. Did the team benefit though ?
They only won a single divisional playoff with Owens and his antics possibly drove away Jerry Rice to the Raiders, so it really comes down to how many fans he developed along the way that may never had happened if Stokes had played at higher levels...

The Rams and Lawrence Phillips. Had Phillips been a model teammate and producer on the field, Vermeil might have never hired Mike Martz to build a great offense spotlighted by the acquisitions of Marshall Faulk and Trent Green. The question is though, would Tony Banks had been a better QB with Phillips running the ball to his capabilities ?

The Cardinals and Matt Leinart. Its tough for lefty QBs in this league anyway but it paved the way for Kurt Warner's reemergence and the team going to its first SB ever ...

Bucs and Titans with Winston and Mariota. Opened the doors for Brady and Tannehill. Tannehill has had a tough season this year with injured teammates but could still get the #1 seed this year with a victory over the Dolphins and the Bengals beating the Chiefs ... a large chore

Brian wolf wrote:The Rams and Lawrence Phillips. Had Phillips been a model teammate and producer on the field, Vermeil might have never hired Mike Martz to build a great offense spotlighted by the acquisitions of Marshall Faulk and Trent Green. The question is though, would Tony Banks had been a better QB with Phillips running the ball to his capabilities ?

Maybe, although I wonder if Tony Banks was pushed into the fire too soon. He may have been better off with a team like Denver where he could have stayed behind Elway for a few years and learned the position.

George Shaw and the Colts. More a victim of circumstance than a bust, Shaw got injured in 1956 replaced by John Unitas, who never left the lineup.

The Packers are not a good example at all. All of their stars came from other teams, and didn't fill spots that would have belonged to that draft pick. Can you imagine how unbelievable they'd have been with all of those guys and Barry or Deion Sanders?!

I'd offer the recent and striking example of Josh Rosen in Arizona, who tanked them hard enough to get Kingsbury and Kyler the following year. Remains to be seen if the Trubisky disaster set the Bears up with Fields... or they've just gotten two consecutive busts.