NFL Draft

6 NFL Players Who’s Careers Could Have Been So Different Had A Better Team Drafted Them

6 NFL Players Who’s Careers Could Have Been So Different Had A Better Team Drafted Them

With the 2019 Draft being on the horizon, thoughts automatically cast back to those past. Although being picked to play in the NFL is the dream of every player who suits up in college, the glory of winning is just as important as the financial rewards. For players, the draft is a lottery with no option as to who chooses you and given the most mediocre teams get the early picks that rookie contract can be rough. Although we could probably list a load the following come to mind.

Barry Sanders (RB, Detroit Lions) – Picked no 3 in the first round in 1989 he had the misfortune to join a franchise which didn’t know how to get the best out of him. Although largely thanks to his efforts they made the playoffs 5 times in his 10 seasons with them, they never got a sniff at the Super Bowl and he will go down as one of the finest talents never to get to the big one. He holds the Lions all-time rushing record with 15,690 well clear of his nearest pursuer Billy Sims with 5,106. What could he have achieved if he had played for the Cowboys or 49ers in that time period?

Calvin Johnson (WR, Detroit Lions) – See a pattern developing here? Megatron, as he was affectionately known, was a freakish blend of size & speed being 6ft 5″ but still managed 4.35 seconds in the 40yd yd dash. He played for 9 seasons before realising he was better off retired than playing in a no hope team. In his career, he racked up 11,619 yards and 83 TDs and currently holds the single-season record for receiving yardage, 1964 yards in 2012; in which the Lions only managed 4 wins. Still, at least it was an improvement on 2008 when he racked up 1331 yards and 12 TDs playing in a team which became the first to go 0-16 in NFL history. To put that into perspective the whole team only managed 18 passing TDs that season! 

Walter Payton (RB Chicago Bears) – Not looking good for the NFC North, the Bears drafted him out of FCS Jackson State in 1975, but despite his herculean efforts (he currently holds the top eight Bears single-season rushing records) it took to the tail end of his career before he won a Super Bowl – and the defence got most of the credit for that.

David Carr (QB Houston Texans) – David Carr was the no 1 pick in the 2002 draft and given that the Texans were an expansion team that year nobody expected much from them. However, despite being sacked an NFL record 76 times he managed to throw for 2592 yards despite running for his life virtually every down. Things got no better and in his five seasons with them, in which he mostly played behind the offensive line equivalent of a set of swing doors he was sacked a total of 249 times! No QB could take punishment like that and he only started 4 more games in his career. One can only imagine what he might have achieved had he not spent so much of his early career picking himself up off the turf.

Joe Thomas (Offensive T, Cleveland) – Drafted no 3 overall in 2007 Joe “Iron Man” Thomas would go on to play 167 consecutive games for the Browns and set an NFL record of 10,363 consecutive snaps. He was a Pro Bowler 10 seasons running and only a career-ending injury sustained on October 22, 2017 could end his streak. Sadly the Browns never made the postseason in any of these seasons and only managed one winning one back in 2007.

Archie Manning (QB, Saints) – Archie Mannings main claim to fame may be being the father of Multi Super Bowl winning sons Peyton & Eli, however its easy to forget he was picked no 2 in the 1971 draft, and despite playing for a team which epitomised mediocrity he put up decent numbers especially in his later years. In 1980 he put up the third most passing yards by any QB despite playing in a team which lost its first 14 games and only managed a solitary victory. Again had he been in a decent team who knows he may have even eclipsed his future Hall of Fame sons.

Header Jeff Bukowski/Shutterstock

 

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Skip to toolbar