Apparently some believe that a draft failure not only applies to players that GB picked in past drafts, but also the failure to pick a player / players that went on to NFL success . Example: Barry Sanders .
Yes, lots of players get selected by other teams following GB's Draft Picks. Yes, hindsight is 20-20 and regrets are only natural. I personally wanted GB to pick Barnardrick McKinney , but he is now a starting LB in Houston.
[cheers]
Originally Posted by: Smokey
I believe you could break it up into separate categories if you really wanted to and they don't all have to mean the same thing. Please read my explanations before saying they are all the same thing.
Biggest Player Bust- Mandarich based on the hype. The one player who was supposed to be all that and more and tuned out to be none of it and even less.
Worst draft mistake. You might also call this the stupidest draft pick.- IMO Clark, he told them he wouldn't play for them and they took him anyway. Drafting Mandarich was only a mistake in hindsight as 9 out of 10 GMs probably would have drafted him. I can't really count not picking Sanders as a mistake as the player they took (Mandarich) was probably the player to take at the time.
Biggest draft failure- That may encompass all factors and the Mandarich over Sanders pick fits in here. It takes the biggest bust and the fact they missed out on a superstar puts them together into one big failed draft pick. Also the fact that they turned Clark into a 1st round pick a couple of years later mitigates that.
After re thinking my original statement in this thread I would have to say that drafting Mandarich instead of Sanders (or any number of stars that were picked after him) would be my biggest draft failure which was what the OP asked but as I said it take into consideration not ony the player chosen but those missed out on as well. I stand by Clark as the single biggest draft mistake. I know its semantics but I can see a difference. If you don't want to nitpick that's OK too.