What a Painful and Miserable Week for Whole NFL – A Review
What a Painful and Miserable Week for Whole NFL – A Review
Supporting a sports team, let’s face it, is often a miserable experience and a week too. The months-long slog to determine which winner will hoist the trophy at year’s conclusion are brutal. Some weeks are good some are miserable.
It’s very annoying. It’s also quite enjoyable. We examine several potential “sliding doors” that might have changed the outcome of the championship. Here we begin with the ones that got away.
Large free agent contracts that don’t pan out and draft picks that don’t pan out aren’t the NFL’s worst blunders. The cost of foregone possibilities.
Every draft flop means a team missed out on a potential franchise player. One NFL team always ended up on the losing end of every major move.
Each of the 32 NFL teams has at least one major “the one that got away” story, whether it be a coach they didn’t hire, a draft pick they didn’t make, or a deal they instantly regret.
Joe Namath Not joining Arizona Cardinals
Joe Namath was the best quarterback the Cardinals ever selected. In 1965, he was selected 12th overall by the NFL.
The New York Jets outbid the Cardinals in a renowned bidding battle to select him as the first overall pick in the AFL draft that year.
The Cardinals have yet to win a Super Bowl, despite widespread speculation that they were actually working undercover for New York’s NFL franchise, the Giants, when they signed him.
Namath joined the Jets and became one of the most well-known athletes ever after leading them to victory in Super Bowl III. If the Cardinals had outbid the Jets, it would have changed the course of NFL history.
Brett Favre Trade and the Atlanta Falcons
Without realising it, the Falcons made arguably the best draft pick in NFL history. Atlanta selected Brett Favre, a quarterback from Southern Miss and future Hall of Famer, in the second round of the 1991 NFL draft.
Favre, meanwhile, had four throws for the Falcons but no touchdowns. The Falcons, tired of Favre’s partying, dealt him to the Packers for a 1992 first-round draft selection (really, two were completed… to the other team for interceptions).
Trent Dilfer is released by the Baltimore Ravens
Ray Lewis claims that the loss of Trent Dilfer prevented the Ravens from winning more Super Bowls, which seems like an exaggeration.
After Dilfer’s 2000 season with the Ravens helped them win the Super Bowl, the team decided to release him and replace him with Elvis Grbac. Because to Grbac’s failure, the Ravens went without a championship for the next decade and a half.
Lewis acknowledged in 2018 that dropping Dilfer was a major blunder for the squad.
In an interview with radio presenter Colin Cowherd, Lewis said, as reported by the Baltimore Sun, “It took us a 12-year stint to get back to another Super Bowl. We went through, what, 17 quarterbacks?”
I can probably count on one hand the number of Super Bowls that are rumoured to be stashed away in my wardrobe. We made that choice, nevertheless.
This year’s NFL Draft was fantastic. The Bills’ performance wasn’t very good. They sent the ninth pick and their first and fourth round picks in 2015 to the Browns in exchange for the fourth overall pick.
Sammy Watkins was a bust for the Bills. The next three picks went to Khalil Mack, Jake Matthews, and Mike Evans, respectively. At No. 9, the Bills could not have picked anyone worse than Watkins.
In that year’s draft, players including Anthony Barr, Eric Ebron, Taylor Lewan, Odell Beckham Jr., Aaron Donald, Kyle Fuller, Ryan Shazier, Zack Martin, and C.J. Mosley were selected to the Pro Bowl. Mosley. For all the money the Bills spent to get to No. 4, it’s hard to believe they passed up on a dozen future Pro Bowlers and Hall of Famers.
Tim Biakabutuka Should Start Over Eddie George for Panthers
The Panthers selected a running back with the eighth overall pick in the 1996 NFL Draft, their second draft ever.
Despite Eddie George’s recent Heisman Trophy win at Ohio State, they went with a different Big Ten player.
Tim Biakabutuka of Michigan was selected, and things did not go well. For the Panthers, Biakabutuka never had a season with more than 718 yards passing. George, taken by the Titans in the 14th round, had a fantastic career, accumulating 1,000 yards in seven of his eight seasons there.
Forcing George Blanda to retire from the Chicago Bears
Starting in his 11th season, the Bears planned to deploy George Blanda, a versatile player and prospective quarterback, only as a kicker. That was it for Blanda’s working career. His legendary career would resume in 1960 with the advent of the AFL, when he signed with Houston.
Blanda started as quarterback and kicked field goals until 1975. He won three consecutive AFL titles and was later inducted into the league’s Hall of Fame. There hasn’t been a Bears quarterback named to the All-Pro first team since 1950.
Cincinnati Bengals Not Promoting Bill Walsh
After the 1975 season, Paul Brown stepped down and the natural choice was to promote offensive coordinator Bill Walsh, who was already a rising star in the industry. Brown, however, picked Bill “Tiger” Johnson, a coach for the offensive line.
Johnson finished with an 18-15 record, but was sacked following a 0-5 start to his third season. Walsh created a dynasty with the 49ers, winning two Super Bowls while being passed over by the Bengals.
In a strict sense, the Browns couldn’t terminate Bill Belichick until the NFL gave its blessing to the team’s relocation to Baltimore. That’s why it doesn’t matter. Len Dawson was cut by the organisation before he went on to become the Super Bowl IV MVP and make seven Pro Bowls with the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Browns acquired Dawson in a trade, and he spent the next two years playing second fiddle to Milt Plum. After only throwing 28 passes for the squad in 1961, he was let go. In the post-Super Bowl period, the Browns have not had a quarterback worthy of the Hall of Fame.
To get Joey Galloway, the Dallas Cowboys gave up the Shaun Alexander pick
The Cowboys sent two first-round picks to the Seahawks in exchange for Joey Galloway because they needed a new offensive star.
Galloway played with the Cowboys for four seasons, never reaching 1,000 yards in a season, while Shaun Alexander, taken by the Seahawks with one of the Cowboys’ picks, went on to become NFL MVP.
Denver Broncos’ Missed Opportunity to Acquire Russell Wilson in First Aound
The Broncos could have saved themselves from making a poor trade for Russell Wilson if they had just drafted him.
Despite signing Peyton Manning, the Broncos still had their eye on the quarterback position early in the 2012 NFL Draft. They passed on Wilson, who had a great year at Wisconsin, and picked Brock Osweiler instead in the second round.
Many, including former general manager John Elway, supposedly thought Wilson was too short, so they drafted 6-foot-7 Osweiler instead.
Although Osweiler played a significant role on a 2015 Broncos team that won a title, he never paned out as an NFL quarterback, whereas third-round pick Wilson went to nine Pro Bowls in 10 seasons with the Seahawks.
Wilson, who had a poor first season with the Broncos and has many question marks about his future with the team, was acquired in a trade last year as the Broncos were still searching for a long-term replacement for Manning.
As a result of Barry Sanders’ and Calvin Johnson’s retirement, the Detroit Lions
There will be some fudging done. Both Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson enjoyed Hall of Fame careers for the Detroit Lions, but the team regrets not acquiring them earlier.
Both superstars, however, left the team before their primes were through due in part to the squad’s chronic lack of success. These two unexpected retirements came to symbolise the Lions’ ineptitude throughout the Super Bowl era.
Whole 1989 Draft for Green Bay Packers
The 1988 Packers had a good chance of earning the first choice in the 1989 draft. Then, for some reason, a 2-12 squad went on a two-game winning streak. They moved up to take second, a pivotal moment in NFL draft history.
The Dallas Cowboys selected quarterback Troy Aikman with the first overall choice. With the second overall pick, the Packers were in excellent position.
Three of the best players of all time—Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas, and Deion Sanders—were up for grabs. Tony Mandarich, drafted by the Packers, is widely considered the biggest bust in NFL Draft history.
Three years later, the Packers lucked out with Brett Favre, but in 1989, when they might have drafted four future Hall of Famers, they chose a mediocre quarterback named Frank Mandarich instead.
Houston Texans Decides to Choose David Carr Instead of Julius Peppers
It made sense for the expansion Texans to select quarterback David Carr with their first-ever NFL Draft pick because Carr was a promising prospect.
Putting Carr on an offensive line as terrible as that one was disastrous for both Houston and Carr’s career. With 159.5 career sacks, second-overall pick Julius Peppers is a lock to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility (2024).
John Elway Traded by the Indianapolis Colts
The Colts are in a jam thanks to John Elway. If the Colts chose him first overall in 1983, he vowed to leave football for baseball.
The Colts selected him in the draft, and former general manager Ernie Accorsi was insistent that they not deal the once-in-a-generation star away.
Robert Irsay, owner of the Colts, negotiated a trade with the Broncos on his own, leaving the franchise without a quarterback until the birth of Peyton Manning in 1998. After that season, Elway retired after winning his second Super Bowl.
The Jaguars might have drafted a new quarterback in 2017 instead of sticking with Blake Bortles. They were sitting pretty with the fourth overall pick after Bortles’ disappointing 2016 campaign.
They drafted running back Leonard Fournette and activated Bortles’ fifth-year option for the 2018 season rather than confess they were wrong about Bortles and instead select Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson.
After the 2018 season, Bortles was released, and Fournette left Jacksonville after three disappointing years. While sexual misconduct charges have obscured Watson’s extraordinary play as a quarterback, Patrick Mahomes is well on his way to become one of the all-time greats.
The Chiefs of Kansas City let Rich Gannon go
The Chiefs were committed to giving Elvis Grbac another shot at quarterback, thus Rich Gannon spent the season on the sidelines. When Grbac was out with an injury, Gannon stepped up, although he eventually left as a free agent following the 1998 season.
To be fair, not even the Chiefs could have predicted that Gannon would sign with the Raiders, make the Pro Bowl four years in a row, become the league’s most valuable player, and lead the team to an American Football Conference championship. And twice a year, the Chiefs witnessed Gannon’s resurgence in the AFC West.
Los Angeles Raiders: Why They Should Have Traded For John Elway
It would have been interesting to see the Al Davis-Pete Rozelle fight play out in the age of social media. It would have been funnier if it had happened.
The argument sparked a major debate about the 1983 draft and one of the game’s all-time best quarterbacks. After negotiating with the Chicago Bears, the Oakland Raiders believed they had secured the sixth overall pick in the draft, which they intended to use as part of a package to move up to the first spot and choose John Elway. The agreement was never signed.
Owner Al Davis blamed NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle for the collapse of negotiations between his team and the Bears after Davis filed a lawsuit against the NFL in connection with the team’s proposed relocation.
Even when the NFL said otherwise, Davis never stopped feeling cheated out of Elway. Worse for the Raiders, who haven’t been to the Super Bowl since 1983, Elway spent the last 16 years of his career playing for the Broncos, the Raiders’ division opponent.
Wes Welker Released by Los Angeles Chargers
Welker was a free agent in 2004 who made the Chargers. Week 1 kick returner. After just one game, he was released because safety Clinton Hart was taken off waivers by the Chargers. In the end, Hart started 39 games at quarterback for the Chargers.
Meanwhile, Welker revolutionised the slot receiver role by setting new NFL records with the Patriots on three separate occasions (903 receptions, 9,924 yards). Five times he was selected to play in the Pro Bowl, but his lone season with the Chargers is largely forgotten outside of San Diego.
To get Lawrence Phillips, the Los Angeles Rams Dealt Away Jerome Bettis
The Rams essentially favoured Lawrence Phillips over Jerome Bettis, and this is true. Phillips, a controversial figure at Nebraska, was selected by the Rams in the sixth round of the 1996 NFL Draft.
Bettis was sent to the Steelers in exchange for second- and fourth-round picks so that room could be made for him. Before being moved, Bettis had already earned the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award three times.
The Los Angeles Rams wasted a lot of time and money on Phillips. His off-field problems persisted until his death in prison in 2016. A suicide verdict was reached in his case.
Drew Brees Did Not Pass Miami Dolphins’ Physical
If Drew Brees had passed the Dolphins’ physical, it would have been the most well-known “butterfly effect” story in professional and college football. Brees, fresh off a shoulder injury, was a free agent.
The team doctor in Miami would not clear him, hence he was not signed by Miami. Former Dolphins head coach Nick Saban has said that this event marked the end of his time in the NFL.
“So, I decided right then when that happened that we don’t have a quarterback in the NFL, we’re not going to win. I’m getting out of here. I’m not staying here,” Saban said in 2021, according 24/7 Sports.
Brees eventually become a Super Bowl winning quarterback for the Saints. Saban took over the Crimson Tide programme at Alabama and became one of, if not the, best collegiate coaches in history. Since failing to acquire Brees, the Dolphins have failed to win a postseason game.
Complete List of Minnesota Vikings Trades Involving Herschel Walker
Some regrets are inevitable when you end up on the losing end of what is widely regarded as the greatest transaction in NFL history.
While the 1990s Cowboys possessed stars like Jimmy Johnson and Troy Aikman as building blocks for a dynasty, the Vikings provided Dallas with the weapons it needed to produce a champion by trading for Herschel Walker.
Eight draft selections and several players were traded to the Cowboys. The Vikings still don’t have a Super Bowl victory to their name.
In the first round of the 1971 NFL Draft, the Patriots had a lot of options. Jim Plunkett, the Heisman Trophy–winning quarterback at Stanford, was chosen over Ole Miss icon Archie Manning.
Plunkett was reliable for the first four years, but he was replaced by rookie Steve Grogan after he had a shoulder injury in Year 5. The Patriots dealt Plunkett to the 49ers, and he ended up helping the Raiders to two Super Bowl victories.
Although Manning’s failure to become an NFL superstar can be somewhat attributed to unfortunate circumstances in New Orleans, he may have fared better in New England.
The New Orleans Saints have dealt away their entire 1999 drafting class and a portion of their 2000 class.
Consider what would happen if, in this era when “running backs are devalued” because to social media, a team gave away its whole draft class, along with top picks in the following year’s draft, to take one at number five.
In 1999, Saints head coach Mike Ditka sold the team’s first and third round draft picks in 2000 and the entire 1999 NFL Draft class to Washington in exchange for the opportunity to choose Ricky Williams.
Two first-round picks were among the total of eight selections. The 2000 second-overall pick was part of the first round. Washington messed up a bunch of the draft picks, but you have to wonder how different the Saints’ future would have looked if they had drafted someone other than Williams, who never made the Pro Bowl in three seasons with the team.
Having Vince Lombardi sacked by the New York Giants
Vince Lombardi had aspirations of coaching the Giants. In the 1950s, he oversaw the offence as coordinator.
But the Giants already had Jim Lee Howell, and he wanted to be the head coach. After Vince Lombardi left to coach the Green Bay Packers, Wellington Mara, co-owner of the New York Giants, believed he had a deal in place to hire Lombardi back when New York’s previous coach, Newell, retired.
After the 1959 season, Lombardi’s first in Green Bay (immediately after Giants defensive coordinator Tom Landry left to coach the expansion Cowboys), Howell wanted to resign, but Lombardi had no interest in returning to New York.
Howell continued on for another year, Mara sought to hire Lombardi again but was unsuccessful (“It became a sore subject, both ways,” he told The New York Times), and Lombardi went on to have a legendary tenure with the Packers. The Giants didn’t take home the Lombardi Trophy after winning the Super Bowl for the first time in 1986.
Bye, Jerry Rice, New York Jets
It wasn’t just the Jets who passed on Jerry Rice. In the 1985 NFL Draft, thirteen clubs did not select him. It was a double-pass for the Bills and Oilers.
Although the Cincinnati Bengals also picked a receiver (Eddie Brown) in this draft, it is the selection made by the Jets that stands out the most.
Al Toon, drafted by the Jets in the tenth round out of Wisconsin, was on his way to a successful career before a series of concussions cut it short. Despite being picked higher than Rice, Toon was unable to match the 208 career touchdowns scored by Rice, which is 33 more than any other player in NFL history.
Jalen Reagor should start for the Eagles over Justin Jefferson
Let’s pick the Eagles’ most recent misstep, as they haven’t committed many major errors recently. TCU receiver Jalen Reagor was selected in the first round, pick number 21 of the 2020 NFL Draft.
The Eagles cut him after two seasons despite his 64 receptions and numerous dropped passes.
The Vikings selected Justin Jefferson in the 22nd round. Jefferson set a record for most yards in a single NFL season with 4,825, and he was named the league’s offensive MVP in 2022. If the Eagles had Jefferson instead of Reagor last year, they might not have won the NFC.
The Steelers didn’t pick Dan Marino
The Steelers’ selection of Dan Marino at No. 1 overall in the 1983 NFL Draft was virtually predictable. He excelled at Pitt and hailed from Western Pennsylvania. The Steelers had to find a new quarterback to replace Terry Bradshaw, whose legendary career was winding down.
The Steelers selected Gabriel Rivera, a defensive tackle from Texas Tech, because of Marino’s alleged drug use. Nearly a decade later, in an interview, head coach Chuck Noll revealed that the unverified rumours impacted the Steelers’ draft choice.
Rivera’s debut year was cut short when he was paralysed in a car crash. While Marino blossomed into an NFL legend with the Dolphins, the Steelers spent years trying to find a suitable replacement for Bradshaw.
Alex Smith the Better Quarterback for the 49ers than Aaron Rodgers
Aaron Rodgers, a local kid who excelled at Cal, was the 49ers’ first choice at quarterback in the 2005 NFL Draft. The team, however, opted for the more secure option of Alex Smith.
According to NFL.com, former 49ers head coach Mike Nolan revealed the club had problems with Rodgers’ passing motion and preferred Smith’s friendlier personality. Even though Smith had a respectable NFL career, Rodgers went on to become a legend at quarterback.
Tony Dorsett draft pick was traded by the Seattle Seahawks.
In 1977, with the second overall pick, the Seahawks could have picked Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett. Since it seemed possible that Dorsett would be difficult to sign, the expanding Seahawks traded the pick to the Cowboys for the 14th overall pick and two second-round picks.
While Steve August, Tom Lynch, and Terry Beeson (all offensive lineman) and Dorsett (a linebacker who became a Hall of Famer with Dallas) were all great players, they weren’t Dorsett.
Distancing Bo Jackson from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Buccaneers missed out on one of the most exciting athletes of all time in Bo Jackson. The Buccaneers drafted Jackson first overall in 1986. Jackson, however, was frustrated with the team’s owner, Hugh Culverhouse, whom he held responsible for the cancellation of his baseball eligibility at Auburn.
Jackson had no idea it was against NCAA rules when the Buccaneers flew him to Tampa for a physical. Jackson turned down the Buccaneers and became a legend with the Raiders, who chose him in the seventh round the following year.
Steve Largent Trade and the Tennessee Titans
The worst period in franchise history occurred when the team was known as the Houston Oilers.
Steve Largent was selected by Houston in the fourth round in the 1976 NFL Draft, but he failed to make an immediate impression on head coach Bum Phillips. The team avoided having to cut the rookie before the season by trading him to the Seahawks for a later-round selection pick.
Largent played his entire career with the Seahawks and retired as the NFL’s all-time leader in catches, yards, and touchdowns.
Denying Howard Milstein’s attempt for ownership of the Washington Commanders
It would have been possible to prevent the entire Daniel Snyder era. Howard Milstein, a New York real estate billionaire, made an offer to purchase the Washington franchise in 1999.
Since a large portion of Milstein’s bid relied on taking on debt, NFL team owners were opposed to the idea, and Milstein ultimately withdrew his offer. Later, he’d file a lawsuit against then-team president John Kent Cooke and GM Charley Casserly, saying they thwarted his attempt to purchase the franchise.
Snyder, one of Milstein’s partners, pursued the cooperation opportunity with a separate company and ultimately secured the team. A result of this was one of the worst ownership eras in sports.
