This article is part of our NFL Observations series.
For our Daily Draft on the RotoWire SiriusXM show for Wednesday, we changed gears and did a football-specific draft. We brought on RotoWire's College Football Editor and NFL Draft expert John McKechnie to participate in an NFL Draft Busts Draft. Each team gets to select 10 draft busts, with a maximum of five quarterbacks, as the importance of the position naturally pushes teams to overdraft quarterbacks, and thus they are disproportionately represented here.
Because John was the guest for this show, we gave him the choice where he wanted to draft, and he opted for the first slot. Liss opted to go third, and double up his picks on the turn. Here are the results, first in overall order, then by team:
| Rd | Team | Player |
| 1 | John | JaMarcus Russell |
| 1 | Jeff | Ryan Leaf |
| 1 | Liss | Tony Mandarich |
| 2 | Liss | Ki-Jana Carter |
| 2 | Jeff | Akili Smith |
| 2 | John | Trent Richardson |
| 3 | John | Aaron Curry |
| 3 | Jeff | Mike Mamula |
| 3 | Liss | Kevin Dyson |
| 4 | Liss | Curtis Enis |
| 4 | Jeff | Robert Gallery |
| 4 | John | Kevin White |
| 5 | John | Jake Locker |
| 5 | Jeff | Jeff George |
| 5 | Liss | Sebastian Janikowski |
| 6 | Liss | Johnny Manziel |
| 6 | Jeff | Russel Erxleben |
| 6 | John | Vernon Gholston |
| 7 | John | Justin Gilbert |
| 7 | Jeff | Lam Jones |
| 7 | Liss | Art Schlichter |
| 8 | Liss | Tim Couch |
| 8 | Jeff | Courtney Brown |
| 8 | John | Heath Shuler |
| 9 | John | Dee Milner |
| 9 | Jeff | Dan Wilkinson |
| 9 | Liss | Justin Blackmon |
| 10 | Liss | Todd Blackledge |
| 10 | Jeff | Steve Emtman |
| 10 | John | Travis Taylor |
Results by team:
| John | Jeff | Liss |
| JaMarcus Russell | Ryan Leaf | Tony Mandarich |
| Trent Richardson | Akili Smith | Ki-Jana Carter |
| Aaron Curry | Mike Mamula | Kevin Dyson |
| Kevin White | Robert Gallery | Curtis Enis |
| Jake Locker | Jeff George | Sebastian Janikowski |
| Vernon Gholston | Russel Erxleben | Johnny Manziel |
| Justin Gilbert | Lam Jones | Art Schlichter |
| Heath Shuler | Courtney Brown | Tim Couch |
| Dee Milner | Dan Wilkinson | Justin Blackmon |
| Travis Taylor | Steve Emtman | Todd Blackledge |
Liss, as per the custom, added extra weight to players who busted in part because they had off-the-field issues. I had my own players that qualified there, including Russell Erxleben, who merits special notice. Not only did the Saints draft Erxleben in the first-round as a punter/kicker, they barely used him as a placekicker - with eight attempts over five seasons. Even as a punter, he was mediocre, averaging 40.6 yards per punt. But even if he were Ray Guy reincarnated, it would be a bad pick, but that he wasn't made the pick even worse. The cherry on top for Erxleben was that he eventually jailed for securities fraud.
One thing about this draft - we probably should have added a fourth drafter and gone 15 players deeper. There were plenty of big busts not taken - including a near-entire Browns QB wing, plenty of Bengals, Jets and Raiders to boot. Names like Brandon Weeden, Brady Quinn, Charles Rogers and Blair Thomas among many others.
Who else was a notable omission? Who would you defend on this list as "not a bust?"
