NFL Top Ten - Heisman QB Busts

NFL TOP TEN LIST

Heisman QB Busts of

The Post Merger Era

Robert Griffin III (RG3) and Cam Newton are the last two players to win the college football Heisman Trophy.  Though Newton is experiencing a sophomore slump six games into his second year, it is likely he and RG3 will be solid and exciting players for years to come.

Maybe Cam and RG3 will start a new trend.  In the post merger era (1970+) Heisman Trophy winning QB's have not exactly lit the world on fire.  Seventeen other QBs have won the Heisman Trophy since 1970.  Jim Plunkett (Stanford 1970) is the only post merger QB Heisman Trophy winner to win a Super Bowl.  He won two with the Raiders.   Here is my subjective ranking of the top ten Heisman Trophy QB busts.  A guy is likely to be higher on the list (rated closer to #1) if a team drafted him high - -for that means he disappointed.  It seemed unfair to include Jason White and Eric Crouch on the list since nobody expected they could play football in the NFL.

10) Carson Palmer (2002 - USC) - I know this is a little harsh.  But somebody has to be here if I exclude Crouch and White for mercy reasons.  Palmer suffered an injury in the playoffs after a great rookie season.  Ten years later and he looks like a guy that never fulfilled his promise.

9) Ty Detmer (1990 - BYU) -  The Packers drafted Ty Detmer in the 9th round of the 1992 draft.  In 1996 he took over for Rodney Peete and went 7-4 taking Philly to the playoffs. 

8) Tim Tebow - (2007 - Florida) - Josh McDaniels used a #1 pick to draft Tebow in one of his acts of destruction while head coach in Denver.  Tebow has won more games than a lot of guys on this list, but he is not an NFL QB.  Teams should not use #1 picks for punt protection blockers.

7) Danny Wuerffel - (1996 - Florida) - Saints drafted him in fourth round.  He did at least play some in the NFL, starting ten games. 

6) Gino Torretta - (1992 - Miami) The Vikings used a late round pick to draft Torretta.  He threw 16 passes in his NFL career.

5) Chris Weinke -  (2000 - Florida State) - The Panthers drafted Weinke in the fourth round.  He started 15 games his rookie year and lost 14 of them.  He did throw for nearly 3000 yards that year.  Down hill from there.

4) Troy Smith - (2006 - Ohio State) - I don't know why, but I thought that Smith would at least make a good backup for somebody.  The Ravens drafted Smith in the fifth round.  He started a couple of games his rookie year due to injuries to Steve McNair.  Started six games for the Niners in 2010 going 3-3.

3) Pat Sullivan - (1971 - Auburn) The Falcons drafted Sullivan in the second round in 1972.  Sullivan was out of the game by 1976.  He threw 5 TDS and 16 INTs in limited playing time.

2) - Matt Leinart - (2004 - USC) - The Cardinals took Leinart 10th overall in 2006.  Leinart won two National Championships at USC and narrowly missed a third.  However, Leinart failed to hold the Cardinal starting job and now appears to be a career backup. 

1) Andre Ware - (1989 - Houston) - Ware put up huge numbers in the Houston innovative passing attack.  The gaudy stats earned him the Heisman and enticed the Lions to use the 7th overall pick to grab him.  Ware was out of the league in four years.  The Lions learned too late that it was the system and not Ware that deserved primary credit for the college stats.  That is why they are the Lions.