worst Packers 1st round draft pick?

[ivo610]

I vote Rich Campbell, but I know you guys have some good ones

 

[Pkrjones]

The only way it wouldn't be #2 pick overall Tony Mandarich would be if some of you remember Bruce Clark (1980, #4 overall).

Clark told the Packers NOT to draft him because he wouldn't play for them, they drafted him, and he signed and played in Canada for 2 years and then came back and played in the NFL for 7 yrs with New Orleans.

At least when Elway pulled his Diva act on Baltimore they received some picks in compensation... Packers got NOTHING for the #4 pick wasted on Clark.

 

[adambr2]

I'm too young to remember Clark. Mandarich seems to be the obvious choice because of the magnitude of the bust and passing on Sanders to get him, but it wasn't an out of the blue pick. Mandarich was seen by most to be an elite lineman, perhaps the best lineman prospect ever to come out of college.

Harrell was a bust who was an out of the blue pick, and that's tougher for a GM to live down. Especially when there were other options available, such as trading down with the Cowboys so they could draft Quinn. Now after looking up Harrell I just realized he got a Super Bowl ring with us. Ugh. Disgusting.

Jamal Reynolds needs to enter into this conversation more than he does. We traded Hasselbeck to move up and get him in the top 10 in the first round, and he was out of this league just as fast as Harrell.

 

[ivo610]

I'm too young to remember Clark. Mandarich seems to be the obvious choice because of the magnitude of the bust and passing on Sanders to get him, but it wasn't an out of the blue pick. Mandarich was seen by most to be an elite lineman, perhaps the best lineman prospect ever to come out of college.

Harrell was a bust who was an out of the blue pick, and that's tougher for a GM to live down. Especially when there were other options available, such as trading down with the Cowboys so they could draft Quinn. Now after looking up Harrell I just realized he got a Super Bowl ring with us. Ugh. Disgusting.

Jamal Reynolds needs to enter into this conversation more than he does. We traded Hasselbeck to move up and get him in the top 10 in the first round, and he was out of this league just as fast as Harrell.

Playing MMQB, that isnt a draft we should have traded down in...

6 selections from that draft taken before we picked have been great players

 

[60six]

Brent Fullwood comes to mind . He went #4 overall in '87.......just awful

 

[7thFloorRA]

That Ahmad Carroll guy was pretty awful. Some of those other guys I only remember as football cards and not as players. Brent Fullwood had a lot of cards so I thought he must have been decent.

 

[El Guapo]

Harrell was a bust who was an out of the blue pick...

Jamal Reynolds needs to enter into this conversation more than he does...

Reynolds should be graded as a higher bust than Harrell. Reynolds was just completely overwhelmed by the game and not suited to play. Harrell had potential but was constantly hampered by a bad back and other injuries. Didn't he come out of college with a torn biceps too?

 

[PikeBadger]

Clark for sure. Terrible pick.

In recent times, Reynolds, Harrell and Carroll were terrible as well. I'd prefer TT trade out of that 16-32 slot for extra picks. Imo, you get better value with picks 38, 70, 135 than you do with pick 24 in most years.

 

[60six]

Reynolds should be graded as a higher bust than Harrell. Reynolds was just completely overwhelmed by the game and not suited to play. Harrell had potential but was constantly hampered by a bad back and other injuries. Didn't he come out of college with a torn biceps too?

....and trading Hasselbeck to move up to #10 makes it hurt even more.

 

[NOMOFO]

Mandarich just because of how brutal it was.

Let's draft the balding kid with extreme acne issues and veins bulging from his muscles. Ya think he might be on steroids?

 

[El Guapo]

Clark told the Packers NOT to draft him because he wouldn't play for them, they drafted him, and he signed and played in Canada for 2 years and then came back and played in the NFL for 7 yrs with New Orleans.

In the same mold as Clark was QB Randy Duncan in 1959. Of course, this was a little more common back in the day when playing in the NFL wasn't so glamorous or enriching so they had 30 rounds in the draft! Here is a little bio on Duncan for those not familiar:

Randy Duncan was drafted by the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League with the first pick of the first round of the 1959 NFL Draft. He never played for the Packers, however. Duncan instead went to the Canadian Football League and signed with the British Columbia Lions. He later explained, "That was Green Bay before Vince Lombardi, and Canada offered a lot more dough."

Duncan played for two years in Canada before signing with the American Football League's Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs). He practiced with the Texans during the day and attended Southern Methodist University law school at night. Duncan did not see much playing time for the Texans, and when Texans coach Hank Stram traded for Len Dawson, Duncan retired from football.

 

[El Guapo]

Let's draft the balding kid with extreme acne issues and veins bulging from his muscles. Ya think he might be on steroids?

He had a thyroid issue!

 

[NOMOFO]

He had a thyroid issue!

 

[AKCheese]

Carrol had a long successful career, just never lived up to his draft slot (Hawk?). Lot of low hanging fruit here. Mandarich of course stands out. One of the funniest lines (painful at the time) was after a GB/Philly game Mandarich's rookie year a Philly d-lineman said something to the effect, "I asked Reggie to let me know which way he was going to throw Mandarich so I wouldn't trip over him on my way to Favre". Reynolds was painful. The one I honestly could not understand at the time was Harrell. A guy who missed virtually his entire senior year, still not 100% at the combine.

 

[adambr2]

Carrol had a long successful career, just never lived up to his draft slot (Hawk?). Lot of low hanging fruit here. Mandarich of course stands out. One of the funniest lines (painful at the time) was after a GB/Philly game Mandarich's rookie year a Philly d-lineman said something to the effect, "I asked Reggie to let me know which way he was going to throw Mandarich so I wouldn't trip over him on my way to Favre". Reynolds was painful. The one I honestly could not understand at the time was Harrell. A guy who missed virtually his entire senior year, still not 100% at the combine.

I wouldn't compare Hawk to Carroll. Sure, neither lived up to their draft slot, but Hawk has been a healthy 16 game starter his entire career. Serviceable and even good at times, a liability at others.

After Carroll couldn't make it here he pretty much bounced around between the NFL and CFL the rest of his career, never as a good or even serviceable starter, just making rosters wherever he could.

 

[mradtke66]

I still don't get the Harrell hate. Yeah, he didn't work out, fine, hate on him for that, but he looked the part of a NFL lineman. The only knock on him coming out was the torn biceps tendon.

Nothing about that screams injury risk. People act like he had a deep history of injury or something. There is nothing to suggest a pattern of injury at the time of the draft, as far as I am aware. It's not like he already popped an ACL, bulged a disk or anything that would be career limiting. The tendon was never an issue for the rest of his career.

He also played the week after he tore the tendon because the game was important. That shows me a guy who loves the game and a guy who can play through pain. Obviously, I didn't watch that game, so maybe he played like crap with only one arm.

What did him in was his back. I seem to recall he hurt it lifting weights after his rookie year. They also fired the Strength and Condition coach after the season his back injury happened. I seem to recall there was controversy and whispers that he was fired because he had maybe caused the back injury by pushing Harrell too hard to "whip him into shape" and the injury happened.

He had about 2 games where I could see why TT drafted him. He was strong, a good athlete, and shed blockers well. Had the back injury never happened, he might literally be the best lineman on the roster this year.

 

[TJV]

I still don't get the Harrell hate. Yeah, he didn't work out, fine, hate on him for that, but he looked the part of a NFL lineman. The only knock on him coming out was the torn biceps tendon.

Nothing about that screams injury risk. People act like he had a deep history of injury or something. There is nothing to suggest a pattern of injury at the time of the draft, as far as I am aware.

IMO the “hate” was due in part because that pick was so unexpected. I don’t remember anyone predicting Harrell would be the Packers pick at that spot. But I think the more important reason was he did have a history of injuries (probably why many/most/all didn’t consider him for that spot in the first round). This is from CBSSports.com:

“Harrell enrolled at Tennessee in 2002, spending the season performing on the scout team. Hard luck with injuries limited him to eight games as a reserve defensive tackle in 2003. He missed more than half of spring drills after right leg surgery. In fall camp, he broke his ankle, sitting out the first five games. When he returned, he re-injured the ankle after just one snap against Miami and saw limited action the rest of the year.

In 2004, Harrell started the team's first 11 games at right defensive tackle before an ankle injury against Kentucky would limit his play in the final two games. … Harrell started all 11 games in 2005, shifting to left tackle. … The defensive captain started the first three games of the 2006 season at left tackle before missing the rest of the season. … In 35 games, Harrell started 25 times. …” http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/historical/412246

I didn’t quote any of his stats, which were pretty impressive, since this is about his injury history.

 

[mradtke66]

IMO the “hate” was due in part because that pick was so unexpected. I don’t remember anyone predicting Harrell would be the Packers pick at that spot.

Perhaps, but that's pretty foolish. The vast majority of us don't watch enough film of college players to know who is good or bad. Too much parroting whatever Mel Kiper Jr. says is true.

But I think the more important reason was he did have a history of injuries (probably why many/most/all didn’t consider him for that spot in the first round). This is from CBSSports.com:

I don't think I was aware of most of that. It lends a little more weight to the "injury risk" label, but even then, we lost 3 weeks of time due to his ankle in the pros. His career was derailed by the back injury and finally the ACL. http://www.kffl.com/player/13487/nfl/injury_history/justin-harrell

I didn’t quote any of his stats, which were pretty impressive, since this is about his injury history.

There is that. His college stats certainly look more like a player on the rise who should succeed.

 

[TJV]

I agree it's foolish for fans to boo a pick just because they didn't anticipate it. But I believe that was one of the reasons for Packers fans booing Thompson for that pick. Before joining the Packers Harrell had right leg surgery, broke his ankle, re-injured ankle on first snap back, another ankle injury, and a biceps injury all causing him to miss about 30% of his college games. So yes, I think there is merit to the injury risk label. But the only thing I blame Harrell for is arriving at TC overweight and out of shape.

After the draft Thompson said they got offers to trade out of that spot and Jacksonville did trade out one pick after the Packers so we have an idea of what Thompson was offered. Jacksonville received Denver's first, third, and sixth rounders for pick 17. If they offered the Packers the same deal, Thompson would have only had to drop 5 spots in the first round to pick up an extra third and sixth pick, or better. So with perfect 20/20 hindsight...

 

[Darth Garfunkel]

I wouldn't compare Hawk to Carroll. Sure, neither lived up to their draft slot, but Hawk has been a healthy 16 game starter his entire career. Serviceable and even good at times, a liability at others.

After Carroll couldn't make it here he pretty much bounced around between the NFL and CFL the rest of his career, never as a good or even serviceable starter, just making rosters wherever he could.

I remember reading that the coaching staff made Carroll wear boxing gloves during practice so he'd stop grabbing and holding receivers. He still did.

 

[yooperpackfan]

I gotta go with Mandarich but Harrell is certainly a close second.

 

[PikeBadger]

I agree it's foolish for fans to boo a pick just because they didn't anticipate it. But I believe that was one of the reasons for Packers fans booing Thompson for that pick. Before joining the Packers Harrell had right leg surgery, broke his ankle, re-injured ankle on first snap back, another ankle injury, and a biceps injury all causing him to miss about 30% of his college games. So yes, I think there is merit to the injury risk label. But the only thing I blame Harrell for is arriving at TC overweight and out of shape.

After the draft Thompson said they got offers to trade out of that spot and Jacksonville did trade out one pick after the Packers so we have an idea of what Thompson was offered. Jacksonville received Denver's first, third, and sixth rounders for pick 17. If they offered the Packers the same deal, Thompson would have only had to drop 5 spots in the first round to pick up an extra third and sixth pick, or better. So with perfect 20/20 hindsight...

I had never heard that before TJV. That would've been a great trade for us had Thompson pulled the trigger. I'm almost afraid to go back and research what we needed and could have gotten from that trade. Wow, that solidifies my belief that this was Thompson's worst moment as a GM.

 

[Pkrjones]

Don't remember intimate details about 2007 draft, but looking back The Huddle had our draft needs as RB (Vernand Morency pencilled in as starter), Safety, & TE (David Martin had just left in FA).

I believe Marshawn Lynch was being talked about heavily as falling to #16, so TT wasn't antsy to trade-up to get him. Buffalo took him at #12. #16 was too high for Greg Olsen, who was being talked about as low 1st/high 2nd round-talent. That left Safety as a need and Michael Griffin and Reggie Nelson were still on the board and #16 was in the range of their expected slot.

Revis was the only CB off the board at TT's #16 pick, so not sure why he didn't grab Leon Hall or Aaron Ross ~ both good sized, fast, 1st-round-projected CB's.

The "big news" was that Brady Quinn was falling down the draft board so there was a lot of speculation on who would take him or trade-up to get him.

Seems that TT had quite a few options but chose 1st round projected Harrell.

TT actually traded back in round 2, grabbed RB Brandon Jackson AND got another 3rd rounder which he used on Safety Aaron Rouse.
http://www.thehuddle.com/x7/articles/dmd-nfl-draft-needs.php
http://www.thehuddle.com/x7/articles/tsx-nfl-draft-t500pos.php
http://www.eatdrinkandsleepfootball.com/draft/results/year/2007/round2.html

 

[Pack12TX]

Gotta go with Mandarich. I remember reading the Sports Illustrated that had him on the cover. I was so excited only to be letdown. His life became a complete mess after football...

 

[ivo610]

I cant see Mandrich being the worst, he spent a decade in the league, its not comparable when we have drafted someone 1st overall and they never even played