Vikings draft busts of the past

[GoldenBear91]

http://football-players.pointafter.com/ ... Williamson

Now that the draft is over we can remember the past. Just saw this today. Biggest bust, team by team, thought this was a good choice. Good ol Troy Williamson

Any others come to mind?

[Beo]

The list is long but a couple that stick out in my mind are when we took Darrin Nelson over Marcus Allen and Derrick Alexander over Warren Sapp.

[fiestavike]

http://football-players.pointafter.com/ ... Williamson

Now that the draft is over we can remember the past. Just saw this today. Biggest bust, team by team, thought this was a good choice. Good ol Troy Williamson

Any others come to mind?

Demetrius Underwood has to be the biggest draft bust in Vikings history.

[dead_poet]

This doesn't look like something I'm excited to read

[AlldayPotter]

Def troy williamson. Remember seeing him drop wide open passes when he was 5 yards past defenders downfield,,,, what a shame , had all the measurables. Wasn't it something wrong with his eyes?

And pretty sure Christian ponder is high on this list... wasn't he like a no. 14 1st round pick?

Also matt kalil is shapin up to be one.... since he was no. 2 1st round pick

[fiestavike]

Def troy williamson. Remember seeing him drop wide open passes when he was 5 yards past defenders downfield,,,, what a shame , had all the measurables. Wasn't it something wrong with his eyes?

And pretty sure Christian ponder is high on this list... wasn't he like a no. 14 1st round pick?

Also matt kalil is shapin up to be one.... since he was no. 2 1st round pick

Dimitrius Underwood walked out of camp the day after signing his contract and never came back. Even Jamarcus Russell, Troy Williamson and Ryan Leaf at least made it past THE FIRST DAY with the team that drafted them...

[720pete]

Ontario Smith, Christian Ponder.

[Cliff]

Dimitrius Underwood walked out of camp the day after signing his contract and never came back. Even Jamarcus Russell, Troy Williamson and Ryan Leaf at least made it past THE FIRST DAY with the team that drafted them...

It sounds like he had some mental stuff going on. I didn't realize just how messed up he was and that the Vikings were warned about it (doh!)

Reading this is sad. It reminds me of some of the cases of brain damage as a result of playing football.

From Wikipedia:

Underwood was selected in the first round (29th overall) of the 1999 NFL Draft after his stock rose with his pre-draft workouts. He signed a five-year, $5.3 million contract on August 1, 1999, and walked out of training camp the next day after the first practice and never returned. He forfeited a $1.75 million bonus saying he could not resolve the conflict between playing football and serving his Christian faith. Although he eventually returned, he was released later that month.[2]

He was claimed on waivers by the Miami Dolphins as 23 teams passed on him. He was signed for $395,000 dollars, played in only one preseason game before injuring his shoulder and also showed a lack of focus towards football. Multiple times during team meetings, Underwood was found not taking notes, but instead writing about the apocalypse. He only played one preseason game for the Dolphins before getting injured.[3]

In September 1999, Underwood was arrested by police for failure to pay child support. Within 24 hours, he attempted to commit suicide by slashing his own neck with a cutlass before repeatedly yelling "I'm not worthy of God".[4] According to his mother, an ordained minister, his behavior had been influenced by attending the Immanuel's Temple Community Church in Lansing, Michigan, which she describes as a "cult that's posing as a church." The church's pastor stated that neither he nor his wife had ever counseled Underwood and that no one in the church told Underwood to leave football.
His mother later retreated from her comments and issued her own statement: "We should both be on the same accord, rather than creating conflict caused by misrepresentation."[5]

Underwood later spent two months in protective care and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After he escaped from a psychiatric care facility, he was released from the Dolphins on December 17, 1999.[6] On March 10, 2000, he signed a two-year contract with the Dallas Cowboys, who took a chance on him because of the earlier success the team had with Alonzo Spellman who also suffered from bipolar disorder.[7] During the 2000–2001 seasons, he was moved from defensive end to defensive tackle and had 21 tackles and four sacks in 19 games as a reserve player. In January 2001, he tried to kill himself for the second time by running into traffic twice on a busy suburban highway. The Cowboys released him later that month after he missed practices.
He served stints in the Dallas County Jail for aggravated robbery, assault on public servant, and evading arrest starting in 2002. Underwood spent his time locked down in a closed custody cell.[8]

After four years out of football, he resurfaced in the CFL with the Ottawa Renegades on May 24, 2005. However, he was cut during the preseason on June 13.

In 2007, Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports listed Underwood as one of the worst first-round picks since the AFL-NFL merger. According to the article, Underwood missed most of his senior year, and his coaches at Michigan State warned NFL scouts that he was not mentally stable enough to play in the NFL. In Robinson's view, by ignoring these warnings the Vikings made "arguably the dumbest pick ever made in the first round." In a September 28, 2010 article Yahoo Sports noted Underwood's mental health issues as a case in point in regard to the NFL falling short in helping players who suffer from various mental illnesses that are in no small part connected to the pressures of the job of an NFL athlete. The 2010 article also pointed out that "Underwood was tormented by visions of the apocalypse. He used to write notes discussing the end of the world on pieces of paper the size of postage stamps. When he was in a normal state, he could be engaging in conversation. He was funny and intelligent. He also exuded physical confidence and had extraordinary talent."

[CbusVikesFan]

Dimitrius Underwood walked out of camp the day after signing his contract and never came back. Even Jamarcus Russell, Troy Williamson and Ryan Leaf at least made it past THE FIRST DAY with the team that drafted them...

We also could have drafted Jevon Kearse earlier in the 1st round but did not. What a mistake that was.

[vatusay]

Williamson immediately jumps to my mind. Ponder wasn't really a bust, but just an idiotic pick. Ontario smith was like fourth round wasn't he? That's what I seem to remember off top of head. I had high hopes for Tyrell Johnson (safety drafted in second? IIRC). So far Patterson is a bust also.

[mansquatch]

Williamson was a bust, a case of drafting need over BPA after the, IMO, ill advised Moss Trade.

Underwood was worse than Williamson since the Vikings had fair warning but blew the pick anyways.

Many of the drafts during the McCombs / Tice era were pretty awful. Erasmus James anyone? The whole missed pick debacle where we unnecessarily dropped a spot due to disorganization. Kevin Williams was a great pick of course.

Tyrell Johnson was a good example of the Childress/Frasier era of screws ups in the secondary: Cedric Girffin and Chris Cook also come to mind. We also had solid role players leave football or leave in FA like Asher Allen and Hussain Abdbullah. (The latter is having a respectable career on the KC Defense...) Let us also not forget the wonders of Tavaris Jackson...

I don't think Ponder was a bad pick, we desperately needed a QB in that draft and we took one. We just picked the wrong guy. As has been shown time and again in the NFL, picking QBs is an art, not a science. Luck is a factor.

Aside from Ponder a common thread in all of that dysfunction is a poor management structure. Under McCombs we had no GM and our scouting department was bare bones. Under the Wilfs it wasn't until 2011 I think that we had a fully empowered GM. Remember the Fran Foley / Triangle of Authority days? I think this is an often over looked aspect of NFL teams. If the MGMT team and stucture is not competitive, often times neither is the team. You do not get a CLE or OAK without some serious dysfunction at the top of the house.

Spielman isn't perfect, but what we've had with him in terms of drafts has been better than what we had for the previous decade.

[Texas Vike]

Williamson was a bust, a case of drafting need over BPA after the, IMO, ill advised Moss Trade.

Underwood was worse than Williamson since the Vikings had fair warning but blew the pick anyways.

Many of the drafts during the McCombs / Tice era were pretty awful. Erasmus James anyone? The whole missed pick debacle where we unnecessarily dropped a spot due to disorganization. Kevin Williams was a great pick of course.

Tyrell Johnson was a good example of the Childress/Frasier era of screws ups in the secondary: Cedric Girffin and Chris Cook also come to mind. We also had solid role players leave football or leave in FA like Asher Allen and Hussain Abdbullah. (The latter is having a respectable career on the KC Defense...) Let us also not forget the wonders of Tavaris Jackson...

I don't think Ponder was a bad pick, we desperately needed a QB in that draft and we took one. We just picked the wrong guy. As has been shown time and again in the NFL, picking QBs is an art, not a science. Luck is a factor.

Aside from Ponder a common thread in all of that dysfunction is a poor management structure. Under McCombs we had no GM and our scouting department was bare bones. Under the Wilfs it wasn't until 2011 I think that we had a fully empowered GM. Remember the Fran Foley / Triangle of Authority days? I think this is an often over looked aspect of NFL teams. If the MGMT team and stucture is not competitive, often times neither is the team. You do not get a CLE or OAK without some serious dysfunction at the top of the house.

Spielman isn't perfect, but what we've had with him in terms of drafts has been better than what we had for the previous decade.

Solid run down.

I was living out of the country in '99, so I'd completely missed the whole Dimitrius Underwood debacle. Wow. I had no idea.

I agree that our MGMT structure is much better now and that it matters quite a lot to the product on the field.

[S197]

Tarvaris Jackson, Ryan Cook, Tyrell Johnson, Marcus McCauley, Asher Allen, Josh Robinson, Chris Cook...

Guess it really depends on how far down the rounds you go to consider someone a bust.

Of the newer class of draftees, other than the obvious, I would say Crichton is looking like a potential bust.

[fiestavike]

Tarvaris Jackson, Ryan Cook, Tyrell Johnson, Marcus McCauley, Asher Allen, Josh Robinson, Chris Cook...

Guess it really depends on how far down the rounds you go to consider someone a bust.

Of the newer class of draftees, other than the obvious, I would say Crichton is looking like a potential bust.

I don't expect him to make the team this year.