We covered the all-time worst draft picks in a team-by-team fashion earlier this week. Thankfully, the first round of the draft is in the books and not only was it freaking awesome, it was chock full of mistakes -- which, obviously, made it that much more awesome.We've decided to pick out the top five and mock them here. If you have decisions that you think were worse, by all means, leave them in the comments. Two things to remember: one, "mistakes" can equal a pick or a trade, and two, yes, "Al Davis is insane" is an acceptable comment.
5. Bengals select Andre Smith over Eugene Monroe
Smith has a lot of potential, so don't see this as a huge knock on the guy. The problem is, Monroe is going to be consistently spectacular and dominant. He doesn't have nearly as much risk as Smith, and hasn't shown up fat and/or angry. In other words, taking Smith (the guy with the "quirky" personality but high upside) over Monroe (the seeming lock that Mike Mayock has at the top of his draft board) is the typical Bengals move.
4. Lions draft Brandon Pettigrew, tight end, 20th overall
How often does a first-round tight end pan out? Answer: not that much. Yes, there are great tight ends that get drafted in the first round and, yes, Pettigrew is extremely talented. But the Lions have the worst defense in football and they just upgraded an offensive weapon when there were multiple, highly-ranked defensive players on board, as well as potential stud offensive lineman Michael Oher. It's not that Pettigrew is bad, it just seems like the Lions don't understand what "value" means.
3. Bills fail to get a tackle in the first round
When you deal the "best left tackle in the game" (as Jason Peters was called by some), you better darn well expect to use one of your two first-round draft picks to fill his position. The Bills, however, failed to do that. Maybe the Bills thought Oher was going to be available at 28 when they pulled the trigger on Aaron Maybin at 11th overall, but the reality is that they probably could have flipped those choices and ended up with both guys, given the way Maybin's stock had fallen in recent weeks.
2. Broncos draft Knowshon Moreno at 12th overall
As Ryan pointed out, and as I mentioned, the Broncos defense is abysmal. And yet, they thought that taking a running back like Moreno, who had primarily been slotted several spots lower (generally either 16 or 21, depending on who you listened to). And Moreno is talented, but it's just not the type of pick that makes any sense from a team that just gave away their franchise quarterback and desperately needs defense. It's almost like Josh McDaniels has outsmarted himself like eight times over. Which, technically, may be known as "delusion."
1. Raiders draft Darrius Heyward-Bey 7th overall
The funny thing about this pick is that, somehow, no one was that surprised. In fact, it's so comical how bad the Raiders have become with the draft that everyone pretty much called this beforehand, and then laughed at Al Davis afterward. Unfortunately, predictability doesn't excuse stupidity, making this easily the worst selection in the first round.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hahaha the whole raiders draft is a joke. im glad im a redskin fan cus we got ORAKPO BABY. we trade away all our picks and still do better than the raiders at drafting hahahahahha THE RAIDERS ARE HORRRRIBLEEEE
LOL at Redskins fans... is "drafting better than the Raiders" all you've got left?
Seriously, untrained illegal immigrants could make better draft decisions than Al "One more losing season and we start recruiting in the county jail" Davis.
what about the colts? I know its almost heresy to question pollian but Brown at rb seems like a luxury pick with all of their defensive needs. Hood was good enough for the world champs a few picks later and dt was and is a huge hole on their team.
No the worst pick in the NFL draft was Al Davis' second pick, which was this dude named Michael Mitchell, do they even need a safety that bad. They still have no offensive line. I thought the pick was funny, cause I expected it, but the second pick I just shook my head, and felt sorry for anybody who plays on that team.
not only that, the safety they picked, wasnt even a top 5 safety in the draft??? and they had NO film on the guy?? wtf?
The Raiders will only get better when Al Davis steps down and hands the decision making to people who truely know and understand football. The bottom line, Al Davis is a horrible analyzer of talent and character, and what most people do not realize is that when the Raiders WERE an elite team, Al Davis had John Madden and Joe Wolfe influencing his picks, and both men were constantly talking him out of choosing simply "the fastest guy". John Madden wrote a book on it.... When Wolfe and Madden left, there was no one to gut check Al, and the Raiders have deteriorated ever since. Now, they are truely pathetic, and after watching Al select DHB over Crabtree or a Eugene Monroe, I am literally sick to my stomach, and am ashamed to call myself a Raider fan.
Actually Will the Lions selecting Matt Stafford over Aron Curry was worse because he will get creamed quickly seeing as though there is not much of an offensive line to protect him.
For all you Raiders fans Al Davis USED to be good at drafting, however William Clay Ford has pretty much ALWAYS sucked as the owner of the Lions. So much for the logio change. Maybe we can trade him for Al Davis.
Correction: Aaron Curry. I believe even Stephen Curry could help the Lions.
At least trade one of our later picks for the rights to Mike Vick to make this draft not a total joke!!
Chargers drafting of a random OLB from a tiny school. They NEED an inside linebacker. They do not have a decent ILB. They have 3 or 4 guys playing ILB who shouldn't even be in the league. Yet at 16 with an exceptional talent available they picked a random guy nobody wanted. They could have traded down to the second round to get English.
The AFC West overall had a horrible day but I think the Chargers should be on your list.
On paper anyway, Seems to be bad pick.
However can anyone say Rickey Williams, or Ryan Lief, Or Brian bosworth, On and on and on.
Shame about sports is everyone picks favorites all time and lose. As for( Mel,I don't know anything Kipper ) You never played organized sports in your life. Ripping into someones good fortune makes you look like a total a**.
You should of just mentioned good points and moved on. No you had to make your point.
So just say your sorry on national tv like you ripped into him.
All "Undead" Al Davis looks for is really good 40 times and vertical. Since Heyward-Bey is 6-2 AND runs a 4.3 second 40, Davis decided that Heyward-Bey is destined to be the greatest WR ever and picked him. Michael Mitchell ran a better 40 time than the 20-something safeties ranked above him and had a better vertical than those who ran the same 40 time. Once again, good work Undead Al, you managed to screw up the Raiders dreams of a winning season once again.
I am a Broncos fan. but dang, we were stupid. We don't need anymore Running backs
I WILL WAIT TO JUDGE THIS DRAFT AS ALL FANS SHOULD....LET'S SEE WHO'S LEFT ON THE FIELD AFTER 3 YEARS.....LOOK AT AL'S RECENT PLAYERS HE'S DRAFTED......MICHAEL HUFF....HE WAS THE BEST SAFETY WHEN HE WAS SELECTED, HE BLOWS....ROBERT GALLERY, A LT STUD, BY THE EXPERTS, WRONG...LET'S REVIEW PLAYERS HE SELECTED AND WAS LAUGHED AT....SHANE LECHLER PUNTER, SEBASTIAN JANIKOWSKI...ZACH MILLER, ....DID ANYONE HEAR ABOUT JOHNNIE LEE HIGGINS, OR CHAZ SCHILENS....RISING STARS...
THE RAIDERS HAVE COLLEGE SCOUTS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE....SPEED IS CRUCIAL IN THE NFL.......IF IT WASN'T WHY HAVE THE PLAYERS RUN THE 40 YD DASH ? SPREAD OFFENSE VS PRO OFFENSE ?
I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF THE RAIDERS HAVE MICHAEL MITCHELL START AHEAD OF HUFF....HE AND TYVON BRANCH ? WHO ? ANOTHER BURNER WAS ON IR L/Y...
PATIENCE RAIDER FANS....AND FOR ALL THE RAIDER HATERS WE DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK...
Nobody knows how any player will turn out...
Save your judgement..
Ill take the Raiders and crazy Al over any team ANY day.
RAIDER NATION.
Hoping you ALL die early and slow, ROT.
So, the Bills did not draft a LT. Was that really a mistake... one of the biggest mistakes for the entire draft?
The only LT that would even be a potential starter for the Bills would have required them using their 11th pick in round one. That, of course, would mean that they did not take a pass rushing DE worthy of starting.
The Bills have an adequate LT in Langston Walker. Despite trading Jason Peters, this was not a critical area of need.
Center was the weak link on the Bills last year, and that was their appropriate priority this off season. This was handled in free agency. Shoring up the rest of the line with smart, versatile linemen was their priority in the draft.
The Bills drafted two lineman, Woods & Levitre, and they will probably be starters this year as guards.
The bottom line is that the Bills o-line is significantly improved from last year. And this did not come at the expense of missing a DE.
That error would have made for a big mistake.