Draft Picks that had potential that never panned out

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(06-14-2019, 01:48 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: He was too small to be an every down back. He basically only had 3 healthy years.

I guess he did underperform looking back on his career and stats.

He was a 6th round pick and the best returner we've had since Tremain Mack (Adam Jones and Erickson would soon be in the same company, though); how did he underperform?

[THE PISTONS]

(06-14-2019, 04:49 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: He was a 6th round pick and the best returner we've had since Tremain Mack (Adam Jones and Erickson would soon be in the same company, though); how did he underperform?

By briefness of career. But yeah for a 6th Round pick it's par for the course.

[fredtoast]

2005 OT Adam Kieft

Biggest OT at the combine (337 lbs) but he was 1st in the broad jump and 4th in the vertical.

Never played due to injury.

[grampahol]

I remember visiting Icky Woods house the year he shredded his knee. I was a door to door cable tv salesman at the time and just happened to stumble across him in a lily white Cincinnati suburb thinking he might be there to rob the place.. (That sounds a LOT worse than it actually was at the time).. Anyway, I got the sale, the best one of the entire week if I remember right.. I asked him about the injury and he just shrugged it off like it was a hangnail or something. He seemed like it was just a minor injury, but I doubt he thought a cable TV salesman's opinion was super critical to his football career. (His first real mistake..LOL) 
Much to my own disgrace I kept that cable contract and forged his name on a blank then it just vanished from a dresser drawer.. My then wife probably pitched it out one day, but I'll never really know.. Maybe Icky snuck into my house at night and retrieved it..

[bengalsfan73]

The two names that really jump out at me are Kijana Carter and David Pollack. Both had great potential coming out of college and unfortunately suffered injuries that derailed their careers. Carter's injury was unfortunate because he blew out his knee in the first preseason game against Detroit. But for me the injury to Pollack was devastating because he actually was playing well as a rookie until he hurt his neck. However another name that really comes to mind for me is Odell Thurman, even though it was not injury related. He had so much potential at linebacker and he could have been great had he not fallen victim to alcohol which ended his career early.

[BengalFanInNJ]

(06-14-2019, 04:34 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: Reinard Wilson. I think the team screwed him by moving him to LB, should have stayed at DE but he was “too short”. Thought he’d be a double digit sacks a year guy.

He had one good year and it was his contract year. They extended him and then he went back to being sub-par. 

[samhain]

I'll throw Dontay Much in there if he hasn't been thrown in already. I thought he'd be a difference maker thrown in with the other nice pass rushers the team had already drafted and developed. Imagine a team with a edge specialist like that coming in on 3rd downs on the 2013 and 2015 teams. They were already nice defenses, but a dude like that could have made them special.

My biggest beef with the Ogbuehi pick was that I wanted a pass rusher that could contribute immediately with that pick (Shane Ray). Wouldn't have needed one if Moch panned out.

[samhain]

(06-15-2019, 12:22 AM)fredtoast Wrote: 2005 OT Adam Kieft

Biggest OT at the combine (337 lbs) but he was 1st in the broad jump and 4th in the vertical.

Never played due to injury.

Could have fixed a few problems at the time he came along.  Levi declined a lot due to injury and The Venerable Willie Anderson was a year or two from losing a step to age.  Having a guy like Keift waiting in the wings would have softened the blow of losing both.  of course, that Whitworth guy turned out to be pretty good, too.