Biggest Draft Bust Ever reveals all

[Saber]

Quote: Originally Posted by shnuskis

The guy went from the most dominant college offensive lineman ever to a guy who got tossed like a rag doll every play. Talent level regressed to the point the Pack couldn't put him on the field. Had to leave football for three years to straighten his life out. Good for him. From what I have read, he is a good guy. From the Packers standpoint, the team that drafted him, one of the biggest draft busts ever. The hype and expectations of a Ryan Leaf was nothing to the guy who was going to revelolutionize the tackle position and fight Tyson in his prime. For those of you who have heard his story a hundred times, there is stuff in there I have never heard. He has a new book coming out and I don't think he has talked about some of the details before.

That's the thing, he wasn't the greatest college linemen ever. Not even close. That was all hype that the media (including) Sports Illustrated helped create around the player. I seem to remember watching maybe an HBO special on him or something several years ago that several GMs said they didn't really believe the hype and that had the Pack not selected him, he would have fallen to the middle of the first round.

[shnuskis]

Quote: Originally Posted by Saber

That's the thing, he wasn't the greatest college linemen ever. Not even close. That was all hype that the media (including) Sports Illustrated helped create around the player. I seem to remember watching maybe an HBO special on him or something several years ago that several GMs said they didn't really believe the hype and that had the Pack not selected him, he would have fallen to the middle of the first round.

Interesting theory on him dropping. I don't believe it though. Did you read the article? I remember him in college to being very similar to how they discribed him. He absolutely blew the other guy away. I didn't say he was the best ever and neither did the article. He was the most dominant ever.

If you look at his body, look at his combine scores, and look at how he destoyed de's in college, the hype was created by that. You can say you can coach combine scores, but as people have gotten bigger and stonger, twenty years later, they still aren't putting those numbers up.

[Saber]

Quote: Originally Posted by shnuskis

Interesting theory on him dropping. I don't believe it though. Did you read the article? I remember him in college to being very similar to how they discribed him. He absolutely blew the other guy away. I didn't say he was the best ever and neither did the article. He was the most dominant ever. If you look at his body, look at his combine scores, and look at how he destoyed de's in college, the hype was created by that. You can say you can coach combine scores, but as people have gotten bigger and stonger, twenty years later, they still aren't putting those numbers up.

But steroids were a known quantity at the time. Everyone was familiar with the Lyle Alzado (sp), also while he blew people off the ball, he hardly showed top footwork at pass blocking. As for his "dominance" I would argue Orlando Pace was equally or even more dominant during his college career.

[shnuskis]

Quote: Originally Posted by Saber

But steroids were a known quantity at the time. Everyone was familiar with the Lyle Alzado (sp), also while he blew people off the ball, he hardly showed top footwork at pass blocking. As for his "dominance" I would argue Orlando Pace was equally or even more dominant during his college career.

I am not quite sure I understand the point of the first sentence so I won't respond to that.

I want to get your whole side of this right. Mandarich wasn't the highest rated player on the board in '89. It was all hype created by him and Sports Illustrated. Tried arguing he wasn't the best lineman in college football when no one said he was. I said dominant which the article clearly elaborates on. And is not in the top 102 draft busts ever.

I disagree with everything above. I find all of it so outrageous I won't argue any of it. If you wish to believe that is me conceding, go ahead.

As far as your argument of O.P. being more dominant in college, I would first like to ask you how many games of each you have seen? To compare them you need to be familiar with both. You were 5 during Mandarich's senior year. If you didn't see his games it would be really hard to compare. I personally will take the author's word as credible. He did play D1 football at the same time as T.M. Right now that makes him more credible than you.

Personally, I don't really care to debate that either. I posted it because there was new information that he hadn't talked about before and found it interesting. I thought others would too.

edit: as far as you seeing his story a million times, he only started talking about his steroid use in March of '09. Previously, he blamed his poor performance on a poor work ethic(Milwuakee Journal Sentinal, 2003.)

[RedheadKingpin]

Quote: Originally Posted by AnyGivenSunday

I seen him on NFL Network, On the top 10 busts of all time. I seen one DE throw him to the side like he was nothing. The pictures say it all...

And the fact that 4 of the top 5 picks in that draft are either in the Hall of Fame or will be voted in sooner or later makes it that much worse.