Part of the reason why the Detroit Lions are one of four NFL teams to never reach a Super Bowl is because they have had a rather absurd amount of NFL draft busts.
While every team in professional football has more than a few draft busts to their name, the Cardiac Cats of Motor City have enough to fill out a top 25 list in this same manner.
But none of us have time for a list that long, so two days ahead of the draft, here are the top five draft busts in Lions history
5. WR Titus Young, 2011
Out of all of the busts on this list, Young was potentially the most promising prospect early on, as he did total 990 yards, 12.2 yards per catch and 10 touchdowns in his first two seasons with the squad.
Young couldn't stay out of his way with the law, however, as after getting into a fight with teammate Louis Delmas in 2012 and then drawing a suspension for selfish behavior later that year, Young was released by the Lions and was arrested twice in a 15-hour span in 2013.
In May of 2015, he was sentenced to five years probation for felony battery. Young was arrested again on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and felony battery following a January 30, 2016, street fight in Los Angeles. On April 10, 2017 he was sentenced to 4 years in prison. He was released from prison on December 19, 2018.
4. WR Mike Williams, 2005
Every other Lion on this list was featured on USA Today's Top 100 NFL Draft Busts list a year ago. Here's what Nate Davis of USA Today said about Williams, who came in at the No. 76 spot.
“The third Round 1 wideout Detroit took over three consecutive drafts, he caught 37 balls in two years in Motown before being shipped out. See why [then-general manager Matt] Millen went 31-84 in seven-plus seasons running the franchise? (FWIW, the other receiver was 2004 first-rounder Roy Williams, who was largely disappointing but managed one Pro Bowl before later costing Dallas a first-round pick in a disastrous 2008 trade-deadline move.)”
3. QB Andre Ware, 1990
Young Lions fans are lucky to have the team hit on their No. 1 overall pick in Matthew Stafford in 2009, as before that, they swung and missed on a lot of passers, with Ware being one of the worst whiffs.
Andre Ware won the Heisman Trophy in 1989 before spending four seasons in Detroit, playing in 14 total games, starting only six of the 14 total. He had three times as many turnovers (15) than passing touchdowns (five) with the Lions.
The logic of the pick made sense, as drafting Ware was supposed to make the backfield in Detroit a force to be reckoned with along with Lions’ great, Barry Sanders, but that didn’t exactly go as planned. With drafting Ware seventh, the Lions passed on future studs such as Lamar Lathon, Eric Green and Rob Moore
2. QB Joey Harrington, 2002
Drafted with the third overall pick to be the savior of the post-Sanders-era Lions, Harrington had some of the same issues Ware did, as he went 18-37 in 55 starts for Detroit. Like Ware, he produced more interceptions than touchdowns in his stint in Detroit.
While hindsight is 2020, with the Harrington pick, the Lions did pass up on tight end Jeremy Shockey, as well as future Hall-of-Famers in Dwight Freeney and Ed Reed.
1. WR Charles Rogers, 2003
Former general manager Matt Millen's obsession with drafting wide receivers started in 2003, when Rogers was taken with the No. 3 overall pick. It seemed like a sound idea at the time, as many Lions fans were familar with Rogers' work in East Lansing, as he broke numerous receiving records with Michigan State and won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation's best receiver.
Rogers didn’t have much of an NFL career once drafted after struggling with drug issues. A broken clavicle early in his career didn't do him many favors, either. Rogers played a total of 15 games over a three-year span while only corralling 440 yards and four touchdowns.
The receiver's story sadly continued to get more tragic, as Rogers filed for bankruptcy in following his short playing career, partially due to an arbitrator hired by the Lions ruled that Rogers had to repay the team $8.5 million.
However, Rogers did not repay that money, and the Lions filed a lawsuit against him, where Rogers ended up having to pay $6.1 million of his signing bonus. He ended up getting addicted to Vicodin in the early days of his playing career, and died of liver failure in November of 2019.
While stories of Rogers, Mike Williams, and Roy Williams were cautionary tales of drafting wide receivers early, Millen didn't let those old failures get to his head. To his credit, the last receiver he drafted with an early first-round pick was future NFL Hall-of-Famer and Detroit Lions legend Calvin Johnson with the second overall pick in 2007.
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