The 20 worst draft picks in Minnesota sports history: These were terrible
Totally terrible: The 20 worst draft picks in Minnesota sports history - StarTribune.com
When can the very bad be very good? Or at the very least: entertaining? When you get 10 sportswriters and editors together to debate the best of the worst.
We gathered once again Wednesday night for the latest installment of our Virtual Happy Hour Draft events. After success last week picking the best draft picks in Minnesota sports history (TOPICAL! We held it a night before Round 1 of the NFL draft) we felt it was best to heel-turn toward the other end of the spectrum.
Who are the unlucky ones to go down in Minnesota sports history as the worst draft picks this state has seen?
Our crew had different variations on what makes a "bad" pick. Was it because the player never panned out? Was it because the athletes selected just after this player went on to bigger and better things? Or was he just a member of the Minnesota Wild draft class in the mid 2000s?
Some picks were obvious. Some made you go "hmmmm." And as always, we likely forgot some altogether. Let us know in the comments below.
Here's a rundown of the draft:
1. Jonny Flynn, Timberwolves (2009). Perhaps you've heard this before, but they could have had Steph Curry (Ken Chia, copy editor).
2. Troy Williamson, Vikings (2005). The team's response to losing Randy Moss was drafting a wide receiver who couldn't catch. And had vision problems. (Andrew Krammer, Vikings writer).
3. Travis Lee, Twins (1996). The No. 2 overall pick actually had a decent MLB career, but with the Twins he never was given a formal offer and went to the Diamondbacks for $10 million. (Joe Christensen, Gophers team leader).
4. Dimitrius Underwood, Vikings (1999). He was a first-round pick who didn't even make it to his second day of training camp and never played a down for the team. (Michael Rand, senior digital writer).
5. Brian Lawton, North Stars (1983). Taken No. 1 overall, Lawton played in nearly 500 career NHL games. But oh, what could have been. Hall of Famers Pat LaFontaine (No. 3), Steve Yzerman (No. 4) and Cam Neely (No. 9) all went shortly after. (Brian Stensaas, digital sports editor).
6. Christian Ponder, Vikings (2011). The Vikings needed a quarterback. No quarterbacks were worthy of a top pick. The Vikings reached anyway, and Ponder was in over his head from the start. (Pete Steinert, copy editor/Sunday section editor).
7. J.R. Rider, Timberwolves (1993). Selected not for his on-court play but off it. Rider might have brought the East Bay Funk Dunk, but wore out his welcome in Minnesota from the start. An assault on a female bar manager at the Mall of America was the last straw. (Rachel Blount, Olympics writer)
8. Shabazz Muhamad, Timberwolves (2013). A good bit of Wolves Nation was outraged the team didn't take Trey Burke for themselves (he was flipped to Utah). Instead, they took Muhamad and passed on … Giannis Antetokounmpo. (Jerry Zgoda, soccer and golf writer).
9. Adam Johnson, Twins (2000). Adrian Gonzalez (rightfully) went No. 1 and then the Twins took Johnson, who wound up making just nine appearances in the major leagues. From the "what might've been" department: Tampa Bay took a young fella named Rocco Baldelli at No. 6. (Chris Miller, pro sports team leader).
10. Kyle Gibson, Twins (2009). Not a bad pick on the surface. But consider: Mike Trout was selected three picks later by the Angels. The Twins had an inside track on Trout. His father Jeff Trout played in the Twins minor league system for four years and the team had scouted Mike throughout his senior year at high school, but passed. (Jeff Day, copy editor)
11. Derrick Williams, Timberwolves (2009) (Day)
12. A.J. Thelen, Wild (2004) (Miller)
13. Warren Babe, North Stars (1986) (Zgoda)
14. James Sheppard, Wild (2006) (Blount)
15. Bryan Oelkers, Twins (1982) (Steinert)
16. Tyler Cuma, Wild (2008) (Stensaas)
17. Derrick Alexander, Vikings (1995) (Rand)
18. David McCarty, Twins (1991) (Christensen)
19. Darrin Nelson, Vikings (1982) (Krammer)
20. Wes Johnson, Timberwolves (2010) (Chia)
For the Vikings (I only watch football) it HAS to be Underwood before Williamson.
A first round pick that didnt even make it through TC.
I dont think a hindsight thing where another player goes onto a great career necessarily qualifies as a bad pick unless it was pretty well known that passing on that player for a lesser talent was a risk.
Or the Ponder pick, yes he was taken earlier than he should have been, but if they liked him and were worried that somebody else was going to nab him if they passed or traded down them according to many on this site it was the right pick. We have heard it often this year, at that position you need to identify your guy and grab him, with the run of QBs that year they may have simply thought it was a now or never selection for them with Ponder. And he was pushed into service to soon, if he had been given time to develop thing may have been different.
It's Derrick Alexander by a country mile in my book. Denny wanted Sapp and was overuled by the suits worried because Sapp smoked the occasional doobie. TWill gets honorable mention.
Sapp=HOFAlexander=total nothingburger
Hmmm....Darrin Nelson? He played for the Vikings for almost 10 years. 4442 yards rushing and 2202 receiving yards. 23 TDs. I'm not saying there wasn't higher expectations for him but one of the 20 worst draft picks in Minnesota sports history?? Hardly. I mean, not even close.
I think some of these need context. For example, Nelson had a decent career, but he was taken before Marcus Allen. Same with Alexander. A bust to be sure, but he was taken before Warren Sapp, making it all the more painful.
I agree with the top two. Williamson was a 7th overall pick. Yet another receiver bust taken for his speed alone. After dozens of these have busted, you would think the NFL would start to get it.
Underwood was just a weird, weird pick. Even without mental problems, he was considered by most to be a 3rd or 4th rounder.
@"StickyBun" said: Hmmm....Darrin Nelson? He played for the Vikings for almost 10 years. 4442 yards rushing and 2202 receiving yards. 23 TDs. I'm not saying there wasn't higher expectations for him but one of the 20 worst draft picks in Minnesota sports history?? Hardly. I mean, not even close.And the Cowboys gave us Herschel Walker for him, if memory serves me correctly.
@"MaroonBells" said: I think some of these need context. For example, Nelson had a decent career, but he was taken before Marcus Allen. Same with Alexander. A bust to be sure, but he was taken before Warren Sapp, making it all the more painful.
Agree, Nelson was a very good player for us and I don't think he belongs on the list, but taking him over Marcus Allen, because as the reasoning was given that he was a better turf runner for the Metrodome that they were just moving into was a terrible move. I was so excited to be thinking we were going to get Allen and was just shocked when we took Nelson. Also felt the same way when we took Alexander over Sapp, after Sapp had just dominated in college especially in the bowl game.
@"BigAl99" said:Ol Darrin thought more of himself than anyone else did. Held out as a rookie because Mpls didn't have any discos. This, ironically, coming on the eve of Mpls becoming the center of the music world. Played a few productive seasons, but never rushed for over 1,000. Dropped the pass in the NFCC, was hurt the following season, then came back, held out again, was replaced by DJ Dozier and then traded to Dallas. Wasn't going to be the starter in Dallas and so refused to report, prompting his trade to San Diego, where he was the 4th string RB. Humbled, he returned to Minnesota where he retired a Viking.@"StickyBun" said: Hmmm....Darrin Nelson? He played for the Vikings for almost 10 years. 4442 yards rushing and 2202 receiving yards. 23 TDs. I'm not saying there wasn't higher expectations for him but one of the 20 worst draft picks in Minnesota sports history?? Hardly. I mean, not even close. And the Cowboys gave us Herschel Walker for him, if memory serves me correctly.
@"comet52" said: It's Derrick Alexander by a country mile in my book. Denny wanted Sapp and was overuled by the suits worried because Sapp smoked the occasional doobie. TWill gets honorable mention.Sapp=HOF
Alexander=total nothingburger
I remember this like it was yesterday...
That one hurt big time. Everyone was spooked in the day from Sapp smoking weed.
Williamson and Ponder are poster-children on why not to draft for need.
@"purplefaithful" said:Drafting for need is OK. Reaching for need is the problem.@"comet52" said: It's Derrick Alexander by a country mile in my book. Denny wanted Sapp and was overuled by the suits worried because Sapp smoked the occasional doobie. TWill gets honorable mention.Sapp=HOF
Alexander=total nothingburger
I remember this like it was yesterday...That one hurt big time. Everyone was spooked in the day from Sapp smoking weed.
Williamson and Ponder are poster-children on why not to draft for need.
@"MaroonBells" said:@"purplefaithful" said:Drafting for need is OK. Reaching for need is the problem.@"comet52" said: It's Derrick Alexander by a country mile in my book. Denny wanted Sapp and was overuled by the suits worried because Sapp smoked the occasional doobie. TWill gets honorable mention.Sapp=HOF
Alexander=total nothingburger
I remember this like it was yesterday...That one hurt big time. Everyone was spooked in the day from Sapp smoking weed.
Williamson and Ponder are poster-children on why not to draft for need.
Yah, I was actually going to edit that...It was a combination of poor data, poor decision making. We all wouldn't even remember these 2 if they were 3rd-5th rd picks.
@"StickyBun" said: Hmmm....Darrin Nelson? He played for the Vikings for almost 10 years. 4442 yards rushing and 2202 receiving yards. 23 TDs. I'm not saying there wasn't higher expectations for him but one of the 20 worst draft picks in Minnesota sports history?? Hardly. I mean, not even close.yeah, I saw that and thought...really???
From what I recall he wasnt flashy, but far from a bust
@"Vanguard83" said:@"StickyBun" said: Hmmm....Darrin Nelson? He played for the Vikings for almost 10 years. 4442 yards rushing and 2202 receiving yards. 23 TDs. I'm not saying there wasn't higher expectations for him but one of the 20 worst draft picks in Minnesota sports history?? Hardly. I mean, not even close. yeah, I saw that and thought...really???From what I recall he wasnt flashy, but far from a bust
Flashy, scat-back was exactly what he was supposed to be. Again, not terrible - but they passed on a HOF'er for that.Disco Darrin didnt want to be here either - and he wasn't shy about it.
Traded away as part of the Walker Trade I believe?
At the time I was sadder to see LB Jesse Solomon leave (a late, late rounder) than I was Nelson.
These four are the most painful to me
RB Nelson over RB Allen
What do the 80s Vikings teams look like with one of the greatest RBs in the game on it? What do the 90s Vikings look like with all those draft picks?
DE Alexander over DT Sapp
Sapp and Randle together in their primes is easily the best DT duo in modern football
Gibson over Trout
How did the Twins miss out on the best player in the 20 years?
WR Treadwell over WR Thomas
Sure the development of Diggs or Adam could have been stunted. But man, 3 deep all over again with Cook at RB and the leagues premier defense is a lot to consider
@"Skodin" said: These four are the most painful to meRB Nelson over RB Allen
What do the 80s Vikings teams look like with one of the greatest RBs in the game on it? What do the 90s Vikings look like with all those draft picks?
Wow this is something I had never thought about, had we drafted Allen like we should have, the Walker trade never happens and we keep all those draft picks. We potentially would have won a Super Bowl during that era and the also really nice benefit is that Dallas would not have won theirs. Ugh!!
@"JR44" said:@"Skodin" said: These four are the most painful to meRB Nelson over RB Allen
What do the 80s Vikings teams look like with one of the greatest RBs in the game on it? What do the 90s Vikings look like with all those draft picks?
Wow this is something I had never thought about, had we drafted Allen like we should have, the Walker trade never happens and we keep all those draft picks. We potentially would have won a Super Bowl during that era and the also really nice benefit is that Dallas would not have won theirs. Ugh!!
Don't get me started on the what ifs.What if the refs called Drew's push off?
What if we drafted Allen instead of Nelson?
What if Nelson catches that 4th down pass?
What if we draft Sapp to play with Randle instead of Alexander?
What if we put Johnson back in instead of Cunningham?
What if Robert Smith doesn't run out of bounds 6 times?
What if Culpepper doesn't blow out his knee?
What if we don't put 12 men on the field?
What if Teddy doesn't blow out his knee?
What if Bradford doesn't blow out his knee?
You forgot Robert Griffith dropping a sure pick in the end-zone vs Dirty Birds...1998 NFCCG
For me #1 is Ponder. Saw 14-15 games of his games in college, I just have no words for anyone that thought he was a #1 or 2 or 3 etc. Leo Hayden deserves a mention for the Vikes. A couple of Twins' picks I had really high hopes for - Mike Sodders Johnny Ard and Jeff Bumgarner. Some of their real head scratchers - Levi Michael, Hudson Boyd. Luke Bard, Ryan Mills, Marc Barcelo, B.J. Garbe and Kelcey Mucker.
By some of this reasoning, then everyone the Vikes drafted before Tom Brady deserves to be on the list.
As for Nelson, DJ Dozier is much more deserving to be on this list. The Vikes actually traded up for Dozier.
Underwood should be the first Viking on this list, hands down. His college coaches told the Vikes not to draft him.
The Vikings list starts with Underwood upon a summit.
Leo Hayden is next.
After that, Ponder, who I liked in the third round.
Then Williamson.
These guys were all pathetic all on their own. After that you've got a bunch of guys who get panned for A) who they were, and B) who they weren't.
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