NFL Draft: 30 worst first-round picks of the 21st century

After trading away Randy Moss, the Minnesota Vikings ended up with a good chance to win the trade. Moss went to the Oakland Raiders and didn’t do much at all with the Silver and Black.

He was unhappy with the club and their quarterbacks were pretty bad. So all the Vikings had to do to make themselves look bright was get a solid pick with the No. 7 overall selection in 2005 (the pick they received for Moss).

Minnesota made a fatal mistake though. They didn’t look for the best player, but instead set their sights on a wide receiver. With players like DeMarcus Ware, Shawne Merriman, Thomas Davis, Derrick Johnson and Aaron Rodgers on the board, they took Troy Williamson out of South Carolina.

A former track star, Williamson had speed to spare. What he didn’t have was a strong NFL career. Williamson had a hard time catching the ball and was most well-known for his ill-timed drops for Minnesota. After dropping 11 passes in his second season, he claimed to have issues with his vision and was supposed to improve after correcting that.

This didn’t make much of a difference as it seemed a loss of confidence had begun to plague him. Williams caught just 18 passes in his last season with Minnesota. He later landed with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but caught only eight passes in two seasons for them before hanging it up.

Eventually, the New England Patriots defeated everyone in the Randy Moss trade department, but there’s no doubt the Vikings did a terrible job replacing him after sending him off to Oakland.