Heisman Trophy: 5 Biggest NFL busts since 2000
4. Robert Griffin III – 2011 Heisman Winner
When Robert Griffin III arrived in the NFL, he made an instant impact for the Washington Redskins, who took him with the second overall pick in the 2012 draft. Dan Snyder and Washington handed the Rams a haul of draft picks to get up to that spot and hoped that the Baylor Bears star would be the face of the franchise.
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After winning Offensive Rookie of the Year — and despite a knee injury — it seemed likely that would be the case for RG3 and the Redskins. However, he never fully recovered from that injury while Washington quickly lost faith in the quarterback. Since then, he’s bounced around the league and has never found anything close to the same magic.
While he may have second life s a backup in Baltimore, it’s still hard to not label Griffin as a massive bust.
3. Matt Leinart – 2004 Heisman Winner
After a prolific career at USC, the Arizona Cardinals nabbed Matt Leinart with the 10th overall pick in the 2006 NFL Draft. He began his career as a backup for Kurt Warner but, when given the scarce opportunities to show he could be the right guy to take over for the veteran signal-caller, he never took the chance and ran with it.
When it was all said and done, Leinart’s career came to a close with a career completion rate of just 57.1 percent while having thrown for only 4,064 yards, 15 touchdowns and 21 interceptions. Some might actually have him higher on this list than No. 3 because of how little of an impact that the former Trojan had. But even still, he’s clearly a top-tier bust, which is not a good thing for any player to be.