The NFL Draft is full of success stories and failures.
Some of the biggest NFL names to go down in history are the ones who never achieve what they were expected to.
In the last 13 NFL drafts, which is how many of the first overall draft picks are still in the NFL, most of the teams struck gold, but a few definitely struck out.
Two of the number one overall picks, Sam Bradford and Andrew Luck, aren’t even in the league anymore.
Bradford is out because of injuries and lack of talent, and Luck retired at the top of his game to protect his body.
The jury is still out on guys like Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow, but things definitely look promising for the latter.
Here are three of the most disappointing former No.1 draft picks still playing in the NFL today.
3. Matthew Stafford
Yes, Matthew Stafford is one of the toughest quarterbacks in the NFL and he’s having a great year with the Los Angeles Rams.
However, what has he done up until this point?
He made the Pro Bowl one time in 2014, and took the Detroit Lions to the playoffs three times in 2011, 2014, and 2016, but they failed to win a single game.
Overall, Stafford definitely isn’t a bad quarterback.
In fact, he’s one of the top ten quarterbacks currently in the NFL.
Unfortunately, he failed to generate a consistent winning team in Detroit and failed to win a single playoff game.
Stafford definitely isn’t the only person to blame for Detroit’s lack of winning playoff games, but he was still the quarterback.
For better or worse, quarterbacks get most of the glory when things are good, so it’s only fair that they carry the blame for failure.
2. Jared Goff
Jared Goff is a quarterback that’s tough to figure out.
There were times when he looked like the best quarterback in the NFL, and there were times when you were questioning how he’s even in the league.
He was drafted by the Rams in 2016 and led the Rams to the playoffs three out of his five years at the helm, even making it to the Super Bowl in 2018.
Unfortunately, that was three years ago and the Rams have been unable to achieve success anywhere similar to that.
The team finally moved on from Goff and essentially swapped former first-round picks with Detroit, as Stafford is now with the Rams and Goff is with the Lions.
While Stafford is turning his career around in Los Angeles, Jared Goff seems to have plummeted to an even deeper level of failure.
He’s currently one of the bottom five quarterbacks in the NFL and his Lions have yet to win a game.
#Lions QB Jared Goff has thrown for 0 touchdowns in 3 of his past 4 games.
Jared Goff is making $25.6 million this season.
🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/fNneVPUEGH
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 14, 2021
1. Jameis Winston
Former No. 1 pick Jameis Winston rounds out the list as the biggest flop in the last 13 years of the draft.
Originally drafted in 2015 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he’s now playing for the New Orleans Saints.
After being named the starting quarterback and heir to Drew Brees at the start of the year, he suffered a season-ending injury.
Saints QB Jameis Winston undergoes successful surgery to repair injured knee: sources
Link: https://t.co/HzEjgNcPo5 pic.twitter.com/TozlOyFYvI
— Jeff Duncan (@JeffDuncan_) November 13, 2021
Winston was having a decent season before his injury in Week 7, but not the way he was expected to coming out of college.
Winston played five seasons with the Buccaneers and started every game in three of them.
He made the Pro Bowl in 2015, but never took Tampa Bay to the playoffs a single time.
It wasn’t until the Buccaneers moved on from Winston that the team promptly won the Super Bowl.
Conclusion
While each of these guys are still starting quarterbacks in the NFL and have enjoyed various amounts of success, they simply haven’t done enough for the teams that drafted them.
For this reason, Winston, Goff, and Stafford are the three most disappointing No. 1 picks still playing in the NFL today.
NEXT: 2 Dark Horse NFL MVP Candidates