Rembert, Rudolph, Cadigan, Thomas, and the Lammer are all notable BUSTS, yes, but all of them (except Lam) sprung from defensible draft strategies, because they all carried substantial upsides and were simply swing and misses. The Three Biggest Draft Fiascoes were:

3. Roger Vick
2. Kyle Brady
1. Mike Nugent (and Doug Jolley)

In all three of these cases, the Jets took a quality, top 30 selection and all but pissed it away in taking fringy players who had not been dominant by any stretch of the imagination, either in college production or in measurables and upside, and all of whom played one of the five LEAST IMPORTANT positions on the team (K, P, FB, TE, LS) at the tremendous opportunity costs of literally hundreds of players who were all but guaranteed to have better careers and greater contributions to a team’s success than these three.

Blair Thomas was a bust, but he was universally praised as a top 5 pick, and if we didn’t take him someone else would have made an equally regrettable choice. But, remembering what his potential ceiling was, it’s much much MUCH better than the boneheaded idea of passing on a potential perennial all-pro like Harris Barton or Bruce Armstrong to take a fullback; or passing on a future HoF’er like Warren Sapp to take a tight end; or passing on any of the 70-odd players who would have been better contributors to the Jets from 2005 onward than Mike Nugent and Doug Jolley.

Taking a kicker on day one is just flat out the absolute stupidest move that any team can ever possibly make in the draft. Period. There is no bigger fiasco in Jets history than Bradway’s idiotic idea that we were one player away from consistent dominance, and that that player was a placekicker. Utterly retarded.

I guess the good news is that there are less of these in recent years than there have been – and Robertson’s not even really a bust, more of a disappointment relative to what they gave up to get him.

as for this article, i really enjoyed it – adding 2nd round busts made for quite an education
hey i found Roger Vick’s homepage! I think I understand why he was a bust, he lied about his age
http://www.rvick.com/

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/2008/04/22/ramblings/nfl-draft/6245/

Looking at the salaries for the initial picks and then the follow up picks, the strongest drafting team in the league from 2000-2003 was none other than your New York Jets.

i’m a big time follower, plus i’m old and i dont even remember doug williams. and i forgot they drafted anthony davis. thought he was a waiver move.

and in the vein of going old school, who remembers carl barsilaukus? he was a very high pick, but not worth checking the spelling of his name.