CBS Sports lists the top 5 biggest busts ever:

1. JaMarcus Russell
2. Ryan Leaf
3. Akili Smith
4. Trey Lance
5. Charles Rogers

I don’t remember Charles Rogers at all, so I won’t even touch on him (until the end).

With the first four guys, they at least had the physical upside of a number one overall pick (even though 2-4 didn’t go number one). They’re all like 6’3” - 6’5”, with really big arms. Trey Lance was supposedly really mobile as well. But they all had elite physical tools, so you can at least see why you could talk yourself into taking them. Bryce Young is like 5’10”, isn’t particularly mobile, and doesn’t have a very strong arm. He definitely doesn’t have the physical tools of a #1 overall pick.

Akili Smith and Lance were both the third QBs taken. With Lance, only Lawrence has sort of worked out so far, and the Niners didn’t have a chance to take him, so it isn’t like they picked the wrong QB. None of the QBs after him have really been world beaters either, so who cares? With Akili, he was also the third guy taken, but Daunte Culpepper went after him, so that is kind of a miss. But again, it’s not like Smith was the Bengals’ first choice necessarily.

With Leaf, Manning obviously was way better, but the Chargers couldn’t have taken him because he was taken before Leaf.

With Young, Stroud went right after him, and he’s been fantastic so far. The Panthers *did* have a choice and they blew it. That makes it worse, IMO.

To add on to all of that, when you consider everything the Panthers gave up to get Young, he’s by far the biggest miss in NFL history, IMO.