50* biggest NFL draft busts of last 50 years no longer includes Sam Darnold

What exactly is an NFL draft bust? It seems like a self-evident question, one I personally thought I’d given more than sufficient thought to − especially in the context of assignments like this − than it might have even merited. But it’s seemingly becoming a more complicated query in the league’s current environment – particularly at its most critical position.

Years ago, I’d compiled – and subsequently updated – a list of the NFL’s biggest draft busts over the past few decades. In the more recent iterations, Sam Darnold landed on it. I’d always considered him a highly promising, and often effective, player in untenable situations where he didn’t get requisite support – namely his hitches with the Jets and Panthers at the start of the career.

Nevertheless, good players are able to overcome their circumstances, and Darnold simply had not been able to early on. And even if much – or even most – of the blame for his struggles didn’t seem to lie at his feet, it was hard to regard him as anything other than a bust six years into his career given the circumstances he left behind in New York and Carolina. Then Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell, who had a major hand in turning Darnold into a Pro Bowler , made one of those profound – if obvious, in retrospect – statements: "I just think as a whole, there's not enough emphasis put on the organization's role in the development of the (quarterback) position – meaning I believe that organizations fail young quarterbacks before young quarterbacks fail organizations," O'Connell said as Darnold’s career was belatedly taking off under his watch in 2024.

Nearly two years on, O’Connell’s organization finds itself in the throes of a similar debate after signing Kyler Murray – the No. 1 pick of the 2019 NFL Draft once replaced 2018 first-round QB Josh Rosen after just one season – as it tries to find the right answer behind center after 2024 Round 1 QB J. J.