When talking about front-office futility, Matt Millen sets the pace. Mercifully for Lions fans, he's been relieved of his duties as the team's president and general manager, but his legacy lives on. His infatuation with using high-round draft picks on wide receivers might have been his biggest weakness, although that's certainly up for debate.
Charles Rogers and Mike Williams are on the list of first-round wide receiver busts, but a name that's often overlooked -- and one that we can't blame on Millen -- is Peter Warrick, who the Bengals selected with the fourth-overall pick in 2001.
Everyone makes mistakes. But when those mistakes are magnified by intense scrutiny of the NFL draft, well, they become much more embarrassing than, say, my typical Friday morning, mustard-stain-on-khakis incident.
Which is why the NFL FanHouse braintrust got together to determine who is the biggest bust for each NFL team. They're not listed in terms of stupidity -- they're all stupid relative to a team's total draft performance. Meaning, of course, some teams "bust" is much different than another organization's; we did it this way to avoid just linking you to DetroitLions.com.
Instead, we're putting it in current draft order, sans trades, and allowing this list to serve as a reminder of each's team's ability to properly execute a fail. The "bust factor" was based primarily on three things: statistical production (or lack thereof), position in the draft and other available options during that year's draft.
The Lions have the first overall pick of the 2009 Draft. This is the reward for going 0-16. Perhaps former team president Matt Millen's biggest accomplishment is that never during his misguided eight-year tenure did Detroit have the first selection. It seems almost impossible in retrospect.
On three occasions the Lions chose second (Joey Harrington in 2002; Charles Rogers in '03; Calvin Johnson in '07), but by the time Millen finally got it right with Johnson it was too late, the team was too far gone.
Twelve months ago, Devin Thomas was making his way up draft boards after an outstanding junior season at Michigan State and impressive combine and Pro Day performances. The previous fall, he had hauled in 79 passes for the Spartans, and then busted out a 4.40-40 in Indianapolis in February. By April, He would be the second wide receiver selected, going 34th overall to the Redskins.
In the weeks leading up to the draft, NFL Network's Mike Mayock admitted that Thomas had all the physical attributes teams look for in a wideout -- deep speed, the ability to get off the line of scrimmage and a knack for coming down with jump balls -- but he also cautioned that Thomas' junior season could be an anomaly.
On Sunday at the NFL Combine, we got our first glimpse of Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez. And while it was difficult to divine much from, well, glimpses -- Stafford didn't take part in the passing drills and Sanchez didn't stand out in his handful of attempts -- it provides coaches, scouts and front-office types one more piece to the evaluation puzzle.
Although conventional mock-draft wisdom has Stafford going before Sanchez -- and probably to the Lions -- those sentiments aren't shared among all scouts. Via the Chicago Tribune's Dan Pompei:
When Mlive.com's Tom Kowalski writes that the Martin Mayhew -- the chap burdened with the impossible task of being less competent than Matt Millen -- is taking draft preparations seriously some five months before Roger Goodell starts reading names off a sheet of paper, pretty much tells you all you need to know about why the Lions are annually the worst team in football.
Millen had no business running a team (in case that wasn't obvious, the careers of Charles Rogers and Mike Williams confirm as much) and even though Mayhew is only the interim general manager, he has a chance to show he's capable of handling the full-time gig. (And when I say "handling" I mean in the conventional sense; not in the "Matt Millen shows up for work to catch up on his sleep" sense.)
You think Charles Rogers has been sitting around watching the Lions bumble their way to 0-4, wondering where it all went wrong? The second-overall pick in the 2003 draft lasted two seasons, 15 games, 36 receptions and four measly touchdowns before Detroit decided he was a bust (roughly 24 months after every other team in the league!), and in the three years since he was released, Rogers has been out of football (save the occasional failed comeback attempt).
But, hey, sometimes draft picks don't work out. At least Rogers has that $14.2 million signing bonus to live on while he plots his next career move ... or not.
When [Rogers] was suspended by the NFL for substance abuse in 2005 -- his third strike under the league's policy -- the Lions argued that he triggered a clause that put him in default of his contract. At the time, the club was seeking $10.2 million -- a pro-rated portion of Rogers' bonus money.
The Lions now must go through a few routine legal procedures before they can demand the repayment obligation and take action to collect. The Lions will get $8.5 million added to their salary cap next season, but only if they physically collect the money.
Cheer up, Lions fans, your long national nightmare is about to end. That's right, in just three days the curse of Bobby Layne is set to run out, and your beloved football team will once again return to prominence in the NFL. What's that you ask? The Lions were cursed? Yeah, I had no idea. But apparently this explains everything from Matt Millen, to Joey Harrington, to Barry Sanders suddenly walking away from the game. The Curse Of Bobby Layne website has the full story.
In 1958, after leading the Lions to 3 NFL Championships and providing Detroit nearly decade of Hall of Fame play, the Lions traded Bobby Layne. Bobby was injured during the last championship season and the Lions thought he was through and wanted to get what they could for him. According to Legend, as he was leaving for Pittsburgh Bobby said that Detroit "would not win for 50 years"
With this news, and the fact Millen was finally relieved of his duties two weeks ago, things are really starting to look up for the Lions. But back to this curse business ...
Yeah, it turns out that Carter wasn't exactly being truthful.
Charles Robinson of Yahoo! reports that in reality, Carter was singing the praises of both Rogers and Williams before the Lions spent Top 10 draft picks on them.
Said Carter of Rogers just before the 2003 draft, "He's very similar – and I don't like to make a lot of comparisons – to Randy (Moss) in a sense, a big basketball player playing wide receiver. He's the only receiver that's come out since Randy that you can make an honest comparison to. He has a yearning to learn."
As for Williams, Carter said just before the 2005 draft, "I think he's going to be a great player. I think people will be surprised at the kind of person he is. He's really a hard worker. He takes his training very seriously and wants to be very good."
None of this changes the fact that Millen screwed up when he spent Top 10 picks on Rogers and Williams, or the fact that Millen is the worst general manager in NFL history. But for all the mistakes Millen made running the Lions, failing to call Cris Carter was not one of them.
Cris Carter was one of the best wide receivers in college football history and one of the best wide receivers in pro football history, and he's frequently invited young receivers to work out with him, many of whom have raved about his ability to help them improve. He knows a thing or two about playing the wide receiver position.
And Carter, who is now a TV analyst, said on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown that two of the young receivers he worked with, Charles Rogers and Mike Williams, were clearly not suited to becoming good NFL players. Carter said he worked with Rogers and Williams before they were in the NFL and would have been happy to share a candid assessment with Lions President Matt Millen, but Millen never asked:
"Matt Millen, do a little undercover work," Carter said today. "Williams and Charlie Rogers both worked with out with me before the draft, and I could have told them, 'don't draft neither one of them.' ... Never asked me."
Millen, of course, used Top 10 picks on Rogers and Williams. Both were terrible in Detroit and are now out of the league.
It's common for NFL teams to do obsessive levels of research before drafting a player with a Top 10 pick, but Millen apparently couldn't be bothered to find out that his prized wide receivers had been working out with a future Hall of Famer, and that the future Hall of Famer didn't think much of them. Which is why Millen is now, finally, out of work.
When talking about front-office futility, Matt Millen sets the pace. Mercifully for Lions fans, he's been relieved of his duties as the team's president and general manager, but his legacy lives on. His infatuation with using high-round draft picks on wide receivers might have been his biggest weakness, although that's certainly up for debate. 
The Lions have the first overall pick of the 2009 Draft. This is the reward for going 0-16. Perhaps former team president 
Twelve months ago, 
On Sunday at the NFL Combine, we got our first glimpse of 
You think 
Remember how star receiver turned NFL analyst 
Cris Carter
