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This is a sponsored series of posts, but it's actually a really good idea as a teachable moment for the Green Bay Packers. Hopefully they can avoid future bad draft choices by looking back at some of their previous disasters. I've chosen the past 30 plus years as the time frame because those are the years I've lived as a fan.
I have a real hard time labeling a player a bust after they suffer a career ending injury. Sometimes the draft choice is too high to ignore. But other highly drafted players like LB Mark D'Onofrio (No. 34 overall in 1992) and WR Terrence Murphy (No. 58 overall in 2005), who's NFL careers ended almost as soon as they began, are being excluded.
Bust #10: DT Justin Harrell. Drafted No. 16 overall in 2007. While he's injury prone, there isn't a career ending injury he can point to. He can even bounce back from his season ending ACL injury, but I'm not counting on it. And knowing he's provided nothing over the past four seasons after being drafted in the middle of the first round is too high a spot to ignore.
He could probably go higher, but he is one of two semi-active players on my Top 10, and he's the most likely to one to salvage his career. GM Ted Thompson probably shouldn't have drafted a player coming off a ruptured bicep tendon, who had problems with his ankles before that.
If he can ever find his way back onto the field, he'll have an NFL career. But the odds of him staying on the field for any length of time are remote.
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