Thursday, August 21, 2008

Top Ten Worst Jerry Angelo Draft Picks

If you've been a Bears fan long enough, watching first round pick OT Chris Williams go down with an injury after only 14 minutes of practice wasn't too much of a surprise.

You see, here in Chicago we have a GM that swings and misses on draft picks about as badly as Sammy Sosa swinging at a chest high fastball after he kicked the juice.

Jerry Angelo has made some solid picks in his time with the Bears, there's no denying that. But for every good pick there's three "what the hell was he thinking" picks that will most likely end up costing him his job in the next few years.

Here's the Top Ten Worst Jerry Angelo Draft Picks for your viewing pleasure.

10. 2004 - Leon Joe - LB
University of Maryland
4th Round, 112th overall pick

Here's a fun little stat. Leon Joe has a grand total of 43 career tackles since being drafted by the Bears. He didn't do half bad playing on the Bears special teams unit, racking up 28 tackles in 2005. But the guy Angelo tabbed as the future of the LB core - or at least a solid backup - has bounced around the league and probably won't be around too much longer.

And Angelo should of known that you never trust a guy with two first names.

9. 2003 - Tron Lafavor - DT
University of Florida
5th round, 171th overall pick

A guy that Sports Illustrated projected to be an undrafted free agent in 2003 just looked too good for Angelo to pass up in the fifth round.

Career tackles: 1

Talk about getting value late in the draft, Angelo never even had to pay this guy.

8. 2002 - Roosevelt Williams - CB
Tuskegee University
3rd round, 72nd overall pick

Part of me feels like Angelo phoned in this entire draft from a beach somewhere knowing that it probably wouldn't even make that much of a difference if he was in the 'war room'.

Williams has played 20 games in his entire career and hasn't stepped onto an NFL field since 2003.

Total tackles: 27

The first round pick in 2002 for the Bears? Marc Colombo. The only reason why he isn't on this list is because he was only a bust for the Bears and a rock for the Cowboys.

7. 2007 - Dan Bazuin - DE
Central Michigan University
2nd round, 62nd overall

How bad has Bazuin been?

In only his second year, this second round bust has been injured from day one and is in danger of being cut in the next couple weeks.

Angelo must have just been trying to clear some cap space for that big free agent wide receiver signing he had planned for 2008.

Um...

6. 2006 - Dusty Dvoracek - DT
University of Oklahoma
3rd round, 73rd overall

I know what you're thinking but realistically I just don't care.

I'm sick and tired of hearing about how much of a 'wild man' Dvoracek looks like in practice and how dominant he'll be playing next to Tommie Harris.

The only thing I've seen is his name on the injury report.

Until he actually plays for more than a quarter before coming down with a season ending injury, he's a bust.

5. 2005 - Mark Bradley - WR
University of Oklahoma
2nd round, 39th overall

Do you remember when Lovie Smith said Mark Bradley would become the number one wide receiver for the Bears this year?

Ha.

I'll be the first to admit that I've been a believer in Bradley. But then again, I believed in Santa Claus for the first few chapters of my life and you know what?

I eventually learned he was a fake (Sorry to spoil that for you Ricky. You'll still get presents, don't worry).

But reality is a far more frightening picture with Marty Booker and Brandon Lloyd as the potential number one receiver for the Bears.

4. 2001 - David Terrell - WR
University of Michigan
1st round, 8th overall

I'll let my colleague Phil Barnes sum this pick up for me. This is from his epic Top Ten Chicago Draft Busts list:

"This Terrell reminds us a lot of another Terrell we know. Well except that the other one is a better smack-talker AND could actually play football. This former Wolverine great did a whole lot of nothing despite supposedly being a big-time draft pick. In reality however, this guy just had a big-time ego."

Word.

3. 2003 - Rex Grossman - QB
Florida
1st round, 22nd overall


Few GM's could ever claim to have messed up the quarterback position for a team worse than Jerry Angelo.

We've wasted five years waiting for Grossman. And now, we've got Kyle Orton to take his place.

There's a very good chance he'll be on this list next year.

2. 2003 - Michael Haynes - DE
Penn State
First round, 14th overall

I'll admit that Angelo has proven to be a very solid talent evaluator on the defensive side of the ball.

But he missed in such a big way with Michael Haynes that it simply cannot be forgiven.

Haynes never started a game for the Bears, tallied a measly 5.5 sacks and was cut for good in 2006.

1. 2005 - Cedric Benson - RB
Texas
1st round, 4th overall

How telling is it that Benson hasn't even worked out for another team since the Bears finally cut him?

I love it.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

David Terrell was selected by Hatley, before Angelo was hired.

Anonymous said...

I can't blame Angelo for taking #9 on your list. TRON is livin' for the citaaay! Haha His name is TRON.

Matthew Olsen said...

You're absolutely right. Angelo came on board with the Bears in June of 2001. The draft was on April 21 and Hatley left the Bears on April 30.


My apologies.

Anonymous said...

Jerry Angelo just buys a draft magazine from barnes & noble like an hour before the draft, skims thru it while taking a shit and then proceeds to call the pick from the bathroom to tell him the bad news that he is now a chicago bear.

you should have made #1 "insert name here" for whatever top 5 pick we get in next years draft.

i'm thinking we go QB in the first and OT in the 2nd and that could be some sort of foundation for the future of the offense

Tommy said...

How about doing a top 10 BEST draft picks. With all the negativity from the Chicago media got me to thinking. If Brett Favre had been playing in Chicago when he came into the league, the Chicago media would have ran him out of town, for his interceptions.

Zach Martin said...

@ tommy

How about this one. Top Ten championships not won by the Bulls since 1986.

I count one in the for major sports. ONE. There just isn't that much good to write about, you know? But, we will try my friend!

Ricky O'Donnell said...

Jeez, Matt's hilarious. Just hilarious.

Anonymous said...

Roosevelt Williams played 2003 and 2004 with the Browns.... Then finished 2005 with the Jets.

S.K. said...

Jerry Angelo shouldn't be held responsible for players who don't pan out because of injuries. As long as the player checked out with a clean bill of health at the time of the draft, his respective health as a pro was/is impossible to predict.

Besides, why hold the injured players against Angelo when so many of his draft picks who remained healthy proved to be busts?

Holding Angelo responsible for the injured players almost takes the focus off the numerous Angelo draft picks who didn't get injured, but turned out to be busts anyway.

Anonymous said...

Michael Hayes was a bust, but the Bears never really gave him a chance to succeed, either. They alternated every season between telling him to gain 40 pounds to move inside then to lose 40 to move outside. They did this to him 3 times. And I'd like to see Dan Bazun at #2. I cant f**king believe we cut a 2nd round pick a season later...

LaSalle 1 PE said...

You're missing Garrett Wolfe. Here's a guy you could have got in the 7th round and we blew a 3RD round pick on him!!! Gotta be kidding me! Also, if you drafted another list of the players we could have had instead of the ones we drafted...WOW!!! Suicide rates would skyrocket in Chicago!

Anonymous said...

He also has not produced a ligit #1 guy at his position. Briggs and Harris are the closest thing that anyone would consider "the best" at their position. Angelo and his player evaluators and development team are terrible. They have no clue how to draft. Start looking at some of the people that were selected after the Bears made their picks. It will make you sick!