By Pete Williams

NOTE: In the year leading up to the 2005 NFL Draft, I followed the process from the perspectives of NFL teams, scouts, college programs, agents, and the players themselves. The result was my book THE DRAFT: A Year inside the NFL’s Search for Talent, which came out in 2006. The 2005 draft was a trainwreck on many levels. For all of the talk we’ll hear this weekend about blue-chip prospects and can’t-miss talent, the NFL Draft is at best a crap shoot. This is a story I wrote that appears in The Sporting News’ 2010 NFL Draft preview magazine.

THE DRAFT FROM HELL

It’s not quite the disaster that the 1986 NBA Draft turned out to be, but the 2005 NFL version looks like it will go down in pro sports history as one fo the most cursed of all time.

By Pete Williams

Five years ago, the San Francisco 49ers were thrilled to take quarterback Alex Smith with the No.1 overall pick in the draft. The Minnesota Vikings, with two first-round selections, thought they had a pair of solid building blocks in wide receiver Troy Williamson (seventh) and defensive end Erasmus James (18th).

The Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers respectively thought Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams, who shared time in the Auburn backfield, could each handle the workload of a featured back.

Braylon Edwards, Cedric Benson, Adam “Pacman” Jones, Antrel Rolle, Carlos Rogers and Mike Williams were viewed as future stars worthy of top-10 picks.

Edwards, Brown, Smith and Cadillac Williams have shown flashes of their draft-day potential. Even Benson, a bust in Chicago, looks to have rejuvenated his career in Cincinnati. But not one player selected among that 2005 group has become an established NFL star.

Every draft has its busts, but it’s difficult to find a draft without at least one perennial Pro Bowler among the first 10 selections.

“The biggest misperception people have about the draft is that you have a comparable talent pool every year,” says Charley Casserly, an NFL analyst for CBS and a former NFL general manager. “This was not considered a good draft at the time.”

Many NFL executives believe three seasons must pass before it’s fair to grade a draft or a player. That’s the period necessary for some players to learn complex playbooks or, if nothing else, outlast aging veterans. After five seasons, it’s unlikely a player is going to suddenly emerge or make vast improvement.

Though nobody is yet comparing the 2005 NFL Draft to the drug-infested 1986 NBA Draft that featured Len Bias, Chris Washburn, William Bedford, and Roy Tarpley among the top seven picks, it is replete with high-profile stories of unfulfilled potential, character issues and tragedy.

Pacman Jones, selected sixth by Tennessee, became the poster boy for the NFL’s epidemic of off-field misbehavior. The twice-arrested Matt Jones, the star of the 2005 NFL Scouting Combine, was a bust in Jacksonville after being selected 21st by the Jaguars.

Mike Williams and Maurice Clarett, who had unsuccessfully challenged the NFL’s early-entry rule, are now out of football. Clarett, taken by Denver with the last pick in the third round, is serving a seven-year prison term after a plea bargain on robbery and concealed weapons charges.

Williams, once rated at the top of ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr.’s pre-draft “bigboard,” ate himself out of the league, catching just 44 passes for three teams while at one point ballooning to 270 pounds.

“Williams was one of my worst evaluations ever,” Kiper wrote on ESPN.com. “I thought he was the best player in the 2005 draft.”

The 2005 draft also featured David Pollack (No. 17, Cincinnati) and Buffalo third-rounder Kevin Everett, both of whom suffered career-ending injuries. Those stories, while sad, are not as tragic as the deaths of Darrent Williams (second-round, Denver), Chris Henry (third round, Cincinnati), and Jonathan Goddard (sixth-round, Detroit).

Goddard, who died in a motorcycle accident in 2008 while playing in the Arena Football League, was part of a Detroit draft that produced little for then-general manager Matt Millen, though he was hardly the only front office boss to whiff in 2005.

The Vikings used the seventh overall pick they received from the Raiders in the Randy Moss trade for South Carolina wideout Troy Williamson, who struggled with drops and was later traded to Jacksonville for a sixth-round pick. James recorded just five sacks in an injury-plagued career with the Vikings and Redskins.

“You’re not going to draft well every year,” says Gil Brandt, the former longtime Dallas Cowboys personnel director. “But a bad draft or two can set you back for years.”

Though the top of the 2005 draft produced little, plenty of talent emerged later. DeMarcus Ware, Shawne Merriman, and Jammal Brown were taken with the 11th through 13th picks. Aaron Rodgers (No.24) and Roddy White (No.27) have been late bloomers.

The last three picks of the first round – Pittsburgh tight end Heath Miller, Philadelphia defensive tackle Mike Patterson and New England guard Logan Mankins – have been three of the draft’s best picks.

Those three teams drafted late in ’05 because of their ‘04 success, which has continued under coaching and front-office staffs that have stayed mostly intact. That lends credence to the theory that players who remain under the same schemes and coaching philosophies are more likely to last.

It’s tough to maintain that continuity, of course. Only eight head coaches and 10 general managers hold the same job they had in 2005.

“Continuity matters,” says Falcons president Rich McKay, who also was the team’s general manager in 2005. “If you bring in a new set of coordinators, I guarantee that within three years you’ll have nothing left from the previous regime.”

The 2005 draft illustrates how it might be more appropriate to judge a class as a whole rather than the impact of its top-10 picks. The class of 2005 included second-rounders Lofa Tatupu and Vincent Jackson, third-round pick Frank Gore, and fourth-rounders Marion Barber and Brandon Jacobs.

Of the six players from that draft to reach the Pro Bowl following the 2009 season, only Ware, Mankins, and Rodgers were first-round selections. Green Bay safety Nick Collins was drafted late in the second round, the Eagles’ Trent Cole in the fifth, and Dallas nose tackle Jay Ratliff in the seventh.

Then again, six Pro Bowlers is a small contingent for a recent draft.

Casserly admits that his 2005 draft with the Texans – headlined by No.16 overall pick Travis Johnson – was not very good. The following year, he used the first overall pick on Mario Williams instead of Reggie Bush or Vince Young and selected DeMeco Ryans in the second round.

Both Williams and Ryans are established stars after four seasons.

“It’s not like teams suddenly forgot how to approach the draft in 2005,” Casserly says. “Some years are better than others. We knew 2005 wasn’t as rich in talent and that’s proven to be the case.”

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