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Dining In The 80’s:
Booming Busts – Part II
by Chris Brophy
18/12/2008
In part two of our look at some of the busts from the NFL draft through the 80’s we visit the second half of the decade which features the Lions missing on a QB (don’t act surprised!) and the Cleveland Browns making one of the most surprising moves in draft history.
1985: Kevin Allen, OT, Indiana – #9 overall by the Philadelphia Eagles
After blowing a first round pick on a receiver last time out, the Eagles attempted to rebuild their offensive line in 1985 with the selection of Kevin Allen. Perhaps the Eagles reached for need as Allen was the fourth offensive lineman to go inside the top ten of that year’s draft (after Bill Fralic, Lomas Brown and Ken Ruettgers) but it didn’t take long for them to be disappointed by a top ten pick for the second straight year.
Allen failed to win a starting job in his rookie year and when expected to push the starters for a job in his second season he went and tested positive for cocaine. Times got worst as he became involved in a sexual assault case which resulted in him spending three years in prison. His career was over before it started!
When you look back at a team’s history in the draft you accept teams will have bad periods where either the front office was making poor decisions or they just plain had some bad luck but the 1985 draft was one of the better first rounds of recent times so hitting on a bust in this year is that bit more worst. Players taken within a few picks of Allen include Jerry Rice, Jim Lachey and Al Toon and Allen was the only member of the top ten of 1985 to fail to have a productive NFL career.
1986: Chuck Long, QB, Iowa – #12 overall by the Detroit Lions
 It seems like the Lions have been trying to find a QB forever and Chuck Long is certainly not alone in the list of high QB draft busts for the Lions.
He came to Detroit after gaining national attention in college by lifting the Iowa Buckeyes to success. As a junior he had helped rack up the most points against Texas in 80 years in the Freedom Bowl and the following year helped make the Buckeyes the #1 team in college football for several weeks. On entering the draft he was only the second college player ever to pass for over 10000 yards in his career and held the all time completion percentage record for any QB with over 1000 career attempts. Big things were expected.
He was placed in an awful situation, the Lions had been bad for years, they had little in terms of offensive weapons and Long was soon taking a beating. It wasn’t long before his confidence was shattered and former starter Eric Hipple regained the job.
He would hang around the league until 1994 but never threw a pass the last three of them. He has since gone on to a reasonably successful coaching career although he was recently fired as the Head Coach of San Diego State.
The 1986 draft was much weaker than the previous year and the Lions can hardly claim to have totally screwed up. There were plenty of other misses and no QB’s taken shortly afterwards went on to great success although if the Lions had waited until round six they could have had future Super Bowl MVP Mark Rypien or future London Monarch Stan Gelbaugh.
1987: Mike Junkin, LB, Duke – #5 overall by the Cleveland Browns
The 1987 draft had a few candidates for our booming bust of this particular season but even though players like Alonzo Highsmith and Brent Fullwood had very average careers, the fact the Browns reached for a linebacker at #5 that some people had graded as no more than a mid-round pick and had traded up to do it means Junkin has to be the bust for this year.
The Browns had come of a 12-4 season where they made the AFC Championship Game but they felt they could upgrade their mid-ranked defense. Chip Banks (brother of the Giants Carl) wasn’t a happy camper and the Browns combined him with some picks to move up 19 spots in the first round so they could select a replacement.
Junkin was that guy but he was totally out of his depth. In two seasons with the Browns he barely seen the field and was let go. The Chiefs gave him a shot but he did nothing there either and three years after being a top five selection he was out of the league.
Nicknamed Mad Dog in college, no one is really sure what the Browns seen in him that no one else did. Ironically his brother Trey would survive in the NFL for 19 years as a tight end and long snapper.
If the Browns had wanted help for their defense they’d have been better served with Shane Conlan or Rod Woodson a few picks later.
1988: Aundray Bruce, LB, Auburn – #1 overall by the Atlanta Falcons
 This was a tricky one because nearly all the top half of the 1988 draft panned out pretty well. Bruce had a serviceable career in the NFL but he is the pick for this year because as the #1 overall pick, so much more was expected.
Bruce had gotten noticed in college as the MVP of the Citrus Bowl and also in a game against Georgia Tech when he recorded ten tackles, three interceptions and a returned one of them for a TD. He was being hyped unfairly as the next Lawrence Taylor and the Falcons took him to be the major building block of a defense in need of an overhaul after finishing dead last in the league the previous season.
Bruce was expected to be the all action linebacker. In truth he wasn’t mobile enough and was still growing into his body. He would end up as a specialist pass rusher and when he moved to the Raiders as a free agent a few years later, he would move to defensive end.
Sometimes it might be harsh calling a half decent player a bust but expectations play a part in the decision and the overall #1 pick has to be the turning point for a bad team Bruce never was that and the Falcons would likely have gotten more impact linebacker play from Ken Harvey, taken by the Cardinals eleven picks later.
1989: Tony Mandarich, OT, Michigan State – #2 overall by the Green Bay Packers
Aundray Bruce may be unfairly labelled as a bust but there is no doubting Tony Mandarich’s place on this list. This guy had it all, the hype, the holdout, the failure, the comeback and then the admission after it was all done that he had cheated.
Mandarich was taken #2 overall by the Packers to help their stuttering offense in a division that featured the tough defensive lines of the Bears and Vikings. In college Mandarich had won plaudits and awards but was also a rarity in that he got noticed as much off the field for his love of rock music and talking himself up. Offensive linemen are usually the unsung heroes of the team but Mandarich was his team’s star player.
He spent the pre-draft hyping himself up and gaining attention for threatening to take up boxing and fight Mike Tyson. The Packers still took him though but he then went on to holdout and only got signed just before the start of the season. This effectively meant his rookie season was wasted. He would move into the right tackle spot in his second year and whilst he retained it for a couple of seasons, it soon became apparent he was not the quality that was expected as he struggled with the speed and strength of NFL players.
After not seeing any playing time in 1992 he was let go by the Pack and that seemed to be that but three seasons later he attempted a comeback and actually made it onto the Colts. He moved from tackle to guard and spent most of the next three seasons as a starter before retiring for good in 1998. After retiring Mandarich would later admit to using steroids whilst in college which likely helped him to dominant. He denied using them in the NFL but considering how bad he played in the pro’s no one can blame him for denying that as it would make his failure almost seem worst.
What does make his failure worst though is apart from Mandarich, the 1989 top five is as good as it will ever get. Troy Aikman went #1 overall and Barry Sanders at #3. Both are in the Hall Of Fame. #4 was Derrick Thomas and #5 was Deion Sanders. They will very likely join Aikman and Sanders in the Hall at some point.
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