10 biggest NFL draft busts in Texas football history

Steve Sarkisian and Quinn Ewers nearly stole the Sugar Bowl from Washington, but Texas’s season ended on New Year’s Day (or January 2 on the East Coast). Now that Texas is officially back, attention will turn to which players are coming back and which are headed for the NFL draft. 

Inevitably, some of the Longhorns' best players will leave for the league hoping to fare better in professional football than the names on this list. Quinn Ewers is likely coming back to Austin in hopes of improving to avoid being a first-round draft bust. 

The players on this list could have probably used another year or two as Longhorns. Still, some players were never going to cut it in the NFL. Some failed because of their situation, others failed on their own accord, and some were stricken with bad luck, but every player on this list underwhelmed the teams that took them so high.  

There have been three No. 1 overall picks out of Texas and 46 Longhorns have been selected in the first round of the NFL draft. Nine of those 46 players have made this list and we even snuck on a second-rounder, one who truly disappointed. 

By rule, I typically only consider first-round picks to be draft busts. The rest of the draft beyond the early first round frankly is too volatile to consider a player to be a full-on bust… usually. Limas Sweed is the exception. 

Sweed was taken in the second round by the Steelers, who were looking for a more dynamic wide receiver to compliment Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes, so the speedy Sweed seemed like a perfect fit.

The 6-foot-5 24-year-old rookie could get open with ease, he just couldn’t ever hang onto the ball. His drops were such a problem that as a rookie he was targetted just 10 times and finished with six catches for 64 yards, and in 2009 he was targetted five times, made one catch, and was out of the league by 2010.