One thing that annoys me about sports punditry is the tendency a lot of people have to label the most recent thing as the best or worst. Kobe Bryant is not better than Michael Jordan was. Barry Bonds was not better than Babe Ruth. Largely because they were more recent, though, a lot of people argue they are. Sometimes, however, the most recent thing deserves that kind of superlative. That is the case with the top guy on our list, Vernon Gholston.
You have heard me tell you that some guys on this list were injury prone. Some guys were burdened with bad teammates, bad coaching, or were a bad fit for the system the Jets were running. Others should not have been taken as high as they were. None of this applies to Gholston.
He was a top ten pick who had excellent athleticism and a track record of production in college. He had two different coaches. One of them is arguably the best defensive coach in the league and helped improve the performance of almost every other player on the defense. The team tried him out at two positions. His teammates have made the past few years one of the most successful runs in franchise history. How much production did it get from Gholston? Nada.
At least the other guys on this list made a few plays. Browning Nagle and Blair Thomas accounted for a few touchdowns. What did Gholston do? He had no sacks. You could probably count the number of plays he made in his three years with the Jets with both hands. All he really did was account for the occasional quarterback pressure.
Normally when a team cuts ties with a player, fans of other teams want their club to take a low cost gamble. High picks usually have a lot of natural ability. Otherwise they would not have been high picks. Check out what fan sites of other teams say about Gholston. The consensus almost everywhere is that if Rex Ryan could not get anything out of him, he will not produce.
Gholston is not just the biggest bust in Jets history. He is one of the biggest busts in NFL Draft history. He might top this list another fifty years from now.
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