With J.J. McCarthy losing his job to Kyler Murray and Michael Penix Jr. facing the possibility of losing his starting job to Tua Tagovailoa, two more young former first-round quarterbacks are in the early stages of disappointing careers, which makes it a fitting time to look back at some of the most disappointing quarterbacks of the past 10 years.
Over the past decade, there have been several quarterbacks who were drafted high but never quite lived up to the hype. However, three players stand out amongst the rest as the biggest quarterback busts over the past 10 years.
3. Josh Rosen – Arizona Cardinals – No. 10 Overall in 2018
Josh Rosen looked like a sure thing coming out of UCLA, which makes his NFL failure even more striking. He had elite traits and plenty of opportunities across multiple franchises, yet managed to waste all of them.
Drafted No. 10 overall by the Arizona Cardinals in 2018, Rosen came off a solid college career where he completed 66.7 percent of his passes and threw 55 touchdowns to 24 interceptions across his final two seasons. He started a lot of games in a Power Five conference, showed mobility and was considered a high-character prospect. But he just never worked out in the NFL despite a lot of chances.
Rosen struggled badly in his rookie season and was eventually benched. Seemingly identifying that he wasn’t a great fit, the Cardinals parted ways with him after just one season, trading him to the Miami Dolphins and drafting Kyler Murray to replace him.
The Dolphins gave Rosen a chance to reset, but the results were the same as he was benched again. He was 49ers picked him up briefly, the Colts gave him another shot, and a string of other organizations let him audition for the backup role. Each time, he was beaten out and had trouble even earning a job as a backup.
After a stint on the Minnesota Vikings practice squad in 2023, Rosen retired from football and stepped into a career in finance.
While it’s tough to blame the Cardinals for drafting Rosen given what he accomplished in college, it’s tough not to include a guy on this list who went from top-10 pick to a desk job in five years.
2. Zach Wilson – New York Jets – No. 2 Overall in 2021
Zach Wilson is one of the more high-profile quarterback failures in recent memory, mostly because he had ample opportunity to prove himself; it just never worked out.
Drafted by the New York Jets with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Wilson was actually coming off a really strong career at BYU where he threw for 3,692 passing yards his and 33 touchdowns during his final collegiate season, completing a staggering 73.5 percent of his passes. The only concern was the level of competition, as BYU played quite a weak schedule.
Unfortunately, those concerns seemed to have merit.
Wilson started 13 games during his rookie season where he completed just 55.6 percent of his passes and threw more interceptions (11) than touchdowns (9). The Jets decided to give Wilson another chance the following season, but things didn’t get better. Wilson was demoted to third string midway through the season as the team turned to Mike White. When White suffered an injury, Wilson was inserted back into the lineup, but he was benched again in favor of Chris Streveler.
That seemed like the end of Wilson’s chances with the Jets, but the team had to put him in the starting lineup once again after Aaron Rodgers ruptured his Achilles. While Wilson performed better than he had in previous seasons, he was eventually benched in favor of backup quarterback Tim Boyle.
While some of Wilson’s failures could certainly be attributed to a dysfunctional organization, the reality is that he had many opportunities to prove himself and was consistently benched in favor of guys who had no business being NFL starting quarterbacks.
1. Anthony Richardson – Indianapolis Colts – No. 4 Overall in 2023
The Indianapolis Colts ignored red flag after red flag when drafting former Florida Gators quarterback Anthony Richardson with the No. 4 pick in 2023. Turns out, they should have heeded those warnings.
The vast majority of quarterbacks selected at the top of the first round of the NFL Draft either had multiple successful seasons as a starting quarterback at the college level or had one transcendently great season that thrust them to the top of draft boards. Richardson, however, started just 13 games at Florida and wasn’t particularly good or successful in those starts.
Richardson’s stats at the college level were profoundly mediocre, and that’s probably being a bit generous. He completed just 53.4 percent of his passes during his lone season as a starter with 2,549 passing yards while throwing 17 touchdowns to nine interceptions.
For context, Bryce Young, who was selected three picks ahead of Richardson, started 27 games at Alabama, where he totaled 8,356 passing yards and 80 touchdowns with just 12 interceptions. C.J. Stroud, who was selected two picks ahead of Richardson, started 25 games at Ohio State, where he total 8,123 passing yards and 85 touchdowns with just 12 interceptions.
To be fair, Richardson is a dual-threat quarterback, and he did add 654 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground, averaging 6.3 yards per carry. While impressive, those aren’t really trascendantly good rushing numbers, either. Cam Newton had 1,473 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns in his final season at Auburn. Jayden Daniels had 1,134 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns his final season at LSU with 8.2 yards per carry.
Perhaps mostly damningly, Richardson’s talent didn’t even translate to wins for Florida as he finished just 6-7 as a starter before declaring for the NFL Draft.
The Colts drafted Richardson at No. 4 purely because of his traits. He has a rocket arm and ran a 4.34-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine with a 6-foot-4, 236-pound frame. Indianapolis undoubtedly hoped that with those physical attributes, he could blossom into a quarterback he never was at the college level. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. He started just four games before a season-ending injury cut his rookie year short; then he made just 11 starts he second season, where he completed fewer than 50% of his passes before getting benched for veteran Joe Flacco. He never got his starting job back as he was beaten out by Daniel Jones the following year.
Three years later, his future with the team and in the NFL generally is totally uncertain.
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