10. Dan McGwire
NFL Stats: 2 TD, 6 INT, 745 yards, 52.3 QB Rating
Mark’s little brother was a huge bust despite prototypical size and arm strength. Drafted 16th overall in the 1991 Draft, he backed up Dave Krieg during his rookie season, but was then beaten out by Stan Gelbaugh and Kelly Stouffer in 1992. The Seahawks drafted Rick Mirer with the second overall pick in 1993 and gave up on McGwire.

9. Todd Marinovich
NFL Stats: 8 TD, 9 INT, 1,345 yards, 66.4 QB Rating
Insert “Marijuanavich” joke here. The famed “Robo QB” was drafted with the 24th pick in the 1991 Draft. After making his debut in the last week of the 1991 season and throwing three TD’s he then threw for 395 yards in his first start of the ’92 season leading the Raiders to victories in three of the next four games. After that it was all downhill as he only started one more NFL game in his career. Marinovich then battled highly publicized drug problems and bounced around the CFL and Arena League.

8. Todd Blackledge
NFL Stats: 29 TD, 38 INT, 5,286 yards, 60.2 QB Rating
Never lived up to the hype of the other QB’s selected in the 1983 Draft and was the most notable bust in a first round that featured John Elway, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino and Ken O’Brien. Drafted with the seventh overall pick by the Chiefs he had a lot more success than the previous two QB’s on this list, lasting a full five seasons, but was never a consistent starter.

7. Andre Ware
NFL Stats: 5 TD, 11 INT, 1,112 yards, 63.5 QB Rating
The first of two University of Houston QB’s with over inflated stats to make this list. After being drafted seventh overall in 1990 Ware started only six games during his four years with the Lions. After that he had a brief stint with the Raiders, played in the CFL and finally in NFL Europe.

6. Cade McNown
NFL Stats: 16 TD, 19 INT, 3,111 yards, 67.7 QB Rating
After dominating the Pac Ten during college, McNown really appeared to be ready for the NFL. But after being selected by the Bears with the 12th pick in the 1999 Draft McNown held out of training camp and never recovered. In his one season as a starter, he led the Bears to a 1-6 record.

5. David Klingler
NFL Stats: 16 TD, 22 INT, 3,994 yards, 65.1 QB Rating
Klingler’s pro career was the embodiment of the Bengals franchise in the mid 90’s. He was drafted sixth overall in 1992, never looked like a capable NFL starter and set the Bengals franchise back several years before ultimately losing his job to Jeff Blake. After retiring from the NFL, Klingler entered the Dallas Theological Seminary and earned a Masters Degree in Theology.  

4. Tim Couch
NFL Stats: 64 TD, 67 INT, 11,131 yards, 75.1 QB Rating
The number one overall pick in the 1999 Draft, Couch was unable to live up to the hype during his five years with the franchise, leading the team to only one season over .500 and was eventually beat out by journeyman Kelly Holcomb.  Couch was constantly injured during his time in Cleveland, which “hurt” his career as much as anything else.

3. Heath Shuler
NFL Stats: 15 TD, 33 INT, 3,691 yards, 54.3 QB Rating
Drafted number three overall by the Washington Redskins in 1994, perhaps if he hadn’t been selected by a team in Washington DC we’d have one less slimy politician on the streets. Either way he’d better hope he is a better congressman than he was a pro QB, because he sucked from day one. After a holdout, he received a huge contract and responded by sucking for the next couple years and retired with an interception total that more than doubled his career TD mark.

2. Akili Smith
NFL Stats: 5 TD, 13 INT, 2,212 yards, 52.8 QB Rating
The first true “Workout Warrior”, Smith’s performance off the field in various pre draft workouts led to him being selected number three overall by the Bengals after only 11 starts in college. Smith held out for 27 days and ended up starting only 17 games in four years with the Bengals before being released.

1. Ryan Leaf
NFL Stats: 14 TD, 36 INT, 3,666 yards, 50.0 QB Rating
Ryan Leaf must hate the weekend of the NFL Draft because I’m sure he gets about a million interview requests from all the major networks for a “Where are they now?” type segment. Sadly, he probably still flips out on them like that poor writer in the Chargers locker room during the most memorable of several of his video recorded tirades. Perhaps if he would have barrowed Biff’s line from Back to the Future instead of freaking out (“Make like a tree, and Leaf-ve!”) he would have been a better NFL QB. He sure couldn’t have been any worse.