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When a player is selected in the NFL Draft, they have a certain amount of expectations based on when and where they were picked. Players chosen in the earlier rounds of the draft, especially in the first round, are generally expected to impact their team right away.
Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out the way it was planned. Many draft busts over the years have never quite lived up to their expectations. However, there have been times when a player has initially been labeled a bust but was able to turn their career around later down the line. Here are three players in recent NFL history to do so.
NFL Draft busts who later turned things around
#1 - Cordarrelle Patterson
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Cordarrelle Patterson is one of the greatest bounceback stories of the 2021 NFL season, being named the Most Improved Player of the Year by the PFWA. He is the definition of a late bloomer for how things have unfolded in his career. In the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft, he was selected by the Minnesota Vikings to be an offensive playmaker but could never really get things going.
He bounced around to four different teams for eight years while never recording more than 627 total yards and seven touchdowns, which he achieved during his rookie season. Everything changed in his 9th season with his fifth team, recording 1,166 and 11 touchdowns for the Atlanta Falcons. He set new career highs in just about every rushing and receiving category.
#2 - Ryan Tannehill
The Miami Dolphins selected Ryan Tannehill with the 8th overall pick of the 2012 NFL Draft. Any quarterback selected that early in the draft automatically receives sky-high expectations. Unfortunately, Tannehill never quite lived up to them in Miami. He recorded just a 42-46 record across six seasons, with 123 touchdowns and 75 interceptions before being traded to the Tennessee Titans.
Tannehill has revived his career with the Titans across the last three seasons. He has achieved an impressive 30-13 record with 76 touchdowns and 27 interceptions. In six years with the Dolphins, he has recorded six rushing touchdowns, while he has already totaled 18 rushing touchdowns with the Titans in just three years.
#3 - Mark Ingram
After being selected in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft, Mark Ingram failed to record more than 650 total yards or five touchdowns in his first three seasons, earning him the label of a bust. In his fourth season with the New Orleans Saints, he turned things around, transforming himself into a reliable offensive weapon.
In five of the next six seasons, Ingram recorded more than 1,100 total yards while being selected to three Pro Bowls. He registered six or more touchdowns in each of those six seasons while accounting for ten or more total touchdowns in three of them.
