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, the quarterback conversation is already drifting back toward a familiar place: the disappointment pile. It’s a timely reminder that not every first-round passer becomes the franchise-changing answer teams are betting on.
Over the past 10 years, plenty of quarterbacks have gone high in the draft and failed to deliver. But three names stand above the rest when it comes to pure bust territory.
No. 3 on the list is Josh Rosen, the Arizona Cardinals’ No. 10 overall pick in 2018. Rosen entered the league with the kind of résumé that usually buys a prospect every benefit of the doubt.
At UCLA, he completed 66.7 percent of his passes and threw 55 touchdowns to 24 interceptions over his final two seasons. He had the arm talent, the mobility, the experience in a Power Five conference, and the reputation of a high-character prospect.
None of it translated.
Rosen was overwhelmed as a rookie, got benched, and was shipped out after one season when the Cardinals moved on and drafted Kyler Murray. Miami tried to give him a fresh start, but the outcome was the same: another benching.
The 49ers gave him a brief look, the Colts handed him another chance, and other teams kept bringing him in to compete for backup jobs. He kept getting passed over.
After a stint on the Minnesota Vikings practice squad in 2023, Rosen retired and moved into finance.
That kind of fall is hard to ignore, even if Arizona can at least point to what Rosen showed in college.
Zach Wilson lands at No. 2, and his name belongs near the top of this list because the Jets kept giving him chances. Drafted No. 2 overall in 2021, Wilson arrived from BYU after a huge final college season: 3,692 passing yards, 33 touchdowns, and a blistering 73.5 percent completion rate. The concern was the schedule, since BYU’s slate wasn’t especially strong, and those doubts turned out to matter.
Wilson started 13 games as a rookie and finished with a 55.6 percent completion rate, 11 interceptions, and only nine touchdowns. New York tried again the next season, but the slide kept going. He was pushed down to third string midway through the year, then got back on the field after Mike White was injured, only to be benched again for Chris Streveler.
His run with the Jets looked finished, but Aaron Rodgers’ ruptured Achilles forced Wilson back into the starting role. Even then, the improvement was limited, and the Jets eventually turned to Tim Boyle instead. Some of the blame belongs to a messy situation around him, but Wilson also kept losing his grip on jobs he should have been able to hold.
At No. 1 is Anthony Richardson, the Indianapolis Colts’ No. 4 pick in 2023. The Colts saw the physical gifts and bet on the ceiling, but the warning signs were already there. Richardson started just 13 games at Florida, and the production was modest at best: 53.4 percent completions, 2,549 passing yards, 17 touchdowns, and nine interceptions.
Compared with the quarterbacks taken around him, the gap was obvious. Bryce Young, selected three picks earlier, started 27 games at Alabama and produced 8,356 passing yards, 80 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.
C.J. Stroud, taken two picks earlier, started 25 games at Ohio State and totaled 8,123 passing yards, 85 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.
Richardson did bring the rushing element, finishing his college season with 654 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground while averaging 6.3 yards per carry. But even that wasn’t enough to make his profile look special in the same way Cam Newton’s 1,473 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns at Auburn did, or Jayden Daniels’ 1,134 rushing yards, 10 touchdowns, and 8.2 yards per carry at LSU.
And the wins never came at Florida, either. Richardson finished 6-7 as a starter before declaring for the draft.
The Colts drafted him because of traits: the rocket arm, the 4.34-second 40-yard dash, the 6-foot-4, 236-pound frame. They were betting that the tools would eventually become quarterback play.
So far, that bet has gone badly. Richardson started just four games before a season-ending injury ended his rookie year, then made only 11 starts in his second season, completed fewer than 50% of his passes, and got benched for Joe Flacco.
He never reclaimed the job and was later beaten out by Daniel Jones.
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