Five big first-round Raider busts

By Os Davis  |   Wednesday, March 26, 2008  |  Comments( 1 )

Oakland Raiders
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In taking a break from incessantly compiling and recompiling mock drafts – Sorry, the NCAA basketball sweet what? – this writer took a tangent into Oakland Raiders history, particularly in reference to an opportunity to draft ultra-talented legacy player Chris Long.

Like most franchises, the Raiders’ history on Draft Day is a bit of a mixed bag well representing the hit-or-miss game that is the NFL draft. After yesterday considering the great Oakland/Los Angeles first-rounders, the following is a list of black-and-silver busts. You may want to cover your eyes, Raider Nation: This is gonna get ugly.

• Eldridge Dickey, 1968, no. 25 overall. Not a victim of injuries or ability to “make the leap” to the pro game, Dickey’s pro career was instead derailed by simple unenlightened thinking. After running up Manning-like figures of 6,523 passing yards and 67 TDs at Tennessee State, the ambidextrous (!) QB was naturally drafted in the first round by the Raiders ... who then opted to morph him into a wide receiver, despite having reportedly outplayed some other rookie quarterback named Kenny Stabler over the course of the summer. Dickey’s fatal flaw? He was black. Dickey eventually sat out an entire two years of his four year “career,” and his imposed failure must go down as one of the darkest chapters in Raider history.

• Curt Marsh, 1981, no. 23 overall. After landing Ted Watts with the no. 21 overall, the Raiders went with University of Washington OL Marsh two picks later. Marsh’s career unfortunately became an unending string of injuries, which eventually made for some kind of record for futility in running up 30 surgical procedures culminating in the amputation of part of one of his legs. Marsh was on the Raiders roster for Super Bowl XVIII, but had been on IR throughout the 1983 season. In 1986, he was out of football, having played 45 games in six years, including one full season. Today, Marsh is a motivational speaker.

• Bob Buczkowski, 1986, no. 24 overall. The only thing keeping Raider backers from incessantly slagging off their new DE in the late 80s was the unpronouncable last name. After a terrible preseason, Buczkowski rode the bench for much of 1986 and finally registered his first sack in 1987. Thereafter, he was released and hung around for two more seasons in the NFL. On the plus side, Buczkowski recently made news in 2005 in a bust related to his co-ownership of Buckwild Entertainment, an escort-and-cocaine service in Pittsburgh.

• Todd Marinovich, 1991, no. 24 overall. It’s okay, Raider Nation, the flashbacks will go away. Eventually. Like in 20 or 25 more years. A prototypical big bust, Marinovich is typically gleefully mentioned on any list of biggest sports flops, including The Worldwide Leader in [American] Sports’ creatively titled “The 25 Biggest Sports Flops,” on which readers in 2005 placed the QB in the fourth spot. Do you suppose Marinovich is thankful for the existence of Ryan Leaf?

• Darrell Russell, 1997, no. 2 overall. Story arc of a modern-day NFL player’s biography: Drafted second overall by a storied franchise; makes consecutive Pro Bowls in sophomore and junior seasons in the NFL; starts taking a higher class of recreational pharmaceutical; begins racking up suspensions based on violation of substance policy; ultimately gets suspends from the league altogether for multiple offenses; dies in car wreck. The Darrell Russell Story. The end.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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