pakowitz

Peyton Manning tossed more touchdown passes in his first 10 NFL games than Ryan Leaf threw during his career.


A decade after Indianapolis made Manning the first player drafted in 1998, leaving Leaf for San Diego at No. 2, the Chargers have recovered. Their playoff victory over Manning's Colts in January proved as much.



But the most regrettable draft outcome in San Diego sports history continues to reverberate well beyond Southern California. Leaf's quick demise impacted the quarterback fortunes of four franchises, demonstrating how draft-day mistakes can carry unintended consequences.



want to see how it has effected the saints?? click here:

ESPN - Leaf's San Diego failure had ripple effect - NFL

I Live In Beastmode!

QBREES9

So true.

FireVenturi

Lot of busts in that first round, WOW

hagan714

Such is life of the draft. that is why this draft worries me. the risks are higher this year than the past two years in round 1.

Saint_LB

I have a lot to say regarding this topic...

First off, it is my opinion that Leaf may have possibly been a victim of self-fulfilled prophesy. I compare the Leaf situation to Eli and his situation in NY. When a young kid...a high draft pick...comes to a pro team that already has veterans on their team that consider the team to be their team, I submit that there appears to be ego struggles. Some people, like...say, Jr. Seau, may subconsciously want to see this guy fail. Jr. Seau and Rodney Harrison may have been Leaf's Tiki Barber and Jeremy Shockey. Fortunately, the G-Men were able to sort through the mess and go with the QB, whereas it's quite possible that SD went the opposite way. Unfortunately, in this business, once you get a rep, it's hard to shed.

Having lived in SD during the Leaf/Manning draft, I heard some things being said about Peyton that I absolutely could not believe. These things were being said about Peyton by the FO in an attempt to justify their decision to go with Leaf and pass on a trade with Indy that would have allowed them to select Peyton. I strongly feel that the things that were said about Peyton left an awfully bitter taste in Archie's mouth for the Charger organization, and I believe that Archie feared that if Eli went to SD rather than NY that they might give up a little too easy, or not put the right people in place to allow him to succeed. I think Archie felt as strongly about Eli not being a Charger as he did about Eli not becoming a Saint...but probably not for the exact same reasons. I believe that Archie realized that when it came to the Saints, it was not an ownership/management problem, but more of it being too small of a market for them ever to be able to compete consistently.

Keep in mind, folks, that this is all just my opinion on things...take that and a buck and you can get yourself some coffee, unless you are in an airport or movie theater.

Whether you think you can or think you can't...you're right!

hagan714

nice post LB.