Admit you were wrong about any NFL player who turned out great

[Ren]

To many to list. Travis Fredricks is the first that comes to mind

 

[darthseinfeld]

Soooo many. I think JJ Watt is the biggest

I was convinced Watson was a back up caliber QB too

 

[cowboyec]

i can still hear chris berman going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about his chargers drafting tomlison and brees in that draft.
i hated brees and purdue as a notre dame fan.
i just knew he'd bust.
helluva player.
helluva qb.
helluva career.

 

[Nickyd2208]

Drew Brees
Russell Wilson
Lamar Jackson

 

[Teague31]

Aldon Smith before his legal troubles.

 

[john van brocklin]

With it being the off-season, I thought it would be fun to give everyone a chance to share and own on of their mistakes in thinking a player was not going to be very good but they turned out to be great.


*** Rules of the Thread ***

• It can be any current or former NFL player for any NFL team
• Only post a player who was much BETTER than you expected (not worse)
• You must NOT in any way say you were "right" or "not wrong" about anything

*** READ THIS -- The purpose of this thread is to .. without any disclaimers, exceptions or justification .. admit you were wrong about a player you thought would not be good that turned out to be great.

Go with Parsons...
I thought he might be ok/good, but this dude has been All World.

 

[Silly]

I wasn't too happy with Troy that first season

 

[starfan1]

Zach Martin (I didnt want manziel)

 

[Nova]

Deandre Hopkins

I had a feeling the 2013 draft would be garbage, and as such, I thought Tavon Austin, Cordarrelle Patterson, and Deandre Hopkins would be forgettable.

Hopkins ended up having a better career than Dez. Never would have guessed.

 

[ChronicCowboy]

Don’t know how great he was, but I was never a believer in McFlabb. But he ended up having a borderline HOF career.

 

[Bigdog]

For me and I know people will probably say yeah righ but it was Tom Brady. I was living in Boston when he was drafted and mostly everybody thought it was a throw away pick. He was a 4 stringer coming in and it was reported that he was just there to throw balls in training camp. Didn't play much his first two years at Michigan and then played some his Jr and split time with Drew Henson his Sr. Combine numbers and scouting report was terrible. I really didn't think he was make it through training camp.

 

[Bigdog]

Jerry Rice.

We lived in Baton Rouge when he played at Miss Valley State and they had the wildest passing game with a minimum of 6 passing TDs a game and were televised quite a bit and they ran 4-5 WR's all the time and while he was the best, they were all pretty good and I didn't think any of them would be that good. I thought he might be OK but never to the degree he reached. I thought he was a product of that system but he was the pivotal part of it along with the QB, Willie Totten. They averaged almost 60 points a game and I think he threw 60 TD passes in his and Rice's last year.

Rice never failed to catch me off guard. I'd be thinking 'well, they're sure as hell not going to let Rice beat them'. How he continued to get open game after game and season after season was one of the most unusual parts of the NFL I can recall. He was literally unstoppable and one of the hardest training athletes to ever grace the NFL.

And Dallas was ready to pounce on him until Walsh saw him on the local news when they were playing the Saints. They just won the SB and traded up to 16; one pick before the Cowboys, to grab him. During the preseason and the first 8 games Rice couldn't catch anything even the ball was handed to him and he was label a major bust by the press early. I guessed that turned out ok.

 

[Ken]

D.K. Metcalf-

Thought he was too stiff and a workout warrior. Whoops!

 

[big dog cowboy]

I thought it would be fun to give everyone a chance to share and own on of their mistakes in thinking a player was not going to be very good but they turned out to be great.

I can't think of anyone.

 

[mrmojo]

Nate Newton. Thought Tex picked him up as a gimmick as a reply to the Fridge.....turned out to be a heck of a guard and athlete.

 

[Aerolithe_Lion]

Justin Jefferson

Just the sheer volume of catches he needed to pin the ball to his pads in order to make:



Who wants a body-catcher? Yuck.

 

[Joe Realist]

Jason Witten

 

[stilltheguru]

I'm going with J. Kearse. I figured he would be a JAG, however, he was surprisingly better than I thought he would be last season.

Kearse turned out great?

 

[GroundZero1970]

Frank Gore

 

[Knotamus]

This is a great question. And I found it hard to answer bc I tend to be more optimistic than most. I believe most players have a chance to be something great if they made it to the NFL and put in the work required.

Believing Lombardi’s quote..

“The difference between a successful person and others is, not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will”

That said.. The first person that came to mind was Travis Frederick. Dal trading back in the first round and not grabbing the player I liked (Eric Reid), baffled me. I though Travis was a reach and too small to contribute right away. Although I liked the idea of rebuilding the OL at the time, I didn’t have much faith he would pan out at all. Boy, I happily can say I was wrong. Lombardi would be proud.