We had a chance at Tom Brady in the 5th/6th round.
That is what I was thinking. 31 teams passed on Tom at least 4/5 times. Some even more.
EVERY team has their "we passed on a great player for someone who ended up being pretty bad" moments in the draft.
The draft is hardly a science, so expecting 100% hit rate is just going to piss you off due to unrealistic expectations.
I guarantee for every fan's "pet prospect" that lives up to their expectations, they have 1 or more other "pet prospects" that have not become what they believed they could be. But why don't we remember our own failures? It is likely due to them going to another team, never making an impact, and thus falling out of the spotlight and is forgotten about.
I remember really liking Andrew Whitworth and he is arguably one of the most underrated players in the NFL in the past two decades. Yet I doubt anyone would argue against him being better than Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Fasano combined (the two players the Cowboys picked instead of Whitworth) .
I also remember liking Amobi Okoye and was upset that the Texans took him at 10, and we were "stuck with" Anthony Spencer (a player I really, really, really did not like) at 26. And even though Anthony Spencer was pretty much what I thought he was (he really earned that "Almost" nickname), he ended up CLEARLY being a better NFL player than Amobi.
So ya, I know I have missed, but at the same time some of the players I really liked became All-Pros. Shocking, right?
Yet I have no doubt, based off my own track record, I would be one of those "Terrible GMs" fans complain about all the time.