Vikings crowing about their wisdom

[Patler]

Just goes to show how inexact player evaluations are.

I think it also shows how roids throw off any ability to accurately evaluate players.

Well he wasn't the only one on them, if in fact he was.

[Bretsky]

Dwyane Rudd turned out well.

Anyone know what Michael Bennett's up to?

Badger basher

He's still a backup RB at KC

[esoxx]

Just goes to show how inexact player evaluations are.

I think it also shows how roids throw off any ability to accurately evaluate players.

Well he wasn't the only one on them, if in fact he was.

The problem with Mandarich is I suspect he STOPPED taking them when he got the NFL. I recall some articles about how he had dropped some weight and wasn't nearly as intense (roid rage) as he was at MSU. It's a shame.

[esoxx]

Dwyane Rudd turned out well.

Anyone know what Michael Bennett's up to?

Badger basher

Sorry, once he puts that horn on the side of his head he's fair game.

[Bretsky]

S.I. or Sporting News did a projected All-Pro team when Mandarich was a senior in college. It was projecting who would be All-Pros five years in the future. Mandarich was the only still-in-college player selected. They predicted he would be an All-Pro tackle for 10 years. I remember the article said that you draft him, put him at tackle, and don't even concern yourself with the position for the next 10-12 years, just worry about the other 21 starters.

I also remember a quote from a GM when the Packers released Mandarich. The guy said that truth-be-told almost every GM would have drafted him if the had the chance, except for the 2 or 3 that had young elite left tackles already. He said Mandarich was as "sure to succeed" of a player as he had ever evaluated.

Just goes to show how inexact player evaluations are.

I find that curious and am a bit surprised by that....although I do remember GM's commenting later how they'd take him.

I felt Mandarich was by no means a slam dunk with the quality of talent at the high end of the round that year.

After Mandarich came three Hall of Famers.......one at RB which many teams consider more important than OT.

And I'd confess that I wanted Derrick Thomas (not Barry Sanders).

And Neon Deon Sanders was a pretty good #5 as well.

Ugly stat; of the first five picks that year 4 will be Hall of Famers; we got Mandarich

[Chevelle2]

for some morbid reason, i find busted draft picks fascinated lol....was every packer fan pumped when Mandarich was picked?

[Bretsky]

for some morbid reason, i find busted draft picks fascinated lol....was every packer fan pumped when Mandarich was picked?

I hated the pick, but I never like first round draft picks made by Green Bay for the most part. I've watched about the last 25 drafts and the only first round draft pick I was truly on board with was A.J. Hawk.

That year my order of drafting preference was

1. Troy Aikman
2. Derrick Thomas
3. Barry Sanders
4. Tony Mandarich
5. Deon Sanders

[esoxx]

Vinnie Clark was a truly horrible first round Packer pick.

[esoxx]

I wanted Sanders in '89. However, it is true that everyone thought Mandarich was a lock for greatness at LT.

[swede]

I think Mandarich had dominated, and I mean DOMINATED, opposing football players for so long, and he had immersed himself in an over-the-top new kind of football player image (Guns n Roses bad boy style) that when the reality of NFL football hit him in the face and he found he wasn't special at all he crumbled on the inside while outwardly denying the reality of his nothingspecialness.

How humiliating to find that you are only an average guy when a substantial pile of credible evidence indicated you would be the best ever.

Later, after he grew up and got a second chance at professional football, he became a pretty respectable lineman when the new expectations were that he was a total bust that could never play.

[Jimx29]

[Patler]

I would like to know if the people who did those rankings realize that Mandarich actually played 6 seasons and 86 games, starting most of them. The unusual thing was he played 3 years in GB, then was out with a parasitic infection and complications from it and a concussion for 5 seasons, then returned at age 30 to play and mostly start 3 seasons for Indy. He then had another injury that ended his career.

At one time he actually played OK for the Packers, I think it was his second season. Then he got his first concussion and the parasitic blood disorder his third season.

Maybe he didn't live up to expectations, but he did have a pro career, unlike Phillips (35 games), Bosworth (24 games) and several of the others.