8 NFL Rookie Of The Year Winners Who Failed To Live Up To The Hype

Most of the NFL players who’ve won Rookie of the Year have gone on to have a pretty successful career. However, there are more than a few who essentially peaked during their first season in the league before things went downhill quicker than most people would have predicted.

These NFL players who won Rookie of the Year did not end up living up to the hype

The Associated Press has been picking the best Offensive Rookie of the Year in the NFL since 1957 (defensive players had to wait until 1967 to get in on the action). The list of guys who’ve earned that honor is full of franchise legends and Hall of Famers, but there are also some rising stars who had a fairly meteoric fall from grace.

Eddie Lacy

I’m not ranking these players in any particular order, but if I were, Eddie Lacy would probably end up at the top of the list.

Lacy played running back at Alabama and was selected by the Packers with the 61st overall pick in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. He racked up 1,178 rushing yards and punched the ball into the end zone 11 times during his first season in Green Bay, which was good enough to get 70% of the vote while being named the Offensive Rookie of the Year.

He had a similarly impressive sophomore campaign, but things took a turn due to the weight and conditioning issues that became an incredibly hot topic of discussion after his stats significantly declined in 2015.

He only appeared in five games with the Packers the following year due to an ankle injury that ended what ended up being his final season with the team, and he found himself out of the league after just five years following a disappointing one-and-done stint with the Seahawks.

Robert Griffin III

Robert Griffin III made a name for himself as a dual-threat quarterback at Baylor before the team now known as the Commanders scooped him up with the second pick in 2012.

They passed on the chance to draft Andrew Luck, but it looked like they made a solid call when Griffin won Rookie of the Year after passing for 3,200 yards, throwing 20 touchdowns, and respectively adding 815 and seven on the ground. He led the team to the playoffs, although they lost in the first round in a game where he tore his ACL.

His individual stats didn’t fall off a cliff during his second season, but Washington went 3-10 with Griffin as a starter before he was benched in favor of Kirk Cousins. Those two men ended up engaged in a QB battle that also included Colt McCoy, and Cousins eventually emerged as the man for the job before Griffin was benched for the entirety of the 2015 season.

He spent four more years in the league after signing with the Browns in 2016, but he was largely relegated to a backup role during the season in Cleveland that preceded the three with the Ravens that marked the end of his career.

Vince Young

Vince Young emerged as one of the top prospects in the country after leading Texas to a national championship as a junior in 2005, and he would have almost certainly won the Heisman Trophy if he hadn’t had to compete with Reggie Bush that season.

The Titans drafted him with the third overall pick in the draft in 2006, and he had 2,199 yards and 12 touchdowns in the air along with 552 and seven on the ground while cementing himself as the best offensive rookie in the league. That momentum carried into his second season in Tennessee, but he injured his knee toward the start of the season in 2008 before Kerry Collins stepped into the starting role during a campaign where the Titans finished at 13-3.

He almost helped them salvage a playoff spot the following year after leading them to an 8-2 record as a starter in relief of Colloins following a brutal start, but he had an ugly divorce with the team after injuring his thumb nine games into the 2010 campaign.

He capped off his NFL career with the Eagles but only spent a single year in Philadelphia before trying (and failing) to get a job after trying out for the Bills, Packers, and Browns.

Cadillac Williams

Some of the players on this list can blame injuries for their decline, and that’s certainly the case with Cadillac Williams.

The former Auburn running back was selected by the Buccaneers with the fifth overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft and firmly won Offensive Rookie of the Year honors on the back of his 1,178 rushing yards.

Unfortunately, that was the first and only time he surpassed the 1,000-yard mark during a career that was impacted by an ankle injury that hindered him during his first two seasons. He also dealt with a torn patella in his right knee that limited him to four games during his third in 2007, as well as the one in his left that restricted him to six the following year.

Williams ultimately spent six seasons in Tampa Bay before capping off his career with the Rams in 2007.

Anthony Thomas

Michael Vick was firmly the favorite to win Offensive Rookie of the Year heading into the season in 2001. However, that honor ended up going to Anthony Thomas, the former Michigan running back who the Bears selected in the second round.

Thomas had 1,183 rushing yards and seven rushing TDs that year, but that was the high-water mark for the largely forgotten player who never matched either of those totals during a six-year career where he also played for the Saints, Cowboys, and Bills.

John Stephens

John Stephens was a running back at Northwestern State in Louisiana who broke the school’s record for career rushing yards en route to attracting the attention of the Patriots, who used the 17th overall pick in the 1988 NFL Draft to secure his talents.

His career mirrored that of Cadillac Williams, as he got off to a hot start with 1,168 yards and four touchdowns as a rookie. However, he never hit the four-digit mark on the ground again during a career where he spent his first five seasons in New England and split his sixth and final one between the Packers and the Chiefs.

Kendrell Bell

All of the guys I’ve mentioned so far won Rookie of the Year for their contributions on the offensive side of the ball, but I want to close it out by mentioning a couple who were honored for their defensive prowess.

We’ll kick things off with Kendrell Bell, the linebacker who played at Georgia before the Steelers selected him in the second round in 2001. He had 82 combined tackles (69 of which were solo) and nine sacks as a rookie, and emerged as a solid contributor over the course of his first three seasons in Pittsburgh.

Unfortunately, his career was derailed by the knee, groin, and shoulder injuries that contributed to him appearing in just three games in 2004. He was never able to return to his former self during the three seasons he spent with the Chiefs to close out his career, and is definitely one of the biggest “What Ifs?” mentioned here.

Mike Croel

Mike Croel ultimately had a better start to his career than most of the other guys on this list, as the fourth overall pick for the Broncos in 1991 had 84 tackles and 10 sacks while winning Defensive Rookie of the Year.

The linebacker’s tackling numbers continued to improve during his next two years in Denver (although his sacks dipped by 50%), but things took a turn for the worse when his contributions cratered during his fourth season in 1994.

The Broncos let him go, and he spent a single season with the Giants, Ravens, and Seahawks before settling for the XFL after failing to find a new home.