NFL

Aldon Smith. But he let off field troubles ruin his career.

Joe Delaney - Chiefs running back in the early 80’s. Ran for 1100 yards as a rookie, got hurt during the strike shortened 1982 season, then died while saving a kid from drowning before the 1983 season.

Safety Nick Collins, neck injury ended his career. Was a 3x all pro.

Sean Taylor, my favorite safety ever. Killed by pieces of shit in his home.

I’m convinced that Ki-Jana Carter would have been a star. Third carry of first preseason game and he blows out his knee

I really feel bad for Dobbins. His talent and running style was perfect for Baltimore. It's hard for me to think of anyone else who's gotten fucked over that hard by injuries. His career basically never got started. And it's not like he's "injury prone" really. Just two brutal freak injuries. Hope he can pull a D'Onta Foreman and still find work somewhere eventually. But I feel bad knowing we only ever got a small sample of what he could do, and how much it could have added to those ravens teams.

I don’t want to bag on him because he did have a solid career, but a fully engaged and motivated Bryant McKinnie could have been a generational talent at LT. The dude was a freak of nature. He had enough talent to get by on talent alone but didn’t have the drive to take his game to the next level.

Charles Rogers is a big one

While he had a good career, I really want to know if Carson Palmer could have been legitimately great had he not torn his knee up that fateful day.

Another one: Jahvid Best. Dude was electric, but concussions took him down. He found life as a track and field star, but I'll always wonder about what could have been.

Tony Boselli. I know he eventually made it to the HOF, but I don't think people realize how dominant he was in the years he was healthy.

3x First Team All American

3x First Team All Pac-10

Morris Trophy Winner

1st Overall in the 95 NFL Draft

PFWA 1995 All-Rookie Team

3x 1st Team All Pro

5x Pro Bowler

1990s All Decade Team

People talk about Pace, W. Jones, and Ogden as the best tackles of that era, but Boselli was just as good, if not better.

Aldon Smith, Josh Gordon, Henry Ruggs

Priest Holmes

Priest Holmes

Justin Blackmon had all the talent in the world. In the few games he played, he was a dominant receiver. Go back and watch him against Stanford when he played for OK St. So much potential and big play ability

Substance abuse issues eventually cost him what could have been a great and lucrative career.

John Ross

Josh Gordon is definitely one. I've thought that Tim Couch could've been good if he hadn't been taken by the Browns. Of course, picking a Browns QB pick in the last 20 or so years is basically cheating at this question.

I want to know how David Carr would have done if he didn’t get drafted by the expansion Texans.

How does he look/play if he isn’t sacked 76 times in his first year?

Shawn Merriman but injuries killed his career!

And as a Washington, Sean Taylor. He just started to emerge as a top safety. To bad.

Todd Gurley was unstoppable until his knees stopped.

Koren Robinson in the 2000s was a high draft pick by the Seahawks who appeared to have all the physical ability, but never made much of an impact. He kept getting drunk driving arrests, maybe domestic violence iirc, bs like that, and washed out of the league pretty fast - except that in that one year when all the receivers were injured (2008? 2009?) they brought him back. Maybe Billy McMullen or Keary Colbert were injured too at the time, idk. I’m gonna look up some of those guys, that was a strange time in Seahawk history. Jim Mora Jr. seemed like kind of an idiot lol.

There’s something buttersweet about the guys who hung it up early for their health, Kuechly and Luck come to mind, lots of respect for them but damn I wish I could have seen a few more seasons from each of them

I was checking the waiver wire for fantasy and was surprised to see Jordan Matthews still in the league lol

Bo Jackson and Sterling Sharp

Sam Bradford should have been amazing. If only he had any legs.

Greg Cook.

And unfortunately looking like Tre'Davious White might be heading that way as well.

First four seasons:

All-rookie team 2017

Pro Bowl 2019 & 2020

First team All-Pro 2019 Second team 2020

Since: 21 of 51 games played:(

Michael Crabtree but he tried Richard Sherman one time.

I know he's not liked (and for good reasons) and he kind of still had a good career? But I feel Anthonio Brown ruined his because of brain injury. The dude was one of the best if not the best for 4/5 years and I feel he could have gone on for 5 to 6 more.

Antonio Brown

Side question, does anyone remember what happened to Dwayne Jarrett? Receiver out of USC, I thought he was going to be the next big superstar. Seems like he just vanished.

I really thought RGIII was going to be big

Duane Haskins. Dude had incredible talent at Ohio State and I think got into the wrong situation in the NFL. Fucking sad how the story ended but I still think with the right coaches/situation he could've been something in the NFL.

Randy Gregory

Michael Floyd .., had a decent short career but had the skill set to be a +70 TD guy :(

I wish Cam Newton would have gotten a chance with a better team

I think both Titus Young and Jahvid Best.

Looked like Young was a rising star but had a ton of behavior issues apparently stemming from concussions. He was diagnosed with being bipolar in 2013 and “Due to his personality changes, Young admitted he hears voices telling him to commit crimes, and it has been noted that he could have CTE due to multiple head traumas.” He was sentenced to 4 years in prison in 2017 but was released a year later.

Jahvid Best and his concussions man. Dude was electric!

I really wanted Colt Brennan to succeed. Drafted late by the Redskins, he had a great preseason, but didn't get any other opportunities and now he's dead. One of the best college quarterbacks of all time

Malcolm Mitchell :(

Calvin Johnson

His hands took too many stafford fastballs and he held up the team on his back too often. Big Part of why he retired early was the way football took its toll on his body

Kyle Pitts.

4th overall TE who runs a 4.4 at 6ft.6 247 lbs with a insane wingspan. Pro Bowler with over 1000 yards as a rookie, already has some circus catches of bad balls, then suffered through Mariota (who got him hobbled with a hospital ball), Ridder and now Heineke.

He is one year removed from his MCL injury and is still a bit ginger, I want the Falcons to find him a coach and QB who can get him the ball in 2024 or trade him to a team that will use him.

Bijan is fast becoming Kyle Pitts the 2nd on this team.

Arrest Arthue Smith.

Mike Brown with the Bears. Knee injuries wrecked his career but Urlacher, Tillman, and Briggs all said he was one of the best players when healthy. He was incredible at sniffing out interceptions and dude delivered monster hits.

Tyler Eifert. Dude was so snake bitten. Was so dominant in the little time he was healthy.

I was always a huge Bob Sanders fan. He did succeed with a SB, two first team all-pros, and a DPOY award, but his prime/career was cut horribly short from injuries. He only played above 6 games twice in his career, and racked up all those accolades listed above in those two seasons alone.