Every year, in every NFL draft, there are those players who present tantalizing athletic potential just as much as they put stuff on tape that make your eyes bleed. It happens at every position. There’s that quarterback who can make every throw — the good ones, and the bad ones. The running back who can blast through gaps at the line of scrimmage, but can’t get things going in the open field. The receiver who runs routes well, but doesn’t have the short-area quickness to gain separation. The cornerback or safety who allows as many big plays as he prevents. And on and on.
Last season, I had five such players on my list — the boom-or-bust guys who could alternately make their NFL teams shine with their greatness, and reduce the whole thing to rubble with the missing parts. And as it turns out, I have to take a MASSIVE “L” on Justin Herbert, who became a completely different quarterback with the Chargers once he got away from Oregon’s reduced passing game. And while I was concerned about the tackling abilities of former LSU and current Browns safety Grant Delpit, we never got to see how Delpit would develop in the NFL — he unfortunately missed his entire rookie season due to a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Jordan Love got exactly zero passing attempts in his rookie campaign behind Aaron Rodgers, which leaves Ohio State cornerback Damon Arnette, selected 19th overall by the Raiders, allowed one touchdown, had no interceptions, and gave up an opponent passer rating of 129.2 in nine games. Arnette had three games in which he allowed a passer rating of 39.6 or 0.0, and in his first NFL game, he gave up a perfect passer rating of 158.3. That’s about as boom-or-bust as you can get. And LSU edge-rusher K’Lavon Chaisson, selected one pick after Arnette by the Jaguars, had just one sack and 29 total pressures in 336 pass-rushing snaps.
So, the boom-or-bust picks from last season were pretty much… well, boom-or-bust. That’s the nature of the business when evaluating these types of players, and here are the riskiest such players in the 2021 class.
