Power ranking: The 13 biggest running back busts of all-time
By Robert Judin
9. Tim Worley
From 1985 to 1988, Tim Worley had an up-and-down career for the Georgia Bulldogs that ended very, very up.
After a stellar freshman season, in which he rushed four 627 yards and nine touchdowns, Worley was bitten by the injury bug. He only played in four games the next two seasons but rebounded in 1988.
In his final season at Georgia, Worley led the Southeastern Conference with 1,216 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns – on 191 carries. He averaged 6.4 yards an attempt, and that was good enough to make the Pittsburgh Steelers select him with the seventh-overall pick in the 1989 NFL Draft.
Just like at Georgia, Worley’s first season with Pittsburgh wasn’t bad. He rushed for 770 yards and five touchdowns, but it went downhill after that.
Worley ran for just 535 yards on 131 attempts in the next two seasons combined and never scored another touchdown for Pittsburgh.
In 1993, the Chicago Bears acquired Worley, and he ran for 437 yards and two touchdowns in 10 games.
He tacked on 17 more rushing yards and one extra touchdown on nine carries in five games for Chicago in 1994. The grand total for Worley was 1,792 rushing yards and eight touchdowns.
This is the part where you start a slow clap for the Steelers for spending a seventh-overall pick on him. Pittsburgh ended up acquiring a running back named Jerome Bettis in 1996 anyway, so it worked out for them.
Though, looking back on it, they probably would have liked to use that pick on Steve Atwater (No. 20 overall) or Andre Rison (No. 22 overall).
Next: Tommy Vardell