3. Thomas Jones
Thomas Jones was a very solid running back in the NFL and he had a long successful career. Unfortunately he wasn’t either of those things with the Arizona Cardinals, and while it may have been more of the talent around him and him struggling to get a good offensive line in front of him, Jones was a bust pick for the Cardinals in 2000.
What made the pick even worse for the Cardinals is all the talent that they passed on to take a running back that was a reach once Jamal Lewis came off the board.
Names like Brian Urlacher, John Abraham and Shaun Alexander were all taken after Jones and he just never produced like a first round pick.
This once again follows the trend that the Cardinals had of not being bad enough to get the top talent at positions and then reaching for the second or third best player at a position. That was a major problem in the desert for the team. They were bad, but not bad enough to get a cornerstone piece that would help.
What made things even worse would be the fact that the Cardinals would abandon drafting running backs after because of the fact that Jones was a bust until later in the decade. The Cardinals, as a result, would bring in running backs past their prime and try to get what was left out of them.
Next: 2. Wendell Bryant