Green Bay Packers: 5 worst NFL Draft picks of all-time

2. Rich Campbell (1981: first round, 6th overall)

The start of the 1980’s was simply not a good fir the Green Bay Packers in regards to first round selections.

The Packers wasted their top pick on Bruce Clark in 1980, who despite enjoying a respectable NFL career, would never take the field for the Green and Gold. The following year, perhaps an even greater draft blunder took place.

Green Bay selected Rich Campbell with the sixth overall pick in the first round of the 1981 NFL Draft, and unlike Clark, the University of California quarterback would not find any success at the professional level.

Campbell appeared in only seven games over the course of four NFL seasons. When he retired following the 1984 season, he had compiled 386 passing yards with an undesirable 3-to-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

What made Campbell’s selection so painful, though, had less to do with his performance and more to do with who he was chosen over. Among the players the Packers passed on were five future Hall of Famers in Howie Long, Ronnie Lott, Mike Singletary, Russ Grimm and Rickey Jackson.

Green Bay would not select a quarterback in the draft for more than 20 years after this pick, when they took fellow University of California product Aaron Rodgers 24th overall in 2005.

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