Florida State football has produced some undeniable NFL legends but other greats in the history of the Seminoles never found success in the pros.
Deion Sanders, Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn and even more contemporary players such as Dalvin Cook and Jalen Ramsey have all called Florida State football their home over the years. Of course, they’ve also gone on to enjoy fruitful careers at the NFL level. Whether it’s been under Bobby Bowden, Jimbo Fisher or otherwise, the Seminoles have never been short on talent.
But for as many NFL greats that the program has produced over the years, Florida State football also has its share of whiffs at the next level. No, we’re not talking about someone like Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward, who chose an NBA career over an NFL career. Instead, we’re talking about players who starred in college but weren’t able to do the same as a pro.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at five Florida State football greats who never made it once they got to the NFL.
The simple truth is that Chris Weinke‘s path to Florida State ultimately played a large role in why his NFL career didn’t pan out to the same level as his college career. He spent six seasons playing minor league baseball in the Toronto Blue Jays system before heading to Tallahassee after reconnecting with Bobby Bowden, who had recruited him prior to his ventures on the diamond.
He took over as the Seminoles starting quarterback in 1998 as a 26-year-old sophomore and showed some promise as he threw for 2,487 yards, 19 touchdowns and only six interceptions. He then cemented himself in Florida State football lore as he threw for 3,103 yards and 25 touchdowns while leading the Noles to a National Championship in 1999.
Further adding to his legacy, Weinke returned for another season and had the best campaign of his career. As a 28-year-old, he threw for 4,167 yards and 33 touchdowns. Though he didn’t win another title, he did lead the Noles to a top-five final ranking and 11-2 season. More importantly, he won the Heisman Trophy for his exploits.
Due to his age and despite his accolades at FSU, Weinke wasn’t selected until the fourth round of the 2001 NFL Draft when the Carolina Panthers took a shot on him. He won his first start as a 29-year-old rookie but subsequently lost the next 14 games of the season. He made only five more starts over the next four seasons and threw for only 3,904 yards and 15 touchdowns while throwing 26 interceptions in his NFL career.
Had he chosen football over baseball from the jump, who knows what might’ve been for Weinke?
Bjoern Werner came to Tallahassee with limited experience in football. A native of Berlin, Germany, he didn’t start playing the game until his junior year of high school as an exchange student in Connecticut. However, he showed an instant nack on the defensive line, which is how he ended up being recruited by Jimbo Fisher and ultimately signing.
Despite his limited experience, Werner actually garnered playing time right away during his career with the Seminoles. He appeared in all 14 games as a true freshman and showed some potential as a disruptive presence with 3.5 sacks and six tackles for loss. Earning the starting job as a sophomore, he continued on the ascent with seven sacks and 11 tackles for loss.
Still continuing to improve as an overall inexperienced player in the game of football — at least in comparison to many players — Werner was a star in his junior season. The big defensive end had 13 sacks and 18 tackles for loss, which was good enough for him to be a unanimous First-Team All-American selection and to win ACC Defensive Player of the Year. It was also good enough to get him drafted in the first round, No. 24 overall, by the Indianapolis Colts in the 2013 draft.
In Indianapolis, however, Werner never realized the same level of success. Though the Colts gave him chances early on in his career with 28 games played and 16 starts over his first two seasons, he managed only 6.5 sacks over that time. And after his third season in the league in 2015, in which he only played 10 games, he was waived by Indy and has not played an NFL snap since.
When you talk about college greats that never quite lived up to NFL hype, you’re almost never going to see a kicker on that list. Put simply, it’s just not a position that garners any buzz when it comes to the professional ranks. And yet, Roberto Aguayo makes this list for Florida State football and there’s not really anyone that can argue that.
Aguayo was one of the most decorated kickers in the history of not just the Seminoles but college football at large. He won the Lou Groza Award as a redshirt freshman en route to helping Florida State win a National Championship and setting the school record for the most accurate kicking season, hitting on 95.5 percent of his field goals. He then set the mark for the third-most accurate season in FSU history the following year, hitting on 90 percent of his field goals as well.
Over his time at Florida State, Aguayo went a perfect 198-for-198 on extra points and 69-of-78 on field goal attempts, making him one of the most accurate kickers in college football history as he hit on over 88 percent of his career attempts. He was so prolific he actually decided to forego his senior season for the NFL Draft.
However, in one of the biggest draft blunders in recent memory, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers traded their third and fourth-round picks to move back into the second round and take Aguayo at No. 59 overall. His career was a disaster though. He was the least accurate qualifying kicker in the league as a rookie and then was released in the preseason the next year. Aguayo hasn’t kicked in an NFL game since.
Suiting up for Florida State football for four years, there was not a single season in which wide receiver Rashad Greene didn’t make a noticeable impact. It started as a true freshman when, in only nine games of action, he showed up big with 38 receptions for 596 yards and seven touchdowns, proving to be a big-play threat that could open up the offense.
That continued the following season as Greene stepped up with 57 catches for 741 yards and four scores. He had by far the best stretch of his college career in his final two seasons, however. Greene caught 76 balls for 1,128 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior and then had a career-best campaign with 99 catches for 1,365 yards and seven touchdowns in his season campaign with the Seminoles.
Greene finished his career in Tallahassee as arguably the most prolific wide receiver in the history of the program. He’s the career leader in both receptions and receiving yards and is tied for second all-time in receiving touchdowns. That’s how good he was in college.
Despite that, he was not an overly impressive physical prospect and fell to the fifth round of the 2015 NFL Draft before the Jacksonville Jaguars snatched him up. Over four seasons, Greene appeared in only 25 games and made just 30 catches for 185 yards in his career. While currently signed in the CFL and though he could return to the NFL, it feels safe to say Greene’s career in the NFL has been nowhere near as impressive as he was with the Seminoles.
Without question, Jameis Winston has produced more in the NFL than any of the other Florida State football greats mentioned on this list. However, if you’re talking about busts and former Seminoles who never lived up to expectations at the next level, it’s hard not to talk about Winston after all of the buzz he generated coming out of college.
Though there were only two years where Winston was the starter for FSU, there’s no denying his greatness. As a redshirt freshman, the quarterback did absolutely everything you could ask from him. He threw for 4,057 yards, 40 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, which led to him winning the Heisman Trophy. More importantly, he led the Seminoles to the mountaintop as they won the BCS National Championship.
It’s worth noting that Winston definitively was not as good in his redshirt sophomore campaign with Florida State. He threw for 3,907 yards and 25 touchdowns but threw 18 interceptions along the way as his decision-making and gunslinging was a problem at times. Still, he led the Noles to the College Football Playoff, but they lost to Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Winston declared for the 2015 NFL Draft thereafter.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Winston with the No. 1 overall pick, pegging him as the franchise guy. And again, he’s produced in the NFL. He led the NFL in passing yards in 2019 and has thrown for 121 touchdowns over five seasons along with 19,737 yards. However, he’s also thrown 88 interceptions and is only 28-42 as a starter. That’s why the Bucs didn’t bring him back after his rookie contract and why he’s now a backup in New Orleans. He’s never been the No. 1 pick franchise-changer he was largely expected to be.
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