Nebraska football: 5 great players who didn’t live up to the NFL hype

These five players starred for Nebraska football but were NFL busts.

Over the majority of the past two decades, Nebraska football has been looking to restore the Cornhuskers program to the glory of old. After all, this is a program that has won five National Championships — two in the 1970s and three in the 1990s — and has produced three Heisman Trophy winners, one in three different decades.

The talent that has passed through Lincoln is immense and many Huskers have gone on to enjoy great NFL careers. Guys such as Ndamukong Suh, Ahman Green, Roger Craig and many others are in the midst of or had very nice NFL careers. And others such as Mike Rozier even made enough of an impact in the NFL to be considered notable.

Having said that, the Huskers, unfortunately, also have a history of many greats not panning out at the next level. Let’s take a look at five Nebraska football standouts who never quite made it in the NFL.

A heavily recruited playmaker coming out of high school with offers from Alabama and Auburn in addition to Nebraska, Ameer Abdullah chose the Cornhuskers to largely play on offense under then-head coach Bo Pelini. In his freshman year, we saw glimpses of that as he rushed for 150 yards and three scores but also notched 763 kick return yards on just 26 return attempts in addition to 15 punt returns for 107 yards.

While he wasn’t supposed to be the starter in his sophomore season, injuries paved the way for him to start half of the year — and he thrived. The running back amassed 1,137 rushing yards with eight scores in addition to 178 receiving yards and two touchdowns. The following season, Abdullah truly broke out in a monster campaign.

Rushing for over 100 yards in 11 of 13 games, Abdullah shined with 1,690 yards and nine touchdowns to go along with a career-high 26 receptions for 232 yards and two more touchdowns. His best year came as a senior, however, rushing for 1,611 yards and an incredible 19 scores with 269 receiving yards and three touchdowns. He finished his time in college second at Nebraska in career rushing yards and fifth in career rushing touchdowns.

After that type of career, the Detroit Lions selected the running back in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft. While there has been hype at several points for Abdullah, particularly in fantasy football, he’s never panned out. He’s managed just 1,366 yards on 350 career carries with only six touchdowns. He remains in the league but only as a backup.