The No. 1 and No. 2 picks from the 2025 NFL Draft have both had disappointing starts to their NFL careers, but neither feels like a real bust. Cam Ward has shown flashes of high-end quarterback play, struggling mostly due to a poor supporting cast, while Travis Hunter looked worth Jacksonville's investment at times until a knee injury ended his rookie season before the team could fully figure out how to use him. Sure, Ward might not go No. 1 anymore in a do-over of the draft, but plenty of quarterback-needy squads would still take a shot on him.
Both guys could wind up as busts, but as of this moment, I wouldn't be ready to call them that. There are, however, some players taken back in April who are trending the wrong way fast, players whose NFL futures already look to be in doubt.
Here are four first-round picks from the 2025 NFL Draft who already look like busts before their rookie campaigns are even finished.
EDGE Shemar Stewart, Cincinnati Bengals
Shemart Stewart was always going to get off to a slow start, because he's a project player and projects take some time. Usually, though, these kinds of players start to show some stuff by now. Stewart hasn't.
The No. 17 overall pick had a prolonged holdout that put him behind the eight ball and he hasn't recovered. Injuries have limited him to just five games, but nothing in that sample has suggested he's on track to fulfill Cincinnati's expectations. He has just two solo tackles (and four assisted tackles), with one quarterback hit and ... that's it. That's the entirety of his defensive production this season.
Maybe a healthy Stewart would be doing more at the moment, but it looks more and more like the Bengals whiffed on this pick, which is a problem considering the team's defense has been a major issue all season.
WR Matthew Golden, Green Bay Packers
The Packers drafted Matthew Golden into their already-crowded receiver room because the former Texas Longhorn projected to be a high-end No. 1 receiver in the NFL. He has all the physical tools to be one of the league's elite outside weapons.
Like Stewart, Golden has missed some time with various injuries, but he wasn't setting the world on fire before those issues. He's gone over 50 receiving yards just three times in his 10 games and has yet to find the end zone. His last "good" game was all the way back on Oct. 12, when he caught three passes for 86 yards against the Bengals. Since then, he's played in five games, averaging 2.0 receptions for 14.8 yards.
Golden returned from his latest injury last week against the Bears. He proceeded to play just five offensive snaps, the fewest of any of the team's wide receivers. Being sixth in the pecking order at the position is certainly not a great sign, even if Golden was playing for the first time in a month.
EDGE Abdul Carter, New York Giants
The vibes between Abdul Carter and the Giants have been off all season, culminating in New York benching him for the first series of New York's Week 11 game after he missed the team's walkthrough.
Carter was the preseason favorite for Defensive Rookie of the Year, but 13 games into his rookie season, he has 1.5 sacks and 17 solo tackles with just one tackle for loss and13 quarterback hits. There have been moments, but overall, Carter just isn't producing like you'd expect from the No. 3 overall pick.
It's also probably not a good sign that Carter's snap rates have been all over the place, falling under 70 percent six times. New York needs him to be a full-time player.
RB Ashton Jeanty, Las Vegas Raiders
I firmly believe Ashton Jeanty is going to turn things around and be a very good NFL back, but being a "bust" isn't just about individual play. Context matters, and in this case, the context is that drafting a running back in the top 10 was bad positional value. Vegas needed Jeanty to be an immediate star to justify the price it paid for him, and that hasn't been the case at all.
Jeanty has just one 100-yard game so far this year, and has been held to 3.0 yards per carry or worse in four consecutive games, including a nightmare against Dallas where he finished with seven yards on six carries. Like with other players on this list, there have been flashes, but his rookie season has largely been a waste. With how short running back lifespans tend to be, that's a very bad sign going forward.