Has there ever been a genuine surprise in the draft?

[astorian]

@astorian

Lists like yours are aways interesting and instructive, but in THIS case, none of the names on your list count as “surprises.”

NOBODY shrieked “Why didn’t anybody draft Priest Holmes?” back in May of 1997. NOBODY was wondering “Why didn’t anybody draft Kurt Warner?” back in May of 1994. They both turned out to be stars, which led some people to ask years later, “How did the scouts not see how great those guys were?” But it wasn’t surprising to anybody at the time that nobody drafted them.

The OP seemed to be asking NOT for undrafted players who turned out to be stars, and NOT for high draft picks who turned out to be terrible. He’s asking for high draft picks that made people say, “Huh? Who’s that? I’ve never heard of him,” or “What? I had him as a 4th round pick, TOPS.”

And such surprises are VERY rare, nowadays. Shawn Bradley flopped in the NBA, but if the 76ers hadn’t taken him second overall, somebody else would have taken him at the third or fourth spot. SOMEBODY was definitely going to take him very high. He was a bad pick, but NOT a surprise.

The other type of “surprise,” of course, is when a highly touted player isn’t drafted until very late, or isn’t drafted at all.

THIS is one example of such a player: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/tim_layden/04/27/five.and.out/index.html

Offensive tackle Anthony Munoz of the Bengals was a perennial All-Pro and a Hall of Famer. His son Michael was an All-American lineman at Tennessee, and was expected to be a high draft pick. There were TV cameras waiting at his house, to record the phone call he was sure to get from some NFL team. But no call ever came. He didn’t just slide to a later round, he was ignored completely, and never got drafted at all.

Afterward, he was invited to several NFL camps as a free agent, but he decided not to pursue football any further. He was a very smart kid and had already earned his degree. He figured it was time to grow up and get a “real” job.

After that post, I did a little research, and apparently Michael Munoz WASN’T expected to go as high as I suggested. Apparently, he was viewed as a 3rd or 4th rounder only.

Which means it was a surprise but not a shock that NOBODY drafted him.

[Jim_s_Son]

Not sure how much of a surprise it was but I remember watching the NFL draft in 1983 when the Dolphins selected Dan Marino. The analyst that ESPN had on (Howard Balzer of the Sporting News) was absolutely stunned. He asked sarcastically who was the Dolphins quarterback coach that would work with Marino after a poor senior season.
Balzer wasn’t the only journalist to knock Marino. People forget that the Los Angeles Express of the USFL made him the number one pick in the draft. Despite the fact that Express GM Don Klosterman was successful with the Colts and Rams, New York Daily News blowhard columnist Dick Young said it showed how ridiculous the USFL was because the only talent he saw in Marino was throwing interceptions to receivers that are double covered.
Of course there is the circumstances of the 2000 NHL draft. THe Islanders had the first pick and selected Rick DiPietro. Not that this was a bad reach, it’s just that the Islanders already had a young goalie in Roberto Luongo who was selected 4th in 1997 and was ready to play in the NHL. Islanders blowhard GM Mad Mike Milbury loved DiPietro’s personality and selected him instead of Dany Heatley or MariAn Gaborik. The players he got by trading Luongo and Olli Jokinen were Mark Parrish, who was decent for a few years and Oleg Kvasha who was Kvrap.
That and a few dozen other blunders have gotten Milbury broadcasting jobs with NBC/Versus, Hockey Night in Canada, and NESN…

You could add the selection by Oakland A’s in baseball of Jeremy Brown in the first round of the 2002 draft, as discussed in the book “Moneyball” Lots of other baseball people thought that was a stretch by A’s GM Billy Beane to show what a genius he is. Brown played briefly in the major leagues, going 3 for 10.

Kind of a surprise was the St Louis football Cardinals drafting QB Steve Pisarkiewicz. At the time the Cardinals had a pretty good quarterback and needed defensive help. They told Pisarkiewicz before the draft that they were talking to him only as a courtesy measurement since he was a Missouri kid.