Heisman Trophy Winners: 10 Recent NFL Flops

The Heisman Trophy is one of the biggest honor you can get in college football. The first Heisman Trophy was given out in 1935. It’s one of the longest running awards given out to any player, in any sport. There have been a lot of big name players that have won the award of year such as; Roger Staubach, O.J Simpson, Jim Plunkett, Tony Dorsett, Earl Campbell, Marcus Allen, Bo Jackson and Barry Sanders. Recently though the last 25 years the Heisman winners have not live up to the hyped and have flopped in the NFL. Here are the 10 biggest Heisman winners that flopped in the NFL within the last 25 years.

1990 - Ty Detmer

Detmer was picked in round 9 pick 230 by the Green Bay Packers. Detmer didn’t see much playing time in his career. He only had 25 career starts. Detmer threw for 6,351 passing yards, 34 touchdowns and 25 interceptions during his career. Ty did get to back up some pretty good quarterbacks during his time. He was backing up Brett Farve with the packers, signed with the San Francisco 49ers and was back up to Steve Young, and then signed with the Atlanta Falcons and was the backup to Michael Vick.

1992 - Gino Torretta

Selected round 7 pick 192 by the Minnesota Vikings. If you got to see Torretta in a game then you were one of the lucky ones. Torretta only played in two NFL games during his career, completing 5 passes for 41 yards and a touchdown.

1994 - Rashaan Salaam

Salaam was selected with the 21st pick in the first round by the Chicago Bears. He only played 4 seasons in the NFL. Salaam’s career started off promising, in his rookie season he rushed for 1,074 yards and a touchdown. The last three seasons though he only rushed for 610 yards and 3 touchdowns. Salaam tried his luck in the XFL and the CFL after he was done with the NFL.

1996 - Danny Wuerffel

The New Orleans Saints selected Wuerffel in the 4th round with the 99th pick. Wuerffel played in 25 career games. In 10 career starts his teams were 4-6. He ended his career with 2,123 yards, 12 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. Wuerffel did win the MVP in 2000 will playing for the Rhein Fire in NFL Europa.

1999 - Ron Dayne

Dayne was a big back out of Wisconsin. The Giants selected him in the first round with the 11th pick.Dayne didn’t see much playing time as he was second string behind Tiki Barber. In 4 years at Wisconsin Dayne played in 47 games and had 7,125 rushing yards and 71 rushing touchdowns. In his 7 NFL seasons Dayne played in 97 games while rushing for 3,722 yards and 28 touchdowns.

2000 - Chris Weinke

Weinke was drafted in the 4th round with 106th pick by the Carolina Panthers. Weinke’s rookie year was the only year he had as a full time starter. The Panthers finished 1-14 that year. Weinke only started 5 more career games. He ended his career as a 2-18 starting quarterback.

2001 - Eric Crouch

Crouch won the Heisman in 2001 while playing at Nebraska. NFL teams saw Crouch as being too small to play quarterback in the NFL and wanted him to play wide receiver. The St. Louis Rams still drafted him in the 3 round with the 95th pick. In the preseason opener of his rookie season against the Tennessee Titans Crouch caught a pass but suffered a thigh injury. A few weeks later Crouch announced he was frustrated with the NFL and was retiring. Crouch tried coming back to play quarterback and safety for Green Bay Packers 2004 and Kansas City Chiefs in 2005 but he never played in the NFL.  Crouch ended up playing quarterback in the CFL and UFL.

2003 - Jason White

White won the Heisman Trophy in 2003 while playing for Oklahoma. He came back to Oklahoma in 2004 almost becoming the second player in college history to win two Heisman awards; the other player was Archie Griffin. White entered the 2005 draft and went undrafted. White was the third player to win the Heisman and then go undrafted, the two other players were Pete Dawkins who went into the military and Charlie Ward who went on to play in the NBA. Eventually White signed with the Tennessee Titans but a few weeks later decided to retire while never playing a game in the NFL.

2004 - Matt Leinart

The Arizona Cardinals selected Leinart in the first round with the 10th overall pick. Leinart spent 4 seasons as the backup to Kurt Warner. He then moved on to sign with the Houston Texans and Oakland Raiders starting only 1 game. In 2013 Leinart signed with the Buffalo Bills to play for their practice squad. In 33 career games Leinart threw for 4,065 yards, 15 touchdowns and 21 interceptions in his career.

2006 - Troy Smith

Smith saw his draft stock fall from being a first round pick to a fifth round pick. The Baltimore Ravens selected him in the 5th round with the 174th pick. Smith never had a chance to get things going. He played three seasons with the Ravens and one season with the San Francisco 49ers. Smith played in 20 career games while starting only 8 of them. He ended his career with 1,734 passing yards and 8 touchdowns. He last played in 2013 CFL for the Montreal Alouettes.