Buffalo Bills: Five Biggest Draft Busts In Recent History

No. 5: Defensive Tackle, John McCargo, 1st Round (26th overall), 2006

John McCargo was drafted 26th overall by the Bills in the 2006 draft. Here is a quick look at the players that came off the board right before him and right after him.

• 24th – Johnathan Joseph (CB)
• 25th – Santonio Holmes (WR)
• 27th – DeAngelo Williams (RB)
• 28th – Marcedes Lewis (TE)
• 29th – Nick Mangold (C)
• 30th – Joseph Addai (RB)

McCargo only played seven seasons in the NFL, six with the Bills before finishing his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In those seven seasons, he played in 44 games, only starting one of them. In 2007, he appeared in all 16 games for the Bills, that was the only season in which he ever played in more than 11 games.

The selection of McCargo in the first round was shocking to many as he was pegged as a late-second or early-third round pick by most experts. McCargo’s rookie season was mostly spent on IR but he was healthy and somewhat productive in 2007, his best year in the league. In 2008 the Bills traded him to the Colts after the emergence of Kyle Williams, however a failed physical sent McCargo back to the Bills.

McCargo was often critiqued in Buffalo for his conditioning. He was a running joke in his rookie season when he passed out during training camp for what many thought was being out of shape. The joke continued in 2008 when he failed the physical that stopped the trade from the Bills to the Colts. McCargo is a first-round pick that never should have happened.