Notre Dame Football: Biggest NFL Draft busts in program history

Notre Dame Football: Biggest NFL Draft busts in program history

Vagas Ferguson

When Vagas Ferguson left the Notre Dame Football program, he was the program’s all time leader in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns for a career. That’s Notre Dame, where hardly a year went by when they didn’t have an All-American running back.

Of course, Ferguson was another in that lineage of backs at Notre Dame. He’d be an All-American too.

When the NFL came to call, they took Ferguson at the end of the first round, with the New England Patriots grabbing him at number 25. Things looked promising at first, as Ferguson started as a rookie in New England, going for over 800 yards and starting in 16 games. By year two, he only played 13 games, starting in five.

Still, he could bounce back from that. After all, he ran for more yards per carry in his second season in the NFL. Year three was a mess, though, as Ferguson only played in two games, going without a start. The next year he’d play one game for Cleveland and Houston respectively.

That means he only played in one more game than he did teams in his final two seasons in the NFL. During those two seasons, Ferguson was given one carry, and in his defense, it was for more yards per carry than either of his first two seasons. Today, Ferguson lives in Richmond, where he participates as an active member of the local NAACP chapter.