The 10 biggest Notre Dame football NFL Draft busts of all time

No. 1 biggest Notre Dame football NFL Draft bust of all time: Brady Quinn

2007 NFL Draft: Round 1, Pick 22

Cleveland Browns, 2007–2009
Denver Broncos, 2010–2011
Kansas City Chiefs, 2012
Seattle Seahawks, 2013 (Did not make team)
New York Jets, 2013
St. Louis Rams, 2013
Miami Dolphins, 2014 (Did not make team)

It appears that many NFL teams knew that there was at least a possibility that Brady Quinn could become a bust at the pro level after a collegiate senior year in which the Columbus product won the Maxwell Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, and Cingular All-America Player of the Year. Quinn came into the draft injured and didn’t throw at the 2007 NFL Combine, but no one thought he’d fall to No. 22 in the draft.

No matter, though. Quinn ended up in Cleveland, where he felt he was destined to be all along.

“I kept thinking about how I wanted to play for the Browns and it looked like it wouldn’t happen – then it did,” Quinn told Cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto in 2021. “It felt like destiny. It felt like my life had prepared me for this.”

Quinn would go on to lead the Browns to a 3-10 record when given the chance to start for Cleveland, though, and he’d later go 1-7 in 2012 with the Kansas City Chiefs after a two-year stint in Denver as a backup. His career as a QB in the NFL ended up making Phil Savage’s 2007 draft night declaration that Quinn could define the Browns’ turnaround another tragic footnote in the history of Cleveland sports.