Gerard Warren, 2001
Warren joined the Browns as the third pick in 2001 and made a nice splash as a rookie (notice a theme?), bagging five sacks and 61 total tackles. The Browns did manage a playoff berth in 2002 with Warren chipping in 40 tackles and two sacks.
Warren was a solid starter for nearly a decade, bouncing around four NFL teams. He never made a Pro Bowl and never touched his rookie productivity again. His career never quite met expectations for a No. 3 pick even though he was a good, reliable player for a long time. Ironically, Warren had the most postseason success of any player here, including nearly winning Super Bowl XLVI with the Patriots after the 2011 season and also getting a nice run with the Broncos after the 2005 campaign in his first year in Denver.
The long and the short of it all: even very good defensive tackles have a difficult time impacting the overall defensive success, and even less success impacting the win column. The history tells us it’s simply not worthy of bypassing an equivalent talent at a more integral position (EDGE, QB, CB, WR, OT) to use the No. 3 pick on an interior defensive lineman.