ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper believed Houston Texans quarterback David Carr wasn’t going to be a disappointment or a bust for the expansion franchise.
Ty Bronicel of the Touchdown Wire compiled some of the biggest misses of Kiper’s career, and believing Carr and the Detroit Lions’ first-round quarterback Joey Harrington weren’t going to flame out was up there.
“I think when you look at Carr and Harrington, three or four years down the road, you’re not going to call any one of these two players a bust or a disappointment,” Kiper said via Bronicel.
The Texans drafted Carr from Fresno State with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft, making the 22-year-old the first ever draft pick in the history of the franchise.
Carr enjoyed a 19-10 win over the Dallas Cowboys in his first game, and the city of Houston’s since the Oilers left in 1996. However, he took a beating with a league-leading 76 sacks on the way to a 4-12 record. Over his career with the Texans, Carr took 249 sacks and compiled a 22-53 mark as a starter. His best season was 2004 when he led Houston to a 7-9 record and had an 83.5 passer rating.
As for Harrington, he went 18-37 in Detroit and threw for the most interceptions in the NFL in 2003 with 22. The Lions never had a winning season, and he was out of the Motor City after the 2005 season.
The only two quarterbacks worth any value out of the entire 2002 draft class were Josh McCown, who went 81st overall in the third round to the Arizona Cardinals, and David Garrard, who went 108th overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the fourth round. McCown was a backup for the Philadelphia Eagles last season, and Garrard earned a Pro Bowl as he led the Jaguars to a wild-card playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers at the end of the 2007 season.
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