The Raiders boast about having a real star in the name of Quarterback Derek Carr, but way before this, there was his older brother’s name appearing on the NFL scouts’ radar – David Carr. Both the brothers graduated out of Fresno State, and David Carr was considered literally like a hot commodity!
People had rocket-high expectations from Carr when he came into the 2002 NFL Draft. A new expansion team, the Houston Texans, made sure that their No. 1 overall pick was held in Carr. The Texans started their game in the franchise history with an absolute bang and quite easily defeated the fellow Texas team, the Dallas Cowboys, 19-10 right at home. This had as good a mark as that of Carr’s rookie season, with the Texans finishing at 4-12.
Christian Ponder
There are a few hypothetical theories that roam around the NFL, like the 12th pick in the draft is supposed to have a longer lifespan in the field, and the player should be able to start all sixteen games in multiple seasons. However, these theories never came true in the case of the Vikings and Ponder; reality was far from the hypothetical considerations!
When Ponder came out of Florida State in 2011, he was a much-hyped quarterback that the world wanted to see more of! People pinned so much hope on him that they considered him to be the one who would sail the Vikings’ ship alone! He achieved the respect and awe of his teammates by setting rookie records but soon got injured severely. He joined the league as a member of a draft which was spectacularly weak from a quarterback standpoint. Along with Ponder, Blaine Gabbert and Jake Locker were all a part of this draft and had to struggle a lot in the first round.
Bad Back
The world saw streaks of great potential in Ponder when he joined the Vikings, but he fizzled out due to the injury bug. He did a sophomore campaign, and suddenly, after that, he would never start more than 9 games, due to which he got shoved into as a backup. He had signed for two teams where he was in the backup position but retired pretty soon.
Ponder moved to Minnesota after being done with the NFL officially, as his injury had made this former first-rounder practically useless in the field. However, he lives a content and peaceful personal life with wife Samantha Steele, an ESPN reporter, and two kids.
A World Record
A rough start spelled as a telling sign of his career. During his rookie season, he was sacked an NFL record seventy-nine times! Then he went on to have two more seasons, which had led the league in the sack department.
The most prominent highlight of his NFL career came on the sideline as the New York Giants' backup quarterback when the G-Men took down the Patriots to win Super Bowl XLVI.
Jon Kitna
Kitna had quite a long NFL career, though it was not always pretty! The first time he made it to the news was when he came out of Central Washington like a bright star but went undrafted in 1996!
Starting his career as a backup, he had to slowly work his way up to the top for a starting role by 1999. During the initial phase, he made a place for himself in the Seattle Seahawks practice squad and even earned MVP honor in NFL Europe. It was a great achievement for him when he slowly but steadily climbed up from an undrafted position to a starter and then went on to finish the season with a winning record!