NFL's worst players by franchise in the Super Bowl eraby Doug Farrar SI.comPosted: Tue Jul. 21, 2015 
Today kicks off our 'NFL Worst Week', which will highlight some of the worst players, plays and decisions made over the history of the NFL. Here, we pick out the worst player of each NFC franchise in the Super Bowl era. These are the players who were drafted high by the teams involved, signed to huge free-agent contracts or acquired for far too much trade capital, but completely failed to perform. It's not quite as interesting when an undrafted free agent washes out and gets cut before he ever gets a shot at the big time, but there's always a story behind a player who was once great at some level, and just got kicked in the butt by the NFL—or by life in general—at some point. A few qualifications: The player had to play in the Super Bowl era. The player started 16 games for the franchise. The player is no longer active in the NFL. (Though, we made a few exceptions for the absolute worst.)Worst non-active player by franchise: NFC
Jamaal AndersonDE, Atlanta FalconsThe 2007 season is renowned as the worst in Falcons history, mostly for the embarrassment that Bobby Petrino and Michael Vick brought to the organization. But the franchise was in trouble in the draft as well, because they selected Anderson out of Georgia Tech with the No. 8 pick. At 6'5" and 288 pounds, Anderson didn't have the pure speed to beat NFL tackles—he had no sacks in his rookie campaign, and he racked up just 5.5 over four years with the Falcons. The Colts, Bengals and Bears gave Anderson a shot after Atlanta gave up on him, but Anderson's NFL career effectively ended in Aug. 2013, when the Bears terminated his contract. He was a decent run defender, but you don't take strong-side ends in the high first round.
Rae CarruthWR, Carolina PanthersThe Panthers took Carruth in the first round of the 1997 draft out of Colorado, and for a while, it looked like things might work out. He caught 44 passes for 545 yards and four touchdowns in his rookie campaign, but played in a total of just seven games over the next two years. Why is Carruth the worst player in Panthers history? Because in 2001, he was found guilty of conspiring to murder Cherica Adams, the woman who was carrying his child. Adams died in the shooting, and the child, Chancellor Lee Adams, suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the crime. I've been told by one former Panthers executive that nobody on the team saw this coming—Carruth had no criminal history to speak of, or at least any history they were able to uncover. He was sentenced to 18 to 24 years in prison, with a projected release date of Oct. 22, 2018.The horrible story had a long-lasting impact on the franchise. It put a pall over the tenure of first-year head coach George Seifert, it changed the philosophy of owner Jerry Richardson, who became much more hard-line about off-field character when vetting draft prospects, and a lot of people had to answer for the actions of a player who surprised just about everyone in the organization with what he did that day.
Johnathan SullivanDT, New Orleans SaintsThe Saints looked to be poised for success in the 2003 draft. They had the No. 17 and No. 18 picks after trading Ricky Williams to the Dolphins. What they did with those two picks still boggles the mind—they traded them both to the Cardinals to move up to the No. 6 pick, where they selected Georgia defensive tackle Johnathan Sullivan. The rookie looked okay in 2003, racking up a sack and 25 total tackles, earning kudos for his "nasty disposition." But he reported out of shape in 2004 and never really found his way back to the good graces of head coach Jim Haslett. Sullivan was demoted to the second team in the 2004 preseason, effectively ending his tenure as a Saints starter—not to mention his NFL career. New Orleans traded Sullivan to the Patriots for receiver Bethel Johnson in June 2006, and New England released him shortly thereafter.
Kenyatta WalkerOT, Tampa Bay BuccaneersIt's not that the Bucs should have been faulted for taking Walker with the No. 14 pick in the 2001 draft out of Florida—no less a football expert than SI's own Paul "Dr. Z" Zimmerman called him a "smooth pass-blocker, who will immediately be plugged in at left tackle." Well, Z was right about the second part. The Bucs plugged Walker in on the left side in his first season, though he played right tackle in college. We don't have charting stats for Walker's 75 games played and 73 games started from 2001 through '06, but we do know that Julius Peppers bedeviled Walker like few others in the NFL. In one 2005 game against the Panthers, Walker was so flipped out about trying to block Carolina's ginormous defensive end, he committed three false starts in a five-play span and allowed two sacks. This was par for the course.The Bucs released Walker in March, 2007. The Panthers gave him a shot after that (perhaps to make Peppers feel even better about himself in practice), but he didn't make final cuts. His football career ended ignominiously in 2008, as a member of the Toronto Argonauts' practice squad.For every team....link
