10 biggest first-round draft busts in Philadelphia Eagles history

Jay Berwanger decided he didn’t even want to play for the Eagles at all.

In 1935, Jay Berwanger was on top of the football universe after having won the Heisman Trophy, the Big Ten Most Valuable Player Award, and a nod as a Unanimous All-American following a stellar career with the Michigan Wolverines. He even left a scar under a future United States President’s left eye in 1934 (Gerald Ford).

The Eagles came running, making Berwanger the first-ever draftee in the National Football League’s inaugural draft. It was a different time then.

There was some concern about whether or not the Eagles’ organization would be able to afford Mr. Berwanger’s massive salary demands… which were about $1,000 per game, so they traded him to the Chicago Bears for tackle Art Buss. Berwanger never played a down for the Eagles or Bears. He, instead, elected to preserve his amateur status so that he could participate in the coming Olympics.

He’d be cut. That ended his dream of representing his country in the decathlon, and after he elected to decline George Halas’ offer of $13,500 (apparently, Jay was looking for $15,000), he took jobs as a member of the Chicago rubber company and as a part-time coach at the University of Chicago.

So, when it’s all said and done, perhaps, it’s wrong to call Berwanger a bust. We never even saw him play, but let’s be frank. When your team spends the first-overall pick in the first-ever draft for a guy that never even played, does it matter really?

Jay Berwanger takes his rightful spot at the top of this list as the biggest first-round draft disappointment in the history of the Eagles franchise. Place a huge exclamation mark at the end of that sentence.