The 5 biggest NFL Draft busts in Arizona Football history
By Mason Duhon
Trung Canidate. TC. Running back. Trung Canidate. player. 51. . . 2000 1st round, 31 overall. 3
Disclaimer: Canidate played for the Rams when they were still in St. Louis.
Canidate finished his three-year Arizona career as the all-time, single-season, and single-game rushing yards leader, amassing over 3,600 total rushing yards. However, he was thrust into a perplexing situation: the reigning Super Bowl champion Rams spent the last pick of the first round on Canidate to make him the fifth back taken in the first round. He only lasted four seasons in the NFL — a sharp contrast to teammate Dennis Northcutt, who was taken with the next pick by the Cleveland Browns and carved out a 10-year career as a wideout and punt returner.
Selecting the best available running back would be understandable — if Marshall Faulk wasn't on the team. ESPN's Mel Kiper immediately called this a reach, citing Arizona State's J.R. Redmond as a better fit for the Rams' backup role. Faulk was coming off an Offensive Player of the Year nod and his first of three straight 1,300-plus yard seasons in 1999. He put a dagger in any hopes of the former Wildcat starting anytime soon by winning NFL MVP in Canidate's rookie year, and this is widely considered one of the worst first-round running back draft selections in the last 25 years.
That's not to say he didn't have flashes, though. Canidate started three games in St. Louis, and none was better than his monster Week 6 in 2001. Taking up the reins for an injured Faulk, Canidate carried the ball 23 times for 195 yards and two touchdowns. He even cracked the 200-yard mark by adding three catches for 37 yards. Two weeks later, he posted 145 rush yards and a touchdown despite Faulk returning to the lineup and logging 183 yards and two touchdowns. He finished his career in Washington, where he started 10 games and notched 671 scrimmage yards and a pair of touchdowns before the Clinton Portis trade went through.