USC Football’s 25 Biggest NFL Draft Busts

An All-American defensive tackle on USC’s vaunted 1976 defense, Gary Jeter left the college ranks with a ton of eyeballs on him.

Picked fifth overall by the New York Giants in the 1977 NFL Draft, he was the third Trojan taken in the top five picks, joining Ricky Bell and Marvin Pollard.

Despite playing considerably more games than the aforementioned, Jeter didn’t quite have the dominant career that many would have expected.

He made one Pro Bowl –as an alternate in 1980– and after being traded from the Giants to the Rams in 1983, started just two of his final 93 games in the NFL.

With LA, Jeter was a vital role player within particular defensive packages, as the Rams opted to use him strictly as an edge rusher than the every-down lineman the Giants saw him as. It netted Jeter 45 sacks in six years with the Rams, before finishing out his career with the Patriots in 1989.

As with many of the guys making the bust list, Jeter was more so a player that was drafted higher than his career justified. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have value.