Free agency is one of the most significant aspects of building a championship-level squad, and many signings have gotten teams on the cusp of greatness over the hump in recent years. At the same time, breaking the bank on a player who does not live up to expectations can set a team back years.
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Countless factors can contribute to a player failing to catch on with their new team. While each situation may be unique, they all share one thing in common: the player committed highway robbery against the team foolish enough to gamble on them. If the front offices who signed the pacts received a mulligan, they certainly would avoid signing each of these players.
10 Nick Foles
Nick Foles' career has been quite the volatile roller-coaster ride in which he rotates moments of high peaks with periods of low valleys. The latter would be an accurate description of his time in Jacksonville, with whom he signed a four-year, $88 million deal in the 2019 offseason.
The 30-year-old signal-caller, who was only one year removed from leading the Eagles on an improbable Super Bowl run, missed most of the 2019 season after suffering a broken clavicle in Week 1. He returned later in the season but played in only three more games (in which he threw only two more touchdowns) before the team shut him down for the year. They ate most of his cap and traded him to Chicago for a fourth-round pick the following offseason.
9 Dana Stubblefield
Defensive tackle Dana Stubblefield cashed in on a six-year, $36 million deal with Washington in 1998 after winning the Defensive Player of the Year Award with the 49ers the previous year. It was a questionable move, as Stubblefield had not shown an ounce of consistency at that point, and his sack totals actually declined every year before the breakout season.
Stubblefield quickly proved his doubters right after notching only one-and-a-half sacks in his first year with the squad. He spent two more equally disappointing seasons with the team before they cut ties with him. While the move certainly proved to be an egregious mistake, he is not nearly the only free agent bust who attempted to find a home in the nation's capital.
8 Adam Archuleta
Washington's decision to sign safety Adam Archuleta to a six-year, $30 million deal (which made him the highest-paid safety in NFL history) in 2006 was one of the most head-scratching moves you will ever see. He may have been a solid player during his first five years with St. Louis, but there was no reason they should have dished out the money they did for him.
It quickly became clear that the team realized their error, as they benched him midway through the 2006 season, which was the worst statistical year of his career. They traded him to the Bears (are you noticing a trend?) for a sixth-round selection the following year, and he hung up his cleats after only one season in Chicago.
7 DeMarco Murray
Dallas opting not to re-sign DeMarco Murray after his incredible 2014 season in which he led the league in rushing as the centerpiece of their offense should have given any other team pause before signing him to a big-money contract. Nevertheless, the Eagles failed to read the writing on the wall, as they signed the 27-year-old to a five-year, $42 million deal the following offseason.
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Murray looked like a shell of himself, as he struggled to find running room without the Cowboys' league-best offensive line opening lanes for him and lacked the explosiveness to make something out of nothing. He only spent one year in Philly before the team shipped him to Tennessee for next to nothing (they moved up 13 spots in the fourth round).
6 Nnamdi Asomugha
While the Murray signing was egregious, it was hard to fault Philly for signing Nnamdi Asomugha to a five-year, $60 million deal in the 2011 offseason, as he was coming off three-straight All-Pro seasons with the Raiders and was one of the league's top cornerbacks. Unfortunately, the 30-year-old failed to adapt to the Eagles' zone-heavy scheme and struggled mightily in his first year with the team.
In an attempt to get the most out of their investment, they put him in a position to succeed by putting him in more man-to-man situations the following year. Nevertheless, the switch did not improve his play, as he looked more than a step slower than he was with the Raiders and the Eagles released him after the disappointing two-year stint.
5 Javon Walker
The national media immediately questioned the Raiders' decision to sign Javon Walker to a six-year, $55 million contract in 2008, as he was slowed by a knee injury the previous year and only played in eight games. Those doubts were promptly vindicated when the same injury sidelined the 30-year-old for half of the season, and he made a minimal impact when 'healthy.'
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He spent another year in Oakland but was only active for three games (and did not record a statistic). To say he committed highway robbery would be an understatement, as he received $21 million from the Raiders despite being held under 200 receiving yards during his time in the Silver and Black.
4 Deion Sanders
Nnamdi was not the only elite cover man who fell off quickly after signing with a new team, as Deion Sanders also fell to the same fate after signing a seven-year, $56 million deal with Washington (a big shocker there) in 2000. While Prime Time played well enough to hold his head above water during his later years in Dallas, it quickly became clear that the 33-year-old was past his Prime after signing the deal.
Even Sanders knew his best days were behind him, as he only played one year with Washington before calling it a career (although he returned with the Ravens four years later). While they might not have expected him to play out the deal, they certainly expected to get more than one season out of the future Hall of Famer.
3 Brock Osweiler
Brock Osweiler is the least-proven player on this list, as he only had seven career starts before signing a four-year, $72 million contract with the Texans in the 2016 offseason. Osweiler promptly made it clear that his previous success was nothing more than a flash in the pan, as his play bottomed out in his first (and only) year in Houston.
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While the Texans made the playoffs thanks to the strength of their incredible defense, it was clear that they did so despite the towering signal-caller, who finished the year with more interceptions than touchdowns. He was such an awful signing that Houston actually had to trade away a second-round pick (which the Browns used to select Nick Chubb) to offload his terrible contract.
2 Albert Haynesworth
Surprise! Another erroneous signing by Washington! Their decision to dish out a seven-year, $100 million deal to defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth in the 2009 offseason might not have panned at the time (he was a highly-sought-after player who turned down more money to sign with Washington), but it quickly became one of the most egregious signings in NFL history.
Haynesworth was coming off back-to-back All-Pro selections when he signed the deal, and Washington was expecting him to maintain his high level of play in D.C. However, they did not consider that signing him to the big-money deal would make him complacent, and his play on the field took a steep drop-off after joining the team. He only spent two years in Washington, and the team somehow landed a fifth-round pick (by the Patriots, no less) for his services in the 2011 offseason.
1 Le'Veon Bell
The Jets were hoping they would get the Steelers' dual-threat version of Le'Veon Bell when they made him the league's second-highest-paid running back with a four-year $52.5 million contract in the 2019 offseason. Unfortunately, they got the Jets version, which turned out to be much much worse.
He looked like a shell of his former self as soon as he took the field for Gang Green, as he seemed to lose all the qualities that made him a star in Pittsburgh and had a career-worst year in his first season in New York. His second year was off to an equally inauspicious start before the Jets released him after he liked a tweet criticizing the team over his usage. The signing became another cautionary tale for anyone looking to sign a running back to a big-money deal.
