The most prominent hallmark of whether or not the first round pick was a success used to be longevity. Time was ANY first round pick (other than QB) was expected to play right away and give the franchise a good character guy for a minimum of seven years to spending his entire career on the same team. You don't have much about first round busts prior to the NFL-AFL merger, do you?

True many could not crack the starting line-up right away, but if you were a first round pick there really wasn't a lot of pressure to start, mainly due to the fact that there were fewer NFL teams. If you were drafted in the first round, it was only a matter of time before you were given the nod, but not a day too soon.

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