NFL Draft 2012: Why Andrew Luck Will Be Biggest Bust in History

Andrew Luck is the most coveted NFL prospect of our lifetime.

He is supposed to be the can't-miss player that will lead whatever team is lucky enough to draft him to multiple championships and become one of the greatest quarterbacks in league history. 

But we—fans and analysts—have put all of this pressure on him already, and he isn't even in the league yet. What happens if he doesn't turn into all of those things? What happens if he is just an above-average quarterback?

There is no doubt that Luck has all the physical attributes to be a successful NFL player. But there is a world of difference between dominating in the Pac-12, which is a conference filled with soft defenses, and doing it in the NFL. 

Luck has been described by Mel Kiper Jr. as the second-best quarterback prospect in history, and I can't argue with that, because he knows more about talent evaluation than I could ever hope to. 

But at the end of the day, all that Luck is right now is a prospect. Other names on Kiper's list of great quarterback prospects include Ryan Leaf, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Bledsoe, Andre Ware and Boomer Esiason. 

No disrespect to any of those players, but they did not live up to their billing. Some, like Testaverde and Bledsoe, had nice careers but will not go down in history as all-time greats. In the case of Leaf and Ware, the less said about their time in the NFL the better. 

Luck has even more pressure on him than any of those players did, because we have heard how great he is for the last two years. He has to dominate the NFL in ways that players like John Elway, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees have. 

Anything less than those players, and he will fall short of expectations. He can't fail, and that pressure has a way of crippling players. It doesn't matter how great we think someone might be. The only thing that matters is what happens when they are out there. 

Hype is everything. It has a way of making or breaking a player. Luck has been so hyped up for so long that he has to be everything that we expect him to be, otherwise his career will always be marred by the dreaded label of "What could have been..."

Luck might have a successful NFL career. He might even live up to expectations, but if he falls short in any area, he will be the biggest bust in draft history because of what we all thought he was supposed to be. 

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