5 biggest NFL draft busts in Colorado football history
By Josh Yourish
The Colorado football program hasn’t produced a first-round pick since Nate Solder in 2011, but that’ll almost certainly change Coach Prime will almost certainly change that in the 2025 NFL Draft. For now, Colorado has just one player, wide receiver Xavier Weaver, at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis this week.
Weaver, who caught 68 passes for 908 yards as a fifth-year senior at Colorado last season, will likely be a late-round pick, so instead of projecting forward for future Buffs, we can take a look back at past Colorado draft picks and some whose career didn’t go as planned.
24 first-round NFL draft picks have played their college ball in Boulder, but these five were the biggest draft busts in Colorado history.
. No. 4 overall. player. Michael Westbrook. . 1995. Michael Westbrook, WR. 58. Michael Westbrook, WR. 5
Colorado football in the 1990s wasn’t about the passing game, but Michael Westbrook still finished his career with 2,548 receiving yards and was an All-American in 1992 as a sophomore.
Washington believed in Westbrook’s upside at 6-foot-3 220 pounds, but he took a long time to develop into a reliable receiver. Westbrook only caught 38.6% of his targets as a rookie and didn’t post a 1,000-yard receiving season until 1999, his fifth season in the NFL.
Westbrook played in the league for eight years, seven with Washington, and finished his career with 4,374 receiving yards and 26 touchdowns. He had a solid NFL career but never reached the elite level you’d expect from the fourth overall pick.
Joey Galloway was the second receiver taken in 1995, eighth overall to Seattle, and Galloway finished his 16-year NFL career with six 1,000-yard seasons and 10,950 receiving yards.