I'm not afraid to admit it: I was wrong about Peter Warrick. I thought he was going to blow up like nitro when he came to the NFL after a productive career at Florida State. It turns out that Warrick was a step too slow and his body was made my paper mache. Warrick's failure in the pros forced GMs and scouts to put far too much emphasis on 40 times and speed. That led to guys like Michael Crabtree, Malcom Jenkins, Leon Hall and Terrell Suggs to drop in the Draft because suits feared they weren't fast enough. Conversely, it led to the high draft picks of notable busts like Vernon Gholston and Troy Williamson who were faster and possessed quicker explosion than Rick Pitino in a Hooters bathroom(Editor's Note: This will be the first of many cracks about Rick Pitino's......speed....in areas other than an athletic arena...if you catch my drift.....OK, Pitino is allegedly a one-minute man...a two-pump chump...THERE! You happy now!?)
Warrick was drafted fourth overall in a 2000 NFL Draft that was chock full of draft busts(Penn St. DE Courtney Brown went first, followed by OT Chris Samuels and LB Lavar Arrington....all three plus Warrick are out of the NFL. In fact, of the top 10, only two are still in the NFL, Brian Urlacher and Thomas Jones and only four of the Top 15....with Shaun Ellis and John Abraham being the other two besides Jones and Urlacher. It should also be mentioned that this was the year Florida State kicker Sebastian Janikowski went 17th overall by Raiders draft guru Al Davis) after a stellar career with the Seminoles filled with highs(national championship in 1999) and lows(an embarrassing shoplifting charge with fellow teammate Laverneus Coles).
By all accounts, Warrick wasn't terrible as a pro. He just never lived up to the hype of being the fourth overall pick. He made 51 catches for 591 yards and four touchdowns in his rookie season and ran for 148 yards and two more scores. He followed that up with a respectable 70-catch, 667 yard campaign(but only scored one TD) in 2001. In 2002, the injuries started to set in for Warrick. He only played 10 games that season, notching 53 catches for 606 yards and 6 TDs. The next year, in 2003, Warrick had his best season as a pro. He had career highs in receptions(79), yards(819) and touchdowns(7) and played in 15 games. That season gave the Bengals hope that Warrick was about to show off his limitless potential and the hype around the 2004 season was starting to build.
The breakout never happened. Warrick played in all of four games, starting one, and caught 11 passes. Two things happened around this time that were particularly detrimental to Warrick's career with Cincinnati and his overall standing in the pros. One, around this time, two former college teammates from the 2001 Bengals draft class would start to emerge as legit NFL receivers. Their names? Chad Johnson(now Chad Ochocinco) and T.J. Houshmanzadeh. Their rising star power led to the Cincinnati finally pulling the plug on Warrick at the end of 2004. Meanwhile, Coles(Warrick's former teammate at FSU and the man who was hit the hardest by the shoplifting scandal), taken two rounds later in 2000 by the Jets, finished 2004 just 50 yards short of his third straight 1,000 yard season and even went to the Pro Bowl in 2003. In fact, Coles was recently brought back by the Jets for a third time just this week. Warrick, on the other hand, played one more season in the NFL(with Seattle, where he caught 11 passes for 180 yards and got to return punts in the Super Bowl for the Seahawks).
Warrick was out of the NFL for a couple years but surfaced with the Arena League in 2007. However, he would never show up and would eventually end up in the CFL a year later. He would last an entire month before being released. Most recently, Warrick was signed last year by the Bloomington Extreme by the red-hot(sarcasm alert) Indoor Football League.
So, let's give it up for the poor man's David Terrell.....Peter Warrick, ladies and gentlemen!
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