5 Biggest Texas Tech football NFL Draft busts

With the NFL Combine under way in Indianapolis, football fans across America will soon be turning their attention to the NFL Draft. So let's take a look at five Texas Tech football players who were busts after being high picks.
Byron Hanspard
Byron Hanspard / Getty Images/GettyImages
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No. 2: DB Denton Fox

Modern Texas Tech football fans may not know the name of Denton Fox but he was a player ahead of his time at the college level. Standing 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds but running like a deer in a time when players that big were usually linebackers or linemen, he was a 1969 All-American defensive back.

The Claude, Texas native was a shutdown corner long before that term even existed. He would be a big corner by today's standards so it is fun to think about how he would have stood out as a college football player in the 1960s.

“He was a big ol’ boy at the time," former teammate Kenny Baker said of Fox. "That was back before people got so big as they are now. He was fast. He was just a heck of a player.”

In the 1970 draft, the Dallas Cowboys took Fox in the third round. That was the No. 75 overall pick.

However, he suffered a foot injury in a summer all-star game. Unable to shake that injury in training camp, Fox was cut before his rookie season even began.

He was then claimed by the Chicago Bears but waived again before the season began. Then, prior to the 1971 season, the New Orleans Saints gave him a shot but he never appeared in a game for them either.

Fox was as big and athletically gifted as any player could have asked to be so he should have made an impact in the NFL. But once again a random injury caused another Red Raider to become nothing but an bust at the next level.