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6 NFL Draft Picks Who Refused to Sign and Forced Their Way Out

by Jeremy Block - 11/9/2026

NFL Draft picks that refused to sign and forced their way out Eli Manning

Draft day is supposed to be the best day of a young player’s life. The commissioner reads the name, they walk up the big stairs and get to throw on their team hat, and the hardest part left is just haggling over a signing bonus. Then there’s a smaller portion of players who looked at which team drafted them and said “thanks, but no thanks”.

Some threatened to play baseball, some bolted for another league and one sat out an entire season over a money dispute. Six of them took it all the way, refusing to sign until their teams had no choice but to let them go. Let’s take a look at the six players who refused to sign and forced their way out.

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John Elway, Baltimore Colts (1983)

Most No. 1 picks are thrilled to get the call, but the best quarterback prospect of 1983 made it clear long before draft day that Baltimore wasn’t on his wish list. The Colts had just gone 0-8-1 in a strike-shortened season, and John Elway wanted no part of them or head coach Frank Kush. He also had a backup plan most rookies don’t, considering the New York Yankees had drafted him in 1981 and he’d already spent a summer in their minor league system, so the baseball option was legitimate leverage.

Despite the warning, the Colts called his bluff and took him No. 1. Less than a week later, they shipped him to Denver for offensive lineman Chris Hinton, backup quarterback Mark Herrmann and a 1984 first-round pick.

Elway, meanwhile, spent 16 seasons with the Broncos and closed out his career with back-to-back Super Bowl titles. It didn’t start pretty, though. He completed just 47.5% of his passes as a rookie, throwing seven touchdowns and 14 interceptions in 11 games. 

Four years later, he was the NFL MVP, and he went on to become the first quarterback to start five Super Bowls. By the time he retired, Elway had thrown for 51,475 yards and 300 touchdowns, and walked off as Super Bowl XXXIII MVP in the final game of his career.

Eli Manning, San Diego Chargers (2004)

The Manning family has never been shy about having opinions, and the 2004 draft proved it. Eli Manning and his father, Archie, let the San Diego Chargers know ahead of time that he wouldn’t play there, and San Diego used the top pick on him regardless. He posed with the jersey looking about as happy as a kid at the dentist. So, things may actually work out, right? Think again.

Later that same day, the Chargers traded him to the New York Giants for fourth overall pick Philip Rivers, a third-round pick that year and first- and fifth-round picks the next year. The Chargers used those picks on kicker Nate Kaeding and pass rusher Shawne Merriman, who won Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2005.

As it turned out, Manning won two Super Bowls with the Giants, both against the Patriots, and took home Super Bowl MVP both times. Rivers, on the other hand, became a longtime starter in San Diego but never won a title, so there’s no question which team came out on top in the draft-day standoff. 

Bo Jackson, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1986)

Of all the ways to lose a No. 1 pick, a free plane ride has to be the dumbest. Buccaneers owner Hugh Culverhouse flew Bo Jackson to Tampa on his private jet for a visit, and the team assured him the NCAA had signed off on it. Funny enough, the NCAA hadn’t, and Jackson lost his senior baseball season at Auburn because of it.

After feeling blatantly lied to by the Buccaneers, Jackson made it clear that he’d never play for Tampa Bay, and the Bucs drafted him with the top pick anyway. Rather than take their five-year, $7.6 million offer, he avoided football altogether and headed for greener pastures in the MLB, signing with the Kansas City Royals.

The Bucs lost his rights a year later, and the Los Angeles Raiders grabbed him in the seventh round of the 1987 draft. Owner Al Davis let him play football once baseball season ended.

The setup turned him into one of the most famous athletes on the planet. Jackson made the MLB All-Star Game in 1989 and the Pro Bowl in 1990, pulling off something almost nobody has done in two sports. A hip injury in a January 1991 playoff game against Cincinnati ended his football career far too soon.

Joe Namath, St. Louis Cardinals (1965)

Back when the NFL and AFL were fighting over every college star, a top prospect could pretty much name his price. Joe Namath went 12th overall to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NFL draft and first overall to the New York Jets in the AFL draft.

Namath made his demands clear to the Cardinals: $200,000 a year and a new Lincoln Continental. Word around the league was that St. Louis was working on behalf of the New York Giants, who didn’t want the Jets landing him.

There was one catch. The Cardinals wanted him signed right away, which would have cost him his chance to play for Alabama in the Orange Bowl. Namath played the game instead, and the Jets won the bidding war the next day with a three-year, $427,000 deal. It was the biggest contract pro football had ever seen, and it came with the Lincoln he wanted.

Four years later, Namath guaranteed a win over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III and delivered, taking home MVP in a 16-7 upset.

Tom Cousineau, Buffalo Bills (1979)

The top pick in 1979 turned down Buffalo for somewhere even colder, and the Canadians had a much bigger checkbook. The Bills took Ohio State linebacker Tom Cousineau with a pick they got in the O.J. Simpson trade, but the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes offered him about double what Buffalo put on the table. Cousineau made the choice most would in that situation, took the bigger paycheck and headed north, where he was named Grey Cup MVP as a rookie.

By 1982, he wanted back in the NFL and signed an offer sheet with the Houston Oilers. Buffalo still held his rights and matched it, then flipped him to the Cleveland Browns for a 1983 first-round pick and two more selections. The Browns gave him a five-year, $2.5 million deal, the biggest contract in franchise history at the time. Cousineau never lived up to it, finishing his NFL career with 10 interceptions, 6.5 sacks and zero Pro Bowl trips.

The Bills got the last laugh. They used that first-rounder on Jim Kelly, who ironically spent two seasons in the USFL before finally showing up in Buffalo. Once he did, Kelly led the Bills to four straight Super Bowls and landed in the Hall of Fame.

Kelly Stouffer, St. Louis Cardinals (1987)

Most draft experts had Colorado State quarterback Kelly Stouffer pegged as a second- or third-round pick, and even he admitted he was shocked when the Cardinals took him sixth overall in 1987. For a player who wasn’t supposed to go in the first round, he sure negotiated like a franchise quarterback.

Contract talks with owner Bill Bidwill went nowhere fast. The Cardinals offered $1.8 million over four years, but Stouffer wanted more, and neither side budged. He sat out the entire 1987 season. And by the time the team finally gave up, they weren’t even in St. Louis anymore.

The new Phoenix Cardinals shipped his rights to the Seattle Seahawks the following spring for three picks, including a 1989 first-rounder. Seattle then handed him a four-year, $3.1 million deal, about $1.3 million more than the Cardinals were ever willing to pay.

Stouffer made just 16 starts, throwing seven touchdowns against 19 interceptions. He eventually found his calling in the booth as a college football analyst, and that gig suited him a lot better than quarterbacking the Seahawks ever did.

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