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Top 10 RBs drafted by year, with career yds + TDs:
Pick - Name - Yds - TDs
1980
1 - Billy Sims - 5100 - 42
5 - Curtis Dickey - 4000 - 32
.
1981
1 - George Rogers - 7200 - 54
3 - Freeman McNeil - 8100 - 38
.
1982
7 - Darrin Nelson - 4400 - 18
9 - Gerald Riggs - 8200 - 69
10 - Marcus Allen - 12200 - 123
.
1983
2 - Eric Dickerson - 13300 - 90
3 - Curt Warner - 6800 - 56
8 - Michael Maddix - 1600 - 3
.
1984
None
.
1985
None
.
1986
1 - Bo Jackson - 2800 - 16 (none for TB)
10 - Keith Byars - 3100 - 23
.
1987
3 - Alonzo Highsmith - 1200 - 7
4 - Brent Fullwood - 1700 - 18
.
1988
None
.
1989
3 - Barry Sanders - 15300 - 99
7 - Tim Worley - 1800 - 8
9 - Sammie Smith - 1900 - 15

2000
5 - Jamal Lewis - 10600 - 58
7 - Thomas Jones - 10600 - 68
.
2001
5 - LaDanian Tomlinson - 13700 - 145
.
2002
None
.
2003
None
.
2004
None
.
2005
2 - Ronnie Brown - 5400 - 38
4 - Cedric Benson - 6000 - 32
5 - Cadillac Williams - 4000 - 21
.
2006
2 - Reggie Bush - 5500 - 36
.
2007
7 - Adrian Peterson - 14200 - 111
.
2008
4 - Darren McFadden - 5400 - 28
.
2009
None

It's interesting the CFB players get so much analysis and attention and one expects experts looking at them, versus HS players who get 3-4-5 stars based on, well, usually a rather scanty review by somebody (unless they are elite players).  And both have misfires fairly often.  I'd expect the NFL boys to have fewer, but perhaps they have about the same as we see 5 star players not doing much.

Here are a couple of good candidates.

1983
8 - Michael Maddix - 1600 - 3

1998
5 - Curtis Enis - 1500 - 4

Good point, I used to live in Cincy.

They also ditched Bettis to draft a RB (Phillips).  He would go on to rush for 10,500 more yards and 78 TDs for PIT.

I look at it a different way...

If you have the #2 pick in the draft, you have a sh!tty football team. That's how you got the #2 pick.

Now, for some teams it's a down year in a good organization. For other teams (I'm looking at you, Cleveland) it's a consistently terrible management structure that produces perennially bad teams.

So if you've got the #2 pick and you're a bad football team with bad management, what are the odds that you're going to ruin your draft pick? Probably higher than one would think...

I'll bet if you look at #30-32 picks you'll see a lot of successes. Because they're being drafted by competent management in successful organizations and given every opportunity to succeed.

I like this as a novel theory. But I see a couple issues. 
1. A lot of those bad ones didn't even get fourth-year (or is it fifth-year?) options picked up. Basically, a lot of these teams ruined guys so badly, they didn't even want to deal with a sunk cost.
2. If that was the case, I'd imagine we'd see some reclamation projects. And in truth, we usually don't.


I like the 30-32 idea, and I found a site that tracks such things. From the same span of years, 2001-2017 here's each:
30: T.J. Watt, Vernon Butler, Damarious Randall, Jimmie Ward, Alec Ogletree, A.J. Jenkins, Muhammad Wilkerson, Jahvid Best, Kenny Britt,Dustin Keller, Craig Davis, Joseph Addai, Heath Miller, Kevin Jones, Sammy Davis, Kendall Simmons, Reggie Wayne
31: Reuben Foster, Germain Ifedi, Stephone Anthony, Travis Frederick, Doug Martin, Cam Hayward, Jerry Hughes, Beanie Wells, Kenny Phillips, Greg Olson, Kelly Jennings, Mike Patterson, Rashaun Woods, Nnamdi Asomugha, Robert Thomas, Todd Heap
32: Ryan Ramczyk, Malcom Brown, Teddy Bridgewater, Matt Elam, Derek Sherrod, Patrick Robinson, Ziggy Hood, Anthony Gonzalez, Mathias Kiwanuka, Logan Mankins, Ben Watson, Tyler Brayton, Patrick Ramsey (only 16 of those as first rounders)

At 30, you have Wayne, Watt, Miller, Wilkerson I guess. So you're still at like 60 percent of Joseph Addai, Dustin Keller or worse.
At 31, Hayward, Fredrick, Olson, Heap were good. I have no good read on Asomugha. Hughes was decent, same with Jennings, Patterson
At 32, In the good category, Ramczyk, Mankins, kinda Ben Watson Solid: Brown, Patrick Robinson, kinda Bridgewater. So a QB who was healthy for two years make the top half with ease. 

Basically, no matter where you take someone, there's a better than half chance they bust and a 80 percent chance they at least disappoint your expectations.