Failure would absolutely be the right thing to call it.
Clearly you don't know your history.
One only has to think back to the 1985 NFL Draft and the horrific scenario that played out for Bill Walsh and the 49ers.
Needing a receiver and having conviction on Mr. Eddie Brown from Miami, the 49ers traded up to pick 1-16 only to have the Bengals steal away Mr. Brown with pick 1-13.
This epic failure led to a near total melt down wherein Walsh proceeded to apparently panic and select the next guy on his receivers list. Unfortunately, Per the 49ers' own scouting director this guy was only a 5th round talent.
Some relatively unknown and slow ( 4.57 in the 40 ) receiver from some division whatever school, Mississippi Valley something.
Meanwhile Mr. Brown won rookie of the year, made a pro bowl in 1988 and led his team to a super bowl appearance.
Also, Mr. Brown's 24 yards per catch average is an NFL single-season record that still stands for receivers with 50+ receptions.
This failure eventually lead to Walsh leaving the NFL and going back to college coaching at Stanford from which he came.
If you have a chance to watch a 49ers home game on TV pay attention when they show the sidelines. Sometimes you can see a glimpse of the guy they took at 1-16. Even though he isn't in the league anymore he occasionally shows up to watch from the field. Once I even saw him wearing some tacky looking gold jacket that looked like it was from the 1970's or something. Poor guy, I guess they don't teach fashion at the small schools.