MARTY HURNEY INTERVIEW

I appreciate TS's sentiment, even if I don't agree with it completely.

Our first round and late 3rd round picks are solid, IMO. 3a (Nelson) is a reach, no matter how you spin it, and will not challenge for the start until next year, barring injury. Branch will fight for the top backup with Deke Cooper, Jarrod Cooper, and Damien Richardson. Manning Jr. will battle Wesley and McDaniel for the nickel slot. (can't remember our 7th rounder from last year, but I don't think he'll be a factor at nickel) Moore could surprise and challenge for Hoover's spot, but I think it more likely he'll be the top backup and make Goings compete against He Hate Me and Dee Brown for the 3rd RB spot.

Yeah, there's a spin job for ya, courtesy of good ole Marty.

 

pur 7th rounder last year was a TE... we also have Brad Franklin as a CB if that's who you mean

 

Wait and see how this team plays this year before you completely diss this draft. It is not a good draft if you base your opinion solely on the pundits you have read in the bazillion mock drafts but our experts (Fox and Hurney) think it was. We have Gross who is going to be an anchor for our O line for many years. We have Nelson who may be a big piece of our O line for years as well. We will probably need him to play a lot this year due to Donnalley's age and injury history. We needed a blocking tight end because Mangum is not much of a blocker. Fox says our tight end is a good blocker and he knows more than I do. We needed help with our nickel and dime packages and Manning gives us that. The rest of our guys have potential and that is about all you can hope for with second day picks.

Just because we did not move up and take Leftwich does not mean our draft was bad. I for one think there is a good chance Leftwich will not pan out. I do not think there is much chance at all that Gross will fail to atleast be a quality starter.

 

A couple of nights ago I had a dream in which Peppers busted Leftys leg, ala Theisman/LT. There was torrential rain and the field was mud before Leftwich was carted of on a toboggan-like stretcher . . . weird.

 

Drafting Leftwich isn't the only problem. It wasn't the only option. Drafting Leftwich wouldn't make anything else that's suspect, any less suspect. If you want to tow the line, you can, but I didn't change what I think to fit what ended up happening, and I put too much work into forming my own opinions to just drop them because the team did something different.

 

Byron Leftwich didn't make or break our draft... he wasn't there when we picked period... so we had other options... but regardless that doesn't mean we drafted the best available players... simple as that

 

We wouldn't have gotten Lefty. Tice was playing everybody agaisnt everybody, adding our name to the list would have just made it easier for him to fuck it up. He's a Jag. Either Gross or Trufant were good value picks, and as it turned out, value for both tackles and corners in round 2 sucked.

Value for guards wasn't very good either.

If people can critisize Kris Jenkins when he was piced, who was rated in the top 50 by everyone and posted workout numbers stronger than Gerrard Warren's, just because we didn't take Smoot or a running back, then I'm going to critisize this pick. Nelson isn't strong, not in the weight room. If he's better than the some of the players who, from my own eyes, not a guru's eyes, will make great NFL players, then he must be very good. And he may have to start, you are right. Injuries made Wil Allen a starter for us last year. That doesn't mean Allen is a great player.

 

Some did have outdated rankings where Jenkins was 5th round. Of course, some had nelson at least that low. Some did have Seidman low, but all scouts differ on TEs depending on what they want. A few had Branch 7th round, and that was initially concerning.

Of course, I'll never get off on criticizing anything and everything Jenkins or Steve Smith ever do because we could have had Kevan Barlow, who best I know has never been all pro or a pro bowler (in retrospect, that was one ************ of a draft if Morgan ever does anything, at all).

I can admit to wanting Terrence Holt but I can respect what they did. It's their type pick, to get the guy who's not the playmaker (passing up Saleem Rasheed to trade down to get Witherspoon, for instance). It's frustrating, but again, you'll never hear me pine for an ex-player or a shoulda-been player. I don't go out like that.

So in the meantime I'm going to keep what I think, rather than justifying to fit, because my philosophies and thought processes are more important to me than the latest line. I'd prefer being wrong and confident in my work than slide through the process and wait for April 23 and say "man, Hurney and Fox like them, so they MUST be the shit!"

 

I guess..

I guess its all in your definition of "Best available player" to us its a broad term meaning the best overall prspect, that alone would cause us individually to have a wide variety of opinions. To Fox and Hurney "BPA" might not be that broad of a range.

Going in I was looking at Gross or Trufant, then Curtis, Holt, Offenheisel, Davis, Seidman, a FB and QB which represented (to me) the best players likely to be available when we picked.

They got Gross, and Seidman. with Seidman though not in the
round I figured, so I guess thats the value issue some have. They grabbed Nelson who's an upgrade over Ofenheisel and Davis who went undrafted, and subsituted Manning (PR) and Young (WR) for Curtis (WR/PR) so I'm good with that. They found a steal in a FB who most had rated as the 2-3 best FB available. Holt vs. Branch I rate them about the same and see them playing similar roles, the differnce came down to speed and smarts. overall I would have been happy with what I was projecting and they got better just not in the way I projected, bottom line I was a little down after day 1 but overall am extremely pleased with the end result. and I agree with Magnus, I'm not going to look back in a couple of years and compare Gross to trufant, or Holt to Branch, I'm gonna enjoy Panther football.

 

Yep, Brad Franklin. Thanks.