Should Marty Hurney Be Fired?

speaking of missed opportunities, hiring the glad-handing Morrison to run the team probably puts no chance of my preference to happen - not that there was much option anyway - of assigning Hurney to be a VP that oversees all of football ops, but putting a better talent evaluator in the GM role.

Or, hell, putting Gregory there. There's no doubt that he's given us better picks than any since Bushofsky.

I dunno. I hesitate to put Fox too heavily in the process, and there's no point since he's gone anyway.

 

while we're pushing, trades like Baker and a 7 for McDrinky Roidpunter, or that DE swap that got us Al Wallace and a draft pick are pretty awesome.

Knowing we could've picked Beason at 14 but getting Kalil, stuff like that. Hell, if they felt like they had to get Stewart at 13, I'll take the Otah trade as a win.

Now, trade ups from 45 or so to 19 are always going to skew toward the team trading down. So you're losing value. But, again, if Stewart has to be the pick - and there's no doubt he's the guy over Mendenhall, IMO - Otah was the right pick and the reason to trade to 19.

Look at the tackles around him after Clady - kinda shitty (still don't like Albert, Cherilus isn't great, is Chris Williams even starting?). Look at the ones after - bad (Sam Baker, Duane Brown were huge reaches). And there were enough reaches for OL in 1 that there wasn't even one taken in 2.

The RBs don't pass the test, I guess. Forte and Rice in 2, though at the time I felt they were 3s. I don't know of anyone that really felt like Johnson would have 4600 fucking yards and he didn't fit here anyway. I loved Choice and at the time felt like he could be enough as the backup.

so who knows. DW got his shit straight a year too late, so to speak, to fend off such a high choice. It's still weird, but it worked. If we had picked Chris Williams or Cherilus, and then Trevor Laws, I'm fairly certain we're neither a playoff team nor a good running team and it all just crumbles faster.

 

I was and still am of the mind that we didn't need Stewart and could have done fine taking a lesser RB and improving the OL. I'll pretty much always go for OL over RB.

So, take Otah rather than Stewart, or maybe even trade down and still get him. (edit: and I like Stewart fine, they were right about him. I just disagree we needed him enough to essentially trade a future 1st for him which is how I always looked at it. No doubt we needed OT bad).

I was pretty happy with Hurney, there have been some nice picks, I like Gregory and was ecstatic to see Softli go.

I started souring on the situation fast when we began trading future 1sts. That is starting down a bad road.

I'm willing to ride out the transition with Hurney unless he goes Monty Hall trading up again. I might go postal if that happens.

 

sure, Otah might make more sense. And if they liked him over everyone but Clady already, it's not a stretch. In hindsight he's the next lineman down from Clady.
But we don't get hindsight, and of who's the better player, Stewart is. On their board, and now in hindsight. So their position would be defensible. They made something happen, and then it happened. We've never been as good at anything as we were at running in 08-09.

 

It wasn't defensible by any stretch of the imagination. The team had already drafted DeAngelo Williams, and it's not as if he had been a bust to that point. As of the 2008 draft, DW had accumulated 1218 rushing yards on 265 carries for a 4.6 average. Then as I have repeated ad nauseum, the 2008 draft was very deep with running back talent. Felix Jones, Rashard Mendenhall, Chris Johnson, Matt Forte, Ray Rice, Kevin Smith, Jamaal Charles, Steve Slaton, Tashard Choice, Timothy Hightower, Peyton Hillis, and Justin Forsett were all selected after Stewart. Unless you thought Stewart was going to be an All-Pro, Adrian Peterson-type talent (which he clearly isn't), then you don't spend your only first round pick on him given that situation. It was a dumb move, end of story.

 

I wouldn't have done it, I'm just saying I understand the thought process.

 

2-14. Pointing to all the decent moves (because lets face it, none have been complete and utter steals, except maybe Hardy in the 6th, maybe) ignores the elephant in the room. The results on the field would point to the unemployment line.

 

Hurney's job is not to match the needs of the team (as determined by the coach) with the abilities of the players (as determined by the scouts). Basically, Hurney does contracts, signs free agents, and navigates the draft. So giving him credit for Hardy is a bit of a reach because we needed a DE and Hardy dropped so far because he had some character/injury concerns and not many people run a 4-3--Hardy is a 4-3 DE. So, if you consider about 10-12 teams actually run a 4-3 and there were 4-3 DEs picked before him, satisfying the appetite of that team for a DE, it is easy to see how Hardy fell to us.

Smith, Moose, Jake, Kemo, Lewis etc. were aging and the free agency market was limited in these areas. Hurney and Fox boast about building the team through the draft and maintaining the core. QB, DT, and WR are three of the most important positions in football. Now, how have we built through the draft --Hurney's area of expertise--since he came to the Panthers in 2002 or so?

WR: Walter Young (2003); Keary Colbert, Drew Carter (2004);Dwayne Jarrett, Ryne Robinson (2007); Brandon Lafell, David Gettis (2010).
QB: Randy Fasani (2002); Stephan Lafors (2005); Jimmy Clausen, Tony Pike (2010).
DT: Kindal Moorehead (2003); Aytilla Ellison, Jovan Haye (2005); Nick Hayden (2008); Corvey Irvin (2009).

Analysis: If you look at these picks in relation to when they were picked, you will note that there is a sense of urgency or desperation when they were picked. I personally think we should project needs in the future and draft for 2 years from now, especially if the head coach likes veterans.

Note how often we drafted multiple players at the same position. This suggests that we are trying to throw multiple players at a need position in hopes of one sticking. At WR, we drafted multiple players in 2004, 2007, and 2010. At DT, we did it in 2005 and drafted DT in consecutive years in 2008 and 2009, along with a half dozen free agents.

This also suggests that we research positions of need more extensively than other spots.

QB: Consider Jake's age and the fact that we had unproven backups for the most part. We drafted NOTHING at QB until it was too late, 2010. NEGLECTING THE QB POSITION --EVEN IF YOU CONSIDER FREE AGENTS BROUGHT IN--IS INEXCUSABLE IN THIS LEAGUE. GRADE: D- Even if Clausen and Pike become good, Hurney's blind loyalty to Jake cost us a season in many respects.

WR: Much like QB, when someone falls out of the first round faster than a buzzard turd, there must be a reason. Aside from re-signing Moose, what has been done at the position since the Super Bowl in 2003? Arrgh. Nothing. Gettis and Lafell show promise, but the standards by which they are measured will be elevated in 2011. Can these 2 guys live up to the expectations? By the way, 2 QBs and 2 WRs in 1 draft? Neglect. Grade: D- because Gettis and Lafell showed promise.

DT: Such a huge position in a 4-3 that prides itself on the front four. First, Hurney lets Peppers get away and then trades a first rounder for Everett Brown, when Fla St DEs have a long tradition of BUSTING in the NFL. Our DTs were aging. What was Hurney's response? Alliteration- Tank Tyler, Louis Leonard. Draftwise, He drafted Hayden and Irvin earlier than many projected. Neither have made it to average yet. They might be the best on the roster right now. GRADE: F

Frankly, I don't trust Hurney's ability to draft WR, DT, or QB. He has made a reputation drafting rather safe picks: RB, RB, LB, LB, OT, OT, CB, and DE. Offensively, Running back and Tackle. Defensively, we have not taken a player in the draft's first round other than a LB since 2004. Don't know what this means, but there seems to be a lot of repetition in our drafts.

Time to go.

 

I'm going to bump this to make it easier to find later.

 

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