I think Jeff Ireland's draft last year was marvelous with the exception of one pick. Jake Long at #1 overall was brilliant, a Round 2 with Merling and Henne was beautiful, Langford in Round 3 was a steal, Donald Thomas in Round 5 was robbery as Thomas will turn out to be the best Guard of the entire Draft, even Jalen Parmele was a solid pick. The one we may have missed on is Shawn Murphy. A lot of draft sites and magazines were high on him but I have heard that he has struggled mightily in practice. his pass blocking is god awful. I am pretty shocked as I thought he was going to be a good player. it's way to early to tell but the guy I wanted there was Carl Nicks, Offensive Lineman out of Nebraska. He had a great rookie year in New Orleans. It's always easier in hindsight but I think Murphy could struggle to make the roster this year
I wouldn't give up on Murphy just yet. He has a lot of work to do, especially on his pass blocking, but he has the talent. He just needs to keep working.
Hopefully he can work out. I will not give up hope for him yet, until possibly his third season (ala. Jason Allen). The good thing is that the HC is a former line coach and if Shawn Murphy sticks around, it will probably because they see some potential in him.
He was a raw player. Shawn Murphy was the guy who all thought would be the starter and Donald Thomas was suppose to be the raw one coming out of a UCONN. Its still very early to say we may have missed on him because its been one season in his NFL career. I think there was a very slim to none chance that this team would target Carl Nicks, especially how strict they are about being disciplined. Carl Nicks is just the opposite. He got arrested twice from what I know and got kicked out of his own pro day for being a dummy.
Didn't we draft lex hilliard as well? I don't consider him or Parmele to be solid picks, they're not on the team. Murphy, at least for now, has stuck ... for now
They did make up for it with the FA Bess after the draft. But your right, i think murphy will be hard pressed to make the team. Especially if they get more guards this offseason. I don't think he'll get cut unless the new guards brought in prove they are better. If they do, murphy will probably be let go. If the new people brought in dont' prove to be better i don't think they'll give up on him yet. Should be interesting.
Yeah, Hilliard is on the practice squad I believe. He's a tough runner who can play FB and RB but its hard to get him on the field when you have Cobbs, Williams and Brown playing well. Cobbs was the real kicker for the staff and management. I don't think they expected him to step up his game like this, which is why they may have went with the two backs at the time. Also, Brown's injury history and Williams overall history are factored.
Yea agree Carl Nicks was probably not to high on our draft borad. Shawn Murphy is a raw talent he will improve this offseason if he works hard. We need to give him a chance.
What I find interesting is that despite him not even sniffing the field and guys brought in off the streets, he's still on the roster. They must like him but I know for sure that Sparano thinks he isn't ready. He said it himself. However, I think they're reluctant to move him to the practice squad because they are afraid he will get snatched.
Getting ready to say the same thing bro. There were a lot of factor going in to the draft when we picked Lex Hillard and Jordan Parmele . Like Alen said I really dont think anyone on the staff pictured Patrick Cobbs coming up as big as he did. Ronnie Brown's health history and Ricky Williams history also factored in to picking up Lex Hillard and Jordan Parmele.
Yeah they missed on Murphy. Traded up for him to boot. He may turn out to be a player. But the longer he needs to develop, the lower his draft grade should have been. It's never going to be perfect. You just hope your misses are drafted lower and thereby you're not paying the price twice (cap).
True, I still think its early to say that we missed on him though. I'd say we may have reached on him.
Agree with Alen1, It's still to early to say we missed on him. When Shawn Murphy was drafted, we all knew he was very raw, and needed a year developing. Honestly, I wasn't suprised to see him not play, despite all the injuries we had at guard this year.
Murphy was a luxury pick .As has been said he is very raw but the coaching staff knew that and they think he has some upside . Outwardly he looks like a bust but its too early to say that IMO .However he was not among those who were re-signed yet. Hilliard is on the practice squad...re-signed yesterday . They like him better than Parmale whom they released
Look at it this way- If they thought the guy just couldn't play he would've been long gone off our roster. It's a mighty short leash for any draft pick past the 3rd round.
Why is it that I can't help but get the feeling that offensive linemen in general keep coming from the top rounds more often than not lately and that scouting at those spots has improved immensely? A complete miss on Davone Bess for NFL scouts but great evaluation of the vast majority of offensive linemen? We've had arguably two offensive linemen turn out in the last ten years out of the so-called late sleeper picks we've drafted. We've found two capable WRs in the last year and a half and possibly another in Brandon London. Something's gotta give. Maybe drafting WRs early officially has become just about useless.
Parmale was not release, the Ravens took him from our practice squad. I think he would have been re-signed had we still had that option.
Everyone keeps saying we moved up to take Murphy..wasn't there another prospct that some of the gurus figured we wanted ?
Murphy is just raw. I love his attitude and he may be a disapointment to this point but if he wants to, he can become very good. He just needs to learn technique.
I think Murphy has a good upside, and with his work ethic, and positive attitude he should become solid depth at the very least. Even if he dosnt pan out it was a very good draft regardless imo.
I was on the Greco bandwagon but when he was called upon after an injury he was very bad from what I here.
Thank you very much. I have tons of skate pics. That one is from 1985-6 when I spent all of my spare time skating.
I think it's as simple as that, honestly. We saw players come and go all season. Staff seemingly had no fear when it came to parting company with a player who wasn't getting it done. So while he couldn't crack the line up last year, he must be showing something. IMO it's too early to say bust or miss. Only still in development stage.
If I recall correctly, most of us believed it was John Greco OR Jeremy Zuetta the Syracuse Center/Guard (he also might have been able to play Tackle). Zuetta was picked a few picks before us by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Personally, I think it was Zuetta we where shooting for and missed out on. I have 2 Draft magazines from Last year (Pro Football and The Sporting News) and the reports of him being raw are ackward becuase the magazines said he is refined and they projected him to start last year... I know they are just magazines that hit as often as they miss, but I still find it wierd.
That was certainly my recollection as well. Murphy was certainly supposed to be much closer to a finished product than Donald Thomas was. So, then, it has to be seen as a mis-estimation if Thomas won the *starting* job in camp, but Murphy was behind Thomas, Ndukwe, Evan Mathis (during his brief trial at guard), Matt McChesney (got some game reps at RG as well), and Andy Alleman. Not one whiff of the field for Murphy. That to me, tells me he is much farther away from being able to play than they expected. His upside MUST be huge, or you would absolutely send that guy to the practice squad. This guy better be the next Chris Snee when all is said and done. Carrying a rpster spot for a dude who has ZERO chance of seeing the field.... sheesh.
I look at it like this. We just drafted the guy last year. Former Oline coach now head coach doesn't release him for a whole season. Upside must be huge and worth keeping around for a few years to see if he develops?
Man we have come far in only one year when were talking about our 4th round pick being a bust and not are 1st round one's. lol It's good to see. Shawn had only played on the Oline for two years before we got him.He was a 4th round pick and he his Dad was a great baseball player..................So i for one, think it's way to soon to give up on the kid.
If you want to read up on him some more.............http://www.nfl.com/draft/profiles/shawn-murphy?id=834
All regimes pull boner moves...Murphy looked like a good candidate, but when he got here, they realized how raw he really was...after all, he only started on the OL for one season in college...prior to that he was a TE...I think if he stays around, Sparano and co. will have seen enough of his potential and if he goes, well, it'll be "whoops".... At any rate, I still hold out hope for him since he's stayed on the roster this long, given the bottom of the roster merry-go-round we've seen with this team this year...there must be something there that they like....
I agree with what you are saying and would like to add that picking up a WR in free agency is also a risky investment. We have not had much luck in that arena lately. I wonder what the overall feel for that around the league is. I believe that many people believe that WR's are a spoiled and pampered lot of players, but the O-Lineman are a harder working more blue collar type of player. Not sure really, but thought it was interesting.