Recent Hurney qoute that stands out to me

[panther4life]

Quote

"We've talked a lot about when you get to the second round," Hurney said before leaving for Indy. "We might have leaned toward need more (in the past), but if you keep that first-round philosophy (of best available player) in the second and third rounds, then you'd like your top three-round picks to come in and if they don't start in their first year at least fill a role and contribute.

"Keeping that philosophy after the first round – that's something I've been going through in my mind."

Hurney said that "watching some of the best general managers in the business" during his time away from the game helped him learn patience when it comes to resisting the urge to draft for need.

"I don't want to jinx ourselves but organizationally we've had pretty good success in the first round," Hurney said. "But then in the second round, you want a continuation of that philosophy where you in the first round want to take a ‘safe guy' – a guy who really doesn't have a lot of reasons why he wouldn't be successful at this level.

http://www.panthers.com/news/article-2/Marty-Hurney-hunting-a-deep-draft-class/27196334-2d46-44ea-bbe7-d3fb7d111023#start

The bold part is what really speaks to me. It has definitely worked out well for him in the 1st round. Picking Luke when we had Beason for example or Stewart when we had Williams. 

He's been burned by straying away from his first round philosophy so many times its not even funny. Panicking and trading away a first to get Everette Brown to replace Peppers is probably the best example of him regretting reaching and overspending assets for a need. 

Hurney has conducted 11 drafts for us. Heres where he's gone in the first each time. 

LB -3 times, Davis, Beason, and Luke

RB- 2 times  Williams and Stewart

Tackle 2 times Gross and Otah 

DE- Once, Peppers

CB - Once, Gamble

QB, Once, Cam

Cam, Peppers, Gross, Davis and Luke were all the first ones of their position to come off the board. 

** Yes I know Ware and Merriman went before Davis. However they were pass rushing LB's in a 3-4 not sideline to sideline 4-3 LB's.

He was able to get the first QB,DE AND TACKLE off the board in Cam,Peppers, Gross , and Luke. So drafting the top prospect at its position seemed to be safest  moves he's made and arguably the best. 

Williams, Stewart and Gamble were not first at their positions taken off the board. However after the dust settled their careers smoked the guys who went before them. Same could have been said for Beason, except Willis went before him.

Thats not enough data to exactly figure out if he considers some positions safer than others. However I do think it leads credence to selecting the best prospect available at their position vs going for need after the first. 

For example, lets take a look at his worst 2nd round picks. 

1. Everette Brown (This actually cost us a future 1st rounder). 5th DE taken. Total reach/panic move for a Peppers replacement
2. Jimmy Clausen 3rd QB taken but it was a horrible class. The Golden Calf of Bristol went in the first this year! Panic/reach to replace Delhomme
3. Eric Shelton 5th RB taken. Again another horrible class. Ronnie Brown, Cedric Benson and Cadillac Williams all went top 5. Panic/reach for Stephen Davis future replacement
4. Dwayne Jarrett. 8th WR taken. Thought he was good enough to dump Keyshawn Johnson. He had 815 yards and 4 TD's as our # 2 WR the prior year. They just wanted a reason to get him off team,as there were apparently some behind the scenes stuff that was not good for the locker room. 
5. Terrell Mcclain. Just go back and look at our DT core the prior couple years to this and its easy to see why he panicked there.

So far I feel like Hurney has used free agency to hedge his bets in a sense in the draft. He didn't fill every hole, but the ones he left open tend to leave much more to choose from in terms of top players at those positions making it to 24. 

Arguably our 5 biggest needs are at Guard, Safety,WR , 2ND RB, AND 2ND TE. However those are not nearly the hot commodities that positions he worked to fill in free agency are such as WR, CB and DT.  This should give us more of a shot at BPA and need aligning well for when we pick at 24, as you rarely see a big run on our top positions of need going early outside of WR. 

No matter what we do in the first, we will have "needs" in the 2nd and beyond. Can Hurney possibly show restraint and go true BPA over a need in the 2nd or 3rd? I think that will be interesting to see as we get to the 2nd day of the draft. I'm on board with it, as it certainly beats the alternative of going to panic mode as I call it and reaching for a need that has never worked out for him yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ladypanther]

Encouraging.  Our only hope is to hope he has learned how to be better at the job than he was before.

[MtnProwler]

No one can convince me that GMs draft true BPA, despite what they say. I mean really what are they supposed to say, 'we left some players on the board that were better but we wanted to reach for this guy'? That wouldn't go over well.

Instead I think teams adopt a 'conscious BPA'. This explains why you typically don't see teams with a healthy franchise QB draft a QB in the first round every year. They identify their needs, usually 3-5 positions, and grab the BPA that's there. The only other time I don't see this happening is when once in a lifetime player shows up, but those players are usually shored up through draft trade ups and teams already have a plan for that well before draft day.

[tondi]

Marty has never had an eye for talent beyond the blue chip guys and we still have no idea if this is still the case. Even using the excuse of drafting for need, he still picked horrible players that shouldn't have been picked anywhere nesr where he picked them, position of need or not. A bum is a bum and this sounds like revisionist history and excuse making from Marty about why he sucks at evaluating players.  Maybe hes gotten better. I certainly hope so. 

[TheRed]

There has to be a balance to be found somewhere between Hurney's past penchant for reaching for need outside the first round and Gettleman's penchant for overly investing in hog mollies to the detriment of other areas of need on top of throwing away a draft in a panic to replace one player.

[TheSpecialJuan]

A have a need, a need for speed.

[Gregg S]

11 minutes ago, stbugs said:

I know people want to hate on Gettleman but in 5 drafts he drafted Star, Short, Turner, Norwell and Williams. That’s 4 of 5 pro bowlers and 5 of 5 making $10M+ on the first non-rookie contracts (Williams will get that no problem). Any thoughts on what the OL and DL would have been the last few years if he wasn’t investing in hog mollies? The only hog mollie that hasn’t worked out so far is Kugbila in the 4th. Given how well well Williams and Short played year 3, I’m willing to say Butler and Moton aren’t done yet. Anyway, I’d have to disagree that he over invested in hog mollies given the results and where we’d be without the 5 above over the past 5 years and 4 playoff trips. 

I get your point, but Norwell was a UDF, although Gettleman was the one that signed him.  

Yeah, I know.  Nitpicking, perhaps, but just setting the facts straight.

[TheRed]

1 minute ago, stbugs said:

I know people want to hate on Gettleman but in 5 drafts he drafted Star, Short, Turner, Norwell and Williams. That’s 4 of 5 pro bowlers and 5 of 5 making $10M+ on the first non-rookie contracts (Williams will get that no problem). Any thoughts on what the OL and DL would have been the last few years if he wasn’t investing in hog mollies? The only hog mollie that hasn’t worked out so far is Kugbila in the 4th. Given how well well Williams and Short played year 3, I’m willing to say Butler and Moton aren’t done yet. Anyway, I’d have to disagree that he over invested in hog mollies given the results and where we’d be without the 5 above over the past 5 years and 4 playoff trips. 

Hog mollies was also in reference to the DL. The issue is all we have at DE to show for our efforts the last half decade of heavily investing in our defense is a pushing 40 Julius Peppers, and at CB we have Bradberry, and.....who?

As for the OL, we're basically f*cked for 2018 thanks to the Matt Kalil contract. All we can do is hope he doesn't suck horribly.

On top of that we had to make a trade to get a real speed threat while still paying stone hands Russell Shepard what we could have been paying Ginn to not embarrass our defense playing for our arch rival.

[Paa Langfart]

This seems to be a round about way of MH saying once again that he has learned from his mistakes of the past.  

I for one want to believe it.  I just hope that in the heat of the moment he doesn't do something he and we will regret.  I don't mind him making a trade up, but if he does, it damn well better be for a guy who is a difference maker for us in a positive way and not like one of his clunkers from the past.

[mc52beast]

I just have the feeling that we will get to the draft and Hurney will return to his terrible 1.0 self. Hope I’m wrong but can see it’s possible

[Fright]

So you’re saying here comes a LB at pick 24?

 

Now that I think about it, it couldn’t hurt. Keek is one wrong tackle away from possibly walking away and TD will need replaced after this year. Sounds like a safe pick if the talent is there...

[top dawg]

Honestly, he sounds kind of like me now.

 

[MHS831]

You do your research, workouts, visits, etc. on the players at positions of need, so they become the best players when you do your board. 

[davos]

It has been such a weird deal to rehire the guy we fired (that the fanbase hated), but in an odd way, I'm just giving in..might as well root for Hurney 2.0

Watch us nail this draft.

Oliver-Perry-DJ Moore-Mark Andrews