The Years Of Marty Hurney

[Catalyst]

I've long been a Hurney supporter. The question to me isn't putting up a long list of his mistakes, but comparing that list to other GM's. Every GM has misses, but many do not have the hits that Hurney does.

I don't think I'd put Mike Wahle and Ken Lucas in the misses section either. They were key starters for a while here who just declined as the years went by. It happens.

Hurney not upgrading the TE position? He drafted Jeff King, Donte Rosario, and Gary Barnidge back to back in the 5th round. Granted, that's not a huge commitment to upgrading anything, but it's something. Besides, Fox was the reason the TE's were never used much, not Hurney. We could've had Antonio Gates and he would've put up the same numbers as Rosario in Fox's offense.

Has he made some mistakes? Sure. Many. But he's been here for 10 years; of course he's going to make some mistakes in a decade. But he's also never missed in the 1st round and given us a pretty solid base of talent to work with. Our problem has been the QB position and inconsistent coaching more than anything. Hopefully we have both solved and can move on to actually developing some of the talent Hurney's brought in. I don't think some folks realize how little Fox was really interested in developing young players the way Rivera is. He wanted a guy to be able to play day one and if they needed any kind of coaching up or development, they rode the bench.

Just look at Charles Johnson, James Anderson, & DeAngelo Williams. None of them would've been given a chance to be starters if Fox would've been allowed to have his way. Hurney had to pry DeShaun Foster out of Fox's hands in order for Williams to get his shot and he responded with 1500 yards and 20 TD's. It took losing Peppers for Johnson to get on the field; you're telling me we couldn't have started him over Tyler Brayton? James Anderson as well; it took T.D. going down for him to get his shot.

All those situations were a direct result of poor talent evaluation and an unwillingness to trust young players by Fox. Hurney gave him the talent, but if Fox had gotten his way we'd have never even found out they could play until their contracts expired and they signed elsewhere and broke out.

[4Corners]

Bill Polian gave him a big time ringing endorsement at the draft on Saturday.

I'll take his opinion over some unemployed redneck from rock hill.

How many broke down cars are in your backyard grits?

[4Corners]

Yeah the OP had brayton over Lucas and Wahle. That's all you need to read right there.

[heyyall]

We could go 0-16 and he'd still have a job, JR is dumb enough to keep him.

[pOpCoRnPoPpEr]

You've already asked those questions so add something new. And again has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

[4Corners]

Skins management would easily rank above the panthers on awful front offices.

[pOpCoRnPoPpEr]

Actually that may have been the case a couple season ago but Washington wised up and fired Vinny Cerrato. That's what happens when people can't perform at their job. They lose it.

[Simple and Plain]

And now they are killing it drafting back up QBs in the 4th!

[Raleighcat83]

Ok, couple of problems with the original post. First of all, if you're going to count certain guys getting away as free agent failures, then you need to count re-signed players as free agent successes. That means giving Hurney credit for extending Gross, Smith(twice), C. Johnson, Gamble, etc. Second, Ken Lucas wasn't a bad signing, he was pretty good for a couple of years, and he was respected by other guys on D. The way he handled the situation with Smitty in 08 was pure class and helped bring that team together. Third, to say he never attempted to upgrade from Colbert/Carter is ridiculous, he signed Keyshawn in 06, drafted Jarrett in 07, and signed Moose and Hackett in 08. Those moves didn't work out(except bringing back Moose) but you can't say he didn't try. The TE thing was all about Fox, we grabbed two big time tight ends as soon as Rivera got here. Fourth, I don't know that he could have convinced Jerry to fire Fox if he tried, I don't know if he did try, and you don't know either. Fifth, the "we drafted this guy when we could have had that guy" game is stupid, remember, every team in the NFL passed on Tom Brady multiple times, hat doesn't mean every GM is an idiot. It means there is a lot of luck involved in drafting. Bill Belecheck drafted Lawrence Maroney when he could have had DeAngelo Williams, does he suck too? And finally, this business about how all of our good first round picks were "gimmes" and the GM shouldn't get credit for them? What about first round picks like Jason Peter, Rashard Anderson and Rae Carruth, all of whom were "gimmies" that we picked before Hurney got here? What about other teams' gimmies like JaMarcus Russell, Carlos Rodgers and Joey Harrington? Any GM that lasts 10 years will have some signings and picks you can go back and question. But Hurney took over as GMat a time when the Panthers were neither good nor young, he brought in the talent for several successful seasons under Fox, was involved in what I believe was a good hire in Rivera, and last year he made one of the ballsiest first overall picks I can ever remember, when a lot of fans, including many on this board, were calling for the safe pick of Green, Darius or Peterson.

[Raleighcat83]

One more thing: the re-signing of Williams last year was a good move. Having two elite running backs who enjoy playing together is a good thing. And if Hurney had let Williams walk and he had run for 1200 yards with Denver, I bet it would have made your list of free agent mistakes.

[TANTRIC-NINJA]

One more thing: the re-signing of Williams last year was a good move. Having two elite running backs who enjoy playing together is a good thing. And if Hurney had let Williams walk and he had run for 1200 yards with Denver, I bet it would have made your list of free agent mistakes.

No arguement DeAngelo got more money than another team was going to offer but at the time....he was a necessary resigning. Having a rookie QB who is supposed to have a considerable learning curve would require a strong running tandem.

It seems like an overreaction in signing Deangelo in hindsight in part because of Cams success and Jonathan Stewarts 1st healty preseason/season.

[Ivan The Awesome]

Ok, couple of problems with the original post. First of all, if you're going to count certain guys getting away as free agent failures, then you need to count re-signed players as free agent successes. That means giving Hurney credit for extending Gross, Smith(twice), C. Johnson, Gamble, etc. Second, Ken Lucas wasn't a bad signing, he was pretty good for a couple of years, and he was respected by other guys on D. The way he handled the situation with Smitty in 08 was pure class and helped bring that team together. Third, to say he never attempted to upgrade from Colbert/Carter is ridiculous, he signed Keyshawn in 06, drafted Jarrett in 07, and signed Moose and Hackett in 08. Those moves didn't work out(except bringing back Moose) but you can't say he didn't try. The TE thing was all about Fox, we grabbed two big time tight ends as soon as Rivera got here. Fourth, I don't know that he could have convinced Jerry to fire Fox if he tried, I don't know if he did try, and you don't know either. Fifth, the "we drafted this guy when we could have had that guy" game is stupid, remember, every team in the NFL passed on Tom Brady multiple times, hat doesn't mean every GM is an idiot. It means there is a lot of luck involved in drafting. Bill Belecheck drafted Lawrence Maroney when he could have had DeAngelo Williams, does he suck too? And finally, this business about how all of our good first round picks were "gimmes" and the GM shouldn't get credit for them? What about first round picks like Jason Peter, Rashard Anderson and Rae Carruth, all of whom were "gimmies" that we picked before Hurney got here? What about other teams' gimmies like JaMarcus Russell, Carlos Rodgers and Joey Harrington? Any GM that lasts 10 years will have some signings and picks you can go back and question. But Hurney took over as GMat a time when the Panthers were neither good nor young, he brought in the talent for several successful seasons under Fox, was involved in what I believe was a good hire in Rivera, and last year he made one of the ballsiest first overall picks I can ever remember, when a lot of fans, including many on this board, were calling for the safe pick of Green, Darius or Peterson.

Good post.

[xtheronx]

I'm really sick of people complaining about D Will's contract

He's one of the top RB's in the league and deserved what he got

I can't imagine the posts if we would've let him walk .. IMO we're lucky he's part of our organization

not just his stats .. but he's genuinely a good guy

be grateful

[SCP]

Raleighcat83 wins this thread. Hands down.