Carolina Panthers: Marty Hurney owns stellar top-10 draft record
Carolina Panthers Marty Hurney owns stellar NFL Draft record when making top-10 selections.
Prior to the arrival of Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, general manager Marty Hurney was re-instated following a four year hiatus when he was replaced by Dave Gettleman. The NFL initials are somewhat jokingly referred to as N-ot F-or L-ong but there is much truth to this statement.
From players to coaches and team personnel, any type of longevity – especially with a single franchise – is rare in the league. Only a handful of players spend their entire careers with one team and there are many others who spend only a few practices with an organization before either leaving football entirely or bouncing around between practice squads of different teams. However, here is Hurney who was relieved of his duties after a dismal start (1-5) to the 2012 season but returned in an interim role before earning another chance in his same position.
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During that time, from 2002-2012 and 2017 to the present, Hurney and the Panthers made five top-10 picks in the NFL Draft. Barring a trade, Carolina will make their sixth such selection this April when on the clock seventh overall in the first-round.
Following are Hurney’s previous top-10 selections:
2002 – Julius Peppers, DE (No. 2)
2003 – Jordan Gross, T (No. 8)
2011 – Cam Newton, QB (No. 1)
2012 – Luke Kuechly, LB (No. 9)
An extremely impressive group from a variety of different positions. The Panthers have a number of areas in need of addressing prior to the 2020 season and how Hurney elects to utilize the pick this year will be widely scrutinized.
Once Tepper fired coach Ron Rivera, many believed Hurney would follow but it appears his job is safe for the time being. Although Tepper has discussed restructuring the front office and adding an assistant general manager, his belief about Hurney’s evaluation skills is hard to argue with given this track record of players selected with picks inside the top-10.
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Quarterback, cornerback, linebacker, offensive or defensive line – any could be a legitimate target but if history holds true, whoever is selected should play their way into the Panthers record books.