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With the 66th pick of the 2010 Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft, the Detroit Lions select South Florida cornerback Jerome Murphy.
Here is DrewsLions' reasoning for the pick:
At this point, players are all over the place in terms of who is valued where on all of the "credible" mocks that go beyond Round 2 and I'll be honest... I'm not as familiar with some of these players as I would like to be. So I stuck to the board I created a few weeks ago and just looked at the players that still had aggregate second round grades. I'll admit one more thing too... I decided to reach for need a little with this pick. I had a couple players rated higher than Murphy, but I just felt the need for a cornerback trumped a few of the best available players... not to mention, Murphy has been a sleeper pick of mine for a while, so it's cool that it worked out. So to once again fully explain my pick, I'll start with the guys I didn't choose....
Continued after the jump...
There were several defensive tackles that represented good value and I was surprised were still there... guys like Linval Joseph. Even though we could have used another defensive tackle (can you ever have too many?), I just felt that the additions of Suh and Williams made this a bit of a luxury pick... and Detroit should have no luxuries here. They need starters. Next was tackle Jared Veldheer... the massive 6'8" tackle out of tiny Hillsdale. This guy was gone in the mid-second round in nearly every mock I saw. I still just felt that there were too many blatant holes on this team to draft a player that would likely sit on the bench this year. I was simply holding to the firm belief that we can get a starter here in the third round in a very deep draft.
That left four more players on my board... two corners and surprisingly enough... a pair of linebackers (thanks to the last minute Sims trade). I'll start with the two linebackers, Sean Lee and Koa Misi. Misi intrigued me more because he's more of a traditional outside ‘backer. He's a great "try hard" guy with a big, fast motor, but some questionable instincts. A lot of people think he might be a better OLB in a pass-rushing 3-4 role versus a traditional 4-3. The bigger turn-off is his questionable play against the run. That is not something we need. As for Lee, aside from how I feel about Penn St. linebackers (can you say overrated?), Lee played MLB at PSU and is on the small side. Still, most mocks have him going much higher than this and he was consistently rated the second highest MLB on most boards behind McClain. Anyway, the other corner I considered was Akwasi Owusu-Ansah from Indiana (PA). I hate to use this argument, because I have personally argued against it before... but he really didn't face a lot of good competition, so it's hard to tell how his skills will translate. I do love his size and range (from what video I could find), but it was the lack of overall technique and tackling ability that led me to take Murphy over him.
Murphy is one of those guys that should be rated higher than he is. I've liked him for a few months now and have had him in mind for the #66 pick for a while (and purposefully not talked about). His knock is his speed, which I think is keeping him from being a solid second rounder, but he makes up for that in toughness, physicality and overall playmaking ability. I like a guy that takes some risks and believes in his talent. He can jam big receivers at the line and is known for his tackling... something the Lions have sorely lacked at corner for some time now. I think this is a guy that Gunther Cunningham would be excited to coach. He kind of reminds me of Louis Delmas. He's got the confidence, but needs to be reined in a little bit. He could definitely come in and be the nickel or starting corner right from the get-go. There are some character issues here, which might be one of the other factors keeping him from being drafted higher, but I believe that the coaching staff is solid enough to take a risk on what could be this year's DeAndre Levy... a guy taken in the third round who is currently flying under the radar that could be a starter for years to come.
Check out the 2010 Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft tracker for a look at all of the picks.
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