Huskers in the 2009 NFL Draft - Pretty Sparse Pickings

by Jon Johnston on Apr 21, 2009 5:00 AM CDT in Football Comment 2 comments

Nice look at Lydon Murtha by the Draft Guys. Murtha will most likely be the highest Husker taken in this weekend's NFL draft. Interesting that Murtha did so well at the combine, and has all the physical talents, but isn't projected any higher than fifth round. Notice that in the video they don't show any drive blocking, only pointing out that quick step backwards. While Murtha may have posted great combine times, he was horribly slow off the line when drive blocking. Still, perhaps that's a coaching issue.

Other than Murtha, it looks pretty sparse. Matt Slauson has the chance to make a NFL roster, but most likely he'll do so as an undrafted free agent. Slauson has some of the same problems as Murtha, slow off the drive block, and somewhat inconsistent. I hope for him that he can make a NFL team because he deserves it.

Marlon Lucky - probably late round, although there's little talk of him anywhere.

Consider that last year, only three Huskers were drafted, and all three went in late rounds. Zack Bowman was the first Husker chosen, and that wasn't until the fifth round. Carl Nicks and Bo Ruud were selected in the fifth and sixth rounds, respectively. In 2007, Adam Carriker went in the first round to the St. Louis Rams.

BTW, if you're a NFL draft kind of guy, you might want to look around at SB Nation's NFL blogs. Our 32 NFL sites teamed up with Shutdown Corner to do a mock draft. It's 90 minutes worth of audio, but it's as real as anything else out there right now.

Otherwise, if you're looking for a good argument about the NFL draft, you might want to check out this thread at the FSU site Tomahawk Nation. Apparently they're looking for a fight, smack talking about how bad the Big 12 is defensively.

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Huskers Draft Prospects

Thanks for linking to our profile of Murtha! With the draft inflation of offensive tackle (and 5-6 likely going in the first round), I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go as high as the third round. As far as other Huskers who might hear their name called, I expect Zach Potter to get drafted. We would have profiled him if we had more time, we got some outstanding clips of him doing what he does as well as anyone in the draft – batting down passes. With about 20 more pounds of muscle, he could be a very good 3-4 end. Ty Steinkuhler and Nate Swift are underrated and have at least a shot at being drafted late – they should definitely be priority free agents if they go undrafted.

Last year’s class at least yielded a defensive TD (in Bowman’s only game) and a rookie starter. Nicks was really a 2nd-3rd round talent, but I think character concerns knocked him down the board.

by Sigmund Bloom on Apr 21, 2009 12:01 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs