Parker was a miss, but at the time, he was considered a solid pick.
Devante Parker was a 3-star recruit, with only regional interest and a handful of offers. The Dolphins continue to ignore big picture stuff like that, regarding how a player has stacked up against his peers all his life. They use the flawed approach of only watching the most recent stuff and concluding it is all you need to know. It is identical to fans watching the most recent game and changing opinion based on the result.
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2011/devante-parker-23946
I remember watching this video breakdown of Parker prior to the draft. I may have posted it here at some point. I am not sure. But I bookmarked it, to the point I still had it today. The guy was generally positive about Parker but he detected the same things I saw several times during the season and in person at the Canes/Louisville bowl game, that Parker would make the easy plays but he had poor instincts and not much fight on the 50/50 balls.
Here, I'll merely paste the guys words, (long extended quote) from prior to that draft. Turned out to be very astute:
https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/4...raft-devante-parker-breakdown-scouting-report
"One of the reasons I'm not quite as high on Parker as other evaluators is that while he made a lot of those big plays, he also seemed to give away several big plays. Like, here is a guy that obviously knows
how to go up and high point a back shoulder fade. With his height and leaping ability, he
should be a monster on those routes. And he
was a monster ... just not consistently.
I can live with a receiver not catching some contested balls in those situations -- there's a reason we call them 50/50 balls in the first place. My problem with Parker was that he didn't always appear to fight for the ball when he had an opportunity.
Sometimes that lack of fight manifested itself in Parker not actually jumping to catch the ball at the highest point possible, where he could ensure that he would be the only person with a chance to catch it. Instead, he sometimes allowed shorter, less physically gifted corners make plays on the ball because he allowed it to get to a lower point where the corner could get to it.
I hope that makes sense. If not, then hopefully watching the GIFs will make it clearer.
It's like a tall basketball player who can jump really high but is a sh**ty rebounder. Instead of jumping up over his opponents to get the ball when it comes off the rim
all the time, he opts to stay on the ground every once in awhile and just reach up with his arms as if that will be enough to get the job done."