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Drafting players who have dropped through injury?

normaniii

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With Marcus Lattimore expected to make an impact for San Fran this year, it made me think, with the small chance that players from round 4 on, make any impact year 1, why not draft players who have dropped though injury and 'redshirt' them for one year?

Players such as James Hurst, EJ Gaines, Brent Urban, Anthony Steen, Joe Don Duncan, DeAndre Coleman, Antone Exum, Yawin Smallwood, Brandon Thomas, Aaron Colvin and Marion Grice, please feel free to mention others I missed.

What do you think?
 
Ronald Powell could be a steal if he can come back from the two knee injuries. The guy was the top HS recruit and started looking like a beast in 2011, then blew his knee in the sring, came back too early and blew it again in the fall.
 
We drafted 4 injured guys last year and had the most underperforming class of rookies.

I'm all for using a later pick on an injured guy a la DE Adawake Ogunleye from Indiana and sits out a year and then becomes a beast, but last year almost all the guys were hurt. Please bring in healthy and durable starters early take chances later. We need starters and depth across the board!

---------- Post added at 03:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:02 PM ----------

Adawale
 
Ireland had a strange fascination for drafting injured players last year. This is OK to do for an occasional player, but the top 4 last year was frankly irresponsible. I'm also sure that Hickey has received feedback from many, to not consider this Ireland Draft strategy.
 
Easley, Brandon Thomas, Spencer Long.
 
We drafted 4 injured guys last year and had the most underperforming class of rookies.

I'm all for using a later pick on an injured guy a la DE Adawake Ogunleye from Indiana and sits out a year and then becomes a beast, but last year almost all the guys were hurt. Please bring in healthy and durable starters early take chances later. We need starters and depth across the board!

---------- Post added at 03:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:02 PM ----------

Adawale

This. We need our draft picks to make an influence straight away. All too often Miami have drafted players with an injury red flag, and as a result, we screw ourselves. Hopefully hickey has a better idea on drafting players than what Ireland did.
 
Teams with good depth can afford to take a flyer on injured players and wait to see if they develop. Teams, like the Dolphins, that need contributors from the draft cannot afford to take that chance until the 6th or 7th round. We saw first hand how Jamar Taylor's, Will Davis', and Dallas Thomas' injuries negatively affected our depth chart.

On a similar topic, I wouldn't take a flyer on a player with character issues until the 7th round or as an UFA.
 
I would draft Thomas late....love his skill set and believe he could be a starter in the NFL...
 
Brandon Thomas would be the first player I look at. We can sign a stopgap vet, and hope this kid comes back soon. Easley and Powell are 2 players who when healthy can be pro bowl talent.
 
I would take a look at Colvin, Thomas, and Hurst, but no earlier than 5th-6th round
 
It doesn't have to be injury. I like it when top players slip solely due to altered opinion, like Lee and Van Noy this year.

If you're going to rely on bounce back from a major injury, make sure the player was extra special beforehand. Those types can overcome it and still have plenty left, like Frank Gore. If you allow too much benefit of doubt to an average or above average player coming off an injury, you deserve to be burned and most likely will be.

Easley is going to be picked higher than expected. At the Canes/Gators game last September, fans from both sides were raving about him in the stands.
 
Zurlon Tipton is a guy that people are sleeping on because of an injury which took away most of his final season at Central Michigan. Averaged 6 yards per carry with 1500 rushing yards and 19 TDs in 2012 but only played 6 games in 2013 and none of those games were played truly healthy and explosive like he was in 2012. He only started to get a full load in the final 3 games of the season when he ran 65 times for 380 yards and 7 TDs...but he didn't have the same explosiveness after breaking his ankle in early September. He played those 3 games approximately 10 weeks after breaking that ankle.

I know people will be down on Tipton for his measurables but Arian Foster had near identical measurables to Tipton when he came out of Tennessee. You don't have to be fast at that position when you're big and powerful and explosive.

Here's what he looked like about 10-12 weeks after the ankle surgery. You'll notice he looks big and maybe a bit soft around the middle. That's not coincidental. You break your ankle, you're going to have a tough time staying in shape. And he came back from the broken ankle so quick he didn't have time to get back into shape before he came back. The ankle should've ended his season but he ran for 7 TDs in those last 3 games anyway.

[video=youtube;B6d_UIhl6Ho]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6d_UIhl6Ho[/video]
 
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