The Official Harvey Unga Thread

[hoops]

i like the roster expansion point...i think he has more value if that's the case...heard some rumblings that the roster could expand to 50 players active on game day if we do go to 18 game sched...

just don't use a top 3 round pick on him...he's not that good of a talent imo...4th round if we're looking to trump another team with a better slot than us in the 5th i guess i can see it...

otherwise pass

 

[Myles Fynch]

I'm also in favor of not over-drafting this guy. Kudos to him for playing through injuries, which as CK has pointed out, earns bonus points with our FO. But when I watch videos of him, I ask myself is this what it's going to look like in the pros, or are they going to put a stop to this? I'm afraid I think it's the latter.

For a big guy, he's not smashing people in any way that would remind you of someone like Polite. So if he stays at RB he's going to need to show vision, elusiveness, or speed, preferably a combo of all of three. JMO, but he doesn't seem to have enough wiggle or speed to make the defenders at the next level miss--in terms of him making pros fail as opposed to some of these college guys failing against him, if that makes any sense. Ginn looked pretty good on tape, too. This is not a poor man's Earl Campbell, perhaps more of a Rob Konrad, the injury factor notwithstanding. Put in a late pick if you want to, but I'd rather see what my options are next year.

I wouldn't be disappointed in him being on the roster because he might develop into a quality role player, but under normal circumstances he doesn't seem to be the kind you'd go after in the first two days of a three day draft. If we take him something's not right with Cobbs, Hilliard, and Sheets and the decision that one or more of them can't help us has already been made.

 

[dolpns13]

I'm also in favor of not over-drafting this guy. Kudos to him for playing through injuries, which as CK has pointed out, earns bonus points with our FO. But when I watch videos of him, I ask myself is this what it's going to look like in the pros, or are they going to put a stop to this? I'm afraid I think it's the latter.

For a big guy, he's not smashing people in any way that would remind you of someone like Polite. So if he stays at RB he's going to need to show vision, elusiveness, or speed, preferably a combo of all of three. JMO, but he doesn't seem to have enough wiggle or speed to make the defenders at the next level miss--in terms of him making pros fail as opposed to some of these college guys failing against him, if that makes any sense. Ginn looked pretty good on tape, too. This is not a poor man's Earl Campbell, perhaps more of a Rob Konrad, the injury factor notwithstanding. Put in a late pick if you want to, but I'd rather see what my options are next year.

I wouldn't be disappointed in him being on the roster because he might develop into a quality role player, but under normal circumstances he doesn't seem to be the kind you'd go after in the first two days of a three day draft. If we take him something's not right with Cobbs, Hilliard, and Sheets and the decision that one or more of them can't help us has already been made.

Maybe as a 5th or 6th round flyer, I would hope we wouldnt take him any higher than that. The way he runs, it looks like he would never make it past the LOS. What good is a runningback when linebackers are faster than the runningback. The third round is way to high to take any fullback

 

[Pachyderm_Wave]

Believe me though, if Gil Brandt is right that Parcells would not take someone in the Supplemental Draft, I'm sure the Tuna has his reasons. In fact I believe I wrote a big article about those reasons just before the Dolphins wasted a pick on Manny Wright.

The whole Supplemental Draft process is riddled with imperfect information and improper perspective. You are forced to focus on one or two players in a vaccuum and that makes grading their worth more difficult. In the real draft you can choose not to use a certain pick on a player because you have this other player available that you like more. In the Supplemental Draft you're more prone to tunnel vision, over-focusing on a guy until you over-inflate his worth. Also, you've got no idea what you're giving up in next year's draft class because you haven't evaluated next year's class. Put those risks together with the fact that USUALLY when a guy is available in the Supplemental Draft (Unga an exception) there's some kind of red flag reason he is available, and the fact there's no Combine process that gives you apples-to-apples looks with previous prospects athletically and medically, it's a process fraught with risk. If the Dolphins decide not to take part as a matter of philosophy, I really wouldn't blame them.

That said I think Unga has shown a nice set of skills and characteristics and he's a guy I wouldn't mind having on my team. He's durable, very strong, good in short yardage, might be good for more than that, I think overall he's a better prospect than Lex Hilliard was, he keeps his head down and he plays through pain. If the NFL goes 18 game seasons and expanded rosters, his value becomes greater.

Absolutely... the risk is even riskier... The main thing I don't like about the supplemental draft is the fact that you DON'T know exactly what you're giving up in next year's draft because you haven't evaluated it completely yet...

The supplemental draft is usually for guys that weren't able to enter the regular draft because of other athletic obligations (pro baseball, etc.) or have been kicked off of teams for being busted with performance enhancers or steroids, etc.. (which wasn't the case 20-30 years ago... but is now)...

..which is why teams are rarely ever willing to give up more than a 4th round pick in the supplemental draft..

Although I do remember Alabama running back Bobby Humphrey going in the 1st round of the supplemental draft... I believe Bernie Kosar did too...

 

[Adam First]

In case nobody knew, Chicago took Unga in the 7th round. Every year there seems to be a "mid-level" supplemental draft choice that either goes very late or goes undrafted.