ESPN article - worst NFL draft move for each team in past 5 seasons

[*ochocincos*]

(04-20-2016, 11:25 AM)fredtoast Wrote: This is a complete myth.  Every other team in the league has done the exact same thing.  

Hunt was not a guy who had never played football before.  He was an All Conference player from a D-1 school.

True, Hunt did play at SMU for four seasons (2009-2012) and improved in his stat totals every year. However, he was not a football player prior to 2009.

Also of note is that while Hunt was at a D-1 school, it was as a member of a lesser D-1 conference (Conference USA).
The other schools in that conference were UCF, East Carolina, Marshall, Memphis, UAB, Southern Miss, Tulsa, Rice, Houston, UTEP, and Tulane.
He didn't really light up this weaker conference, only having a high of 8 sacks in a season (senior-2012). In his junior season (2011), he didn't have a sack the entire year until his bowl game against Pitt.

There was reason to have hope on his potential given his strength, size, and steady improvement every year, but there was definitely risk taking a player relatively new to the sport and from a weaker D-1 conference.

Just didn't work out for the Bengals unfortunately.

EDIT: I thought Alex Okafor would have been a better pick (was taken early Rd 4). While not as big as Hunt, Okafor had 24 sacks in the same time as Hunt, was far more experienced, and played in a Power 5 conference. Okafor has tallied 10 sacks in three seasons with Arizona, but is playing at LB. Many said though during draft time that he was an ideal 4-3 base end.