CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Most of the NFL analysts ranked this year's draft by the Carolina Panthers as one of the poorer ones of the league's 32 teams. In fact, one media outlet ranked their draft as the NFL's worst.
And should every selection of this year's draft for the Panthers be a bust, team general manager Dave Gettleman will still have had better drafts in his three years at the helm than his predecessor Marty Hurney had in a decade.
In fairness to Hurney, he did manage to put together two drafts that produced quality talent for a long time, but out of 11 drafts, his draft history was, for the most part, miserable.
In his first two drafts, Gettleman equaled Hurney's 11 in terms of quality.
Hurney, who now has a daily local sports talk radio show, had his two best drafts in 2002 (decent) and 2007 (his best). The latter produced two Pro Bowlers in linebacker Jon Beason and center Ryan Kalil. Star defensive end Charles Johnson was also a member of '07 draft class.
But unfortunately for Carolina, Hurney's drafting never came close to approaching that quality ever again. In fact, his drafts were so poor over the last several years that media types began to wonder whether it was Hurney's fault or if the scouts had any clue how to evaluate players.
It turns out the scouts weren't so bad after all.
When Gettleman, a disciple of Hall of Fame general manager and executive Bill Polian, took over in 2013, he said that he wasn't going to fire any of the scouts and that he was going to give them the tools to be successful at their craft. It worked.
Gettleman struck pay dirt with his first-ever two picks in defensive tackles Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short, both of whom get massive amounts of playing time and figure to be with the Panthers for a long time.
Then, last season, Gettleman stunned everybody by drafting receiver Kelvin Benjamin in the first round rather than a much-needed offensive lineman. All Benjamin did was haul in 73 passes for 1,008 yards and nine touchdowns.
If that weren't enough, three more players wound up becoming entrenched and quality starters by the midway point of the season and look to be starters for Carolina for the next several seasons. There was also second-round pick Kony Ealy, who played in 15 games as a defensive end. The only "bust" was sixth-round pick Tyler Gaffney, a running back out of Stanford that blew out his knee during training camp.
To put things in perspective, during his 11 drafts, Hurney only had two serviceable second-round selections in cornerback Richard Marshall (2006) and running back DeShaun Foster (2002). That speaks volumes.
Many people dislike Gettleman because he's rid the team of popular players like Beason and receiver Steve Smith, and hasn't ponied up a huge contract for quarterback Cam Newton. But unlike Hurney, he's not emotionally attached to the players. He knows this is a business and treats it as such. As Gettleman has said numerous times, when you make decisions based on emotions, nothing good can happen.
Now, those same scouts that were part of so many horrendous drafts are now helping Gettleman and head coach Ron Rivera grab players that are solid, if not great, players. Because of that, things are looking up in Charlotte. There have been some growing pains, and there will likely continue to be some more.
However, the best thing that could have happened to Carolina did in January 2013, when owner Jerry Richardson hired the quirky Gettleman. He is a football guy through and through, and now with Gettleman calling the shots, the Panthers have a realistic chance of being a quality football team through and through.
