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There was a kind of a flurry of NFL activity in the past couple days involving some Eagles connected players that I thought would be fun to bat around.
First, East-West Shrine game legend Mike Kafka was invited to try out for the Steelers as they are in the midst of a QB crisis. They're down 2 QBs and will start Charlie Batch this weekend, so they brought in Kafka and former Patriots backup Brian Hoyer to compete for the backup job. Hoyer won.
Pittsburgh was also down 2 WRs (Brown, Cotchery) so they went ahead and signed our old pal Plaxico Burress! He's been campaigning for the Eagles to sign him since he left prison and at least got some of the fan base behind him. The Eagles, however, never really showed any whiff of interest. It should be interesting to see how he plays the rest of this year...
Then, the least Eagles related news was the Raiders cutting Aaron Curry. When he was being shopped by Seattle and the Eagles really had nothing at LB a lot of fans were interested in taking a shot on the former #4 overall pick. But after being a total bust in Seattle and failing to make the grade in Oakland, it seems possible, if not likely that we've seen the last of Aaron Curry in the league. That said, he was hurt most of this year, so maybe he gets another shot when healthy.
He really is a cautionary tale. In that 2009 draft, Curry was the sure thing. Almost every analyst had him as the #1 ranked player on their board. He was never going to be the #1 pick because he's a LB, but the general consensus was despite his lower value position, he was worth taking top 5 simply for the fact that you were almost guaranteed to be getting a star. But he wasn't that, not even close.
The top of that 2009 draft overall was really horrid in hindsight.
1. Matt Stafford - Good QB, not elite, but the best of that class.
2. Jason Smith - Bust
3. Tyson Jackson - Bust
4. Aaron Curry - Bust
5. Mark Sanchez - Can we all agree bust at this point?
6. Andre Smith - Certainly looked like a bust, but seems to have come around in the last year.
7. Darrius Heyward-Bey - Bust.
8. Eugene Monroe - Not a bust, but not top 10 value either.
9. BJ Raji
10. Michael Crabtree - Bust. He's become a solid NFL WR since last year, but by no means has he ever looked like he justified a top 10 pick.
11. Aaron Maybin - Bust
12. Knowshon Moreno - Bust
That last one is notable for Eagles fans because many of you wanted him that year and there was some serious hand wringing here when he came off the board. Turns out he's awful. The Eagles would, of course, end up getting LeSean McCoy in the 2nd round that year. Before McCoy though, RBs like Moreno, Donald Brown & Beanie Wells came off the board.