FanPost

Why Was Murphy Traded Instead of DHB??!!

By Terrell Randall


Most of Raider Nation is aware that WR Louis Murphy was traded. How soon the Nation can forget what Louis did for the Raiders and what pressure he was under while Al was still breathing. Louis and DHB were both drafted by the Raiders, Murphy in the 4th rd and DHB was the 7th overall selection of Raider icon Al Davis. Louis Murphy was a much more polished wr while Bey was an athletic, ultra fast project Mr. Davis saw as the second coming of Cliff Branch. However, during OTA's, Mini-Camps, Training Camp and the preseason games, it was Murphy making all the sensational catches while Bey was pinballing passes throughout practice. Despite Murphy clearly outplaying Bey all camp long it was Bey starting vs the Bolts in the season opener and although he didn't record a catch vs San Diego, he did show excellent speed running downfield misjudging passes and blocked very well. Murphy caught the go ahead 50 yd TD pass only to watch the D blow it in the waning seconds. DHB continued to start courtesy of his godfather despite horrid games, capping it off with the pathetic game vs the Chiefs in which Bey looked like my 1 yr old cousin trying to catch a bomb in the end zone from Jrock and displaying his soccer skills in the waning moments with the ball ricocheting off his knee, hands, chest and helmet before being plucked out of the air by a chiefs defensive back. Murphy went on to have an excellent rookie season while Bey had a 9 catches for 124 yds and a TD in 11 games.( The team quietly benched him the final 5 games)

He was equally horrid his second season and Murphy was off to great season until he was involved in a freaky but severe injury when he collided with teammate Marcel Reece which lasted throughout the season and last season he was coming off a sports hernia operation and wasn't completely healthy in the least.

However, the Nation wants to say that last yr was Bey's breakout season. Well I guess if you consider actually catching the ball a "breakout season" then so be it. I'm not buying it at all for I haven't seen anything to say that Bey has improved as a wr. Anyone of us on this message board/bloggers could have caught the Pop Warner passes thrown 5 -15 yds thrown to Bey in which he hardly had a CB within 5 yds of him. Just look at the gamefilm, the announcers for the games were always criticizing the db/s for playing horrid defense especially in the N.E. game. The guy still can't catch the ball with his hands consistently, I have yet to see him catch a ball in with a defender on him and he only caught two deep passes, one vs N.E. in which both DB's simply watched him catch the ball and the OT game vs the Chiefs in which he fell to the ground, scared he was going to drop the pass. C'mon Man.

Bey makes over 5ML this season and with rookies Criner, Streater, Mayo and Carrier as well as youngsters McGee and Calhoun just as good or better than DHB, he should have been the one shipped out to Carolina or anywhere else for he is surely not worth the $$ with hands of stone.