Shawne Merriman

heybigstar: If he's the best player available at #9, we should really trade away all our picks this year.

The Ravens had a shot at Terrell Suggs - huge difference.

Merriman is a monster...however, he played a hybrid LEO position in Gary Blackney's defense...DE/LB...and with his size, as heybigstar stated, he's best suited to play LB in the pros...

his junior year ('04) he was in the ACC top 10 in tackles (85), sacks (8.5), tackles for loss (17), and forced fumbles (3, led ACC). the sporting news named him a 2nd team all american...1st team All ACC

it'll be a huge loss for the MD defense, which kept their sorry ass offense in plenty of games this season...

I think we should trade down at least once so we can get another 1st round pick next year and a second rounder this year and hopefully pick this guy up.

I totally agree, Merriman is solid and consistent---take a look at some of his tapes, even this past season, He Hits Hard

Unless he is a "workout wonder" at the combines, you will have a shot at him in the thrid and probably the fourth round too. If he is unimpressive at the combine workout in Indy or if he shows up with even a minor injury, you can get him on the 6th round.

NFL Draft Countdown has Merriman ranked #6 among this year's DEs. nflfans.com has him ranked 51 in their top 100. He'll probably go 2nd round...incredible combine puts him close to the Top 32, but most likely will be one of the last picks in Round 2.

The only clear downside is his size, however, since he played both DE and LB, i can't see him playing anything but LB...guess we'll wait for the combine and see how it goes