Lydon Murtha signed; Murphy cut

Well, the Shawn Murphy experiment ended today, when the team cut him in order to make room for T Lydon Murtha, who they signed off of Detroit's practice squad.

This goes down as a pretty significant draft miss by Parcells and Ireland as Murphy cost the team a fourth-round pick. And not only a fourth-round pick, but the team actually traded up in the round just to make sure they got him! So that's two picks gone in return for absolutely nothing. Very disappointing. Maybe he can return on the practice squad and try to redeem his value a little bit.

Murtha (6'7, 315) was a seventh-round draft pick of the Lions in this year's draft out of Nebraska.

He was a two-year starter who saw playing time at both left and right tackle. His college career was derailed at times by multiple injuries. He missed his entire freshmen season with calf, shoulder, and hamstring problems, and then missed a combined eight games over the past two seasons with foot injuries and a staph infection. He is the definition of injury-prone.

He does have the huge size that the front office craves in its tackles, and he has amazing athleticism. He's a pure project player at this point who is going to need time to develop. As with Kory Sheets, I believe the rule is that when a team signs a player from another team's practice squad, that team must then keep that player on its 53-man roster for at least three weeks.

Here is SI's draft analysis of Murtha:

Murtha turned heads with his dramatic workout at the combine, yet his game film tells a different story. He's very raw in many offensive line techniques, and he needs to improve his overall fundamentals. Murtha will likely be over-drafted because of his measurables, yet he is a prospect far from NFL ready.