Syracuse Football: Ranking best SU coach at producing NFL talent

Doug Marrone

• 2009-2012

Doug Marrone seemed like a “dream fit” for the Orange. He was the first Syracuse alum hired to be the head football coach since Reaves H. Baysinger in 1948. Although we know how all that eventually turned out.

Before things got ugly at the end with Doug skipping out on his “dream job” for another one with the Buffalo Bills he spent four years guiding Syracuse. In his four seasons, he was 25-25 overall with two bowl victories under his belt (both coming in the Pinstripe Bowl).

But how did he do getting Syracuse players to the NFL during his reign?

• Since Marrone was hired at the end of 2008, the 2009 NFL Draft prospects are omitted from his resume since he didn’t coach those players.
• 2010 NFL Draft:
  • Mike Williams, WR, fourth-round pick (101st overall)
    • Mike Williams was always uber-talented, but clearly had a variety of issues which included him quitting on the team at Syracuse. Despite those issues, he was still taken in the fourth round.
  • Arthur Jones, DT, fifth-round pick (157th overall)
    • Arthur has a long family athletic lineage and that helped him have a long NFL career. He spent seven years in the pros and won a Super Bowl championship with the Baltimore Ravens.
• 2011 NFL Draft:
  • Delone Carter, RB, fourth-round pick (119th overall)
    • Delone Carter was the engine that could for a lot of those Syracuse team’s rushing attacks. Carter had a much bigger impact at SU then he did in the pros.
  • Doug Hogue, LB, fifth round pick (157th overall)

• 2012 NFL Draft:
  • Chandler Jones, DE, first round pick (21st overall)
    • Chandler became the first SU player selected in the opening round of the draft since Dwight Freeney back in 2002 believe it or not. So this was a really big deal when it happened.
  • Andrew Tiller, G, sixth-round pick (179th overall)
    • Despite being a sixth-rounder, Tiller lasted several years in the pros and was a star in the now-defunct Alliance of American Football league.
• 2013 NFL Draft:
  • Justin Pugh, T, first round pick (19th overall)
    • Make that two first-round picks since 2002 for the Orange. Doug Marrone was responsible for the only first round pick prospects since Freeney, that’s pretty impressive.
  • Ryan Nassib, QB, fourth-round pick (110th overall)
    • One of the best quarterbacks in program history was the perfect player for Doug Marrone’s offense. But it does speak volumes that Marrone left Syracuse and had four opportunities to select Nassib as his quarterback and never did with Buffalo. He instead selected EJ Manuel 16th overall in the same draft… so about that.
  • Shamarko Thomas, DB, fourth-round pick (111th overall)
    • Just one pick later another Syracuse player was selected in the 2013 NFL Draft. Shamarko had huge expectations coming out of Syracuse with one Pittsburgh Steelers Insider telling me the team hoped he could be the heir apparent to Troy Polamalu. Sadly that never materialized and Thomas has since bounced around the league.

Despite Doug Marrone being hired by the Buffalo Bills in early January (before the 2013 NFL Draft), he is obviously responsible for all the players that were taken in that draft since those were his players, so he gets credit for that.

Marrone has been a part of over 13 collegiate and professional franchises, but only at Syracuse was he a head coach of a college football program.