NFL Draft 2012: What to Expect from Whitney Mercilus’s Rookie Year

May 2, 2012   ·   Nate Dunlevy   ·   Jump to comments

After months of media hype, the draft is over and fans finally have new members of their team to welcome to town. Expectations for draft picks are high, but are they too high?
Over the course of the next few weeks, "What to Expect" will examine every draft pick from the AFC South in its historical context. Using past performance from similarly drafted players and by examining the way in which each team develops certain positions, I will create a realistic baseline by which to judge the performance of each pick.
Readers should be aware that rookies historically perform much, much worse than fan expectations. Also keep in mind that I am not saying the player will perform to these expectations, but rather anything better than the results should be considered a successful rookie year, and anything worse would be a disappointment.
The Houston Texans took Whitney Mercilus with their first-round selection to bolster an already fearsome pass rush and in p...

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