I definitely agree about the Armanti pick. Even if we had won the Super Bowl in 2010, Armanti wouldn't have been worth the 64th overall pick. He could've been drafted in the fourth and we'd have given up a lesser pick. I don't have much hopes for him, but I also can't judge him based on Hurney's stupid decision to give up a high pick for him.
As far as Murphey, outside of a couple of bad drops, he's been pretty awesome depth, and outside of Eddie Royal, none of those players would've been any better than Murphey (who was pretty costless-- 7th rounder). But like you said, he isn't a #2, just a slot guy for the most part. LaFell is showing strides, so I don't know that dropping a $60M contract on a WR was a good idea either, however Nicks would've been great for this team and we wouldn't have had to worry about him being against us in the division.
Everette Brown was a terrible move considering he didn't fit our scheme whatsoever. Otah while it was somewhat unlucky that he had injuries, he was also a fat slob who couldn't stay in shape.
In regards to the HBs money situation, I agree and disagree in parts. It's not Hurney's fault that the HB's aren't working; the OC is calling terrible run plays that don't benefit our HBs. If we were running some power-run plays I'd have no problem with the money Stewart and Williams got. I do however wish we hadn't brought in Tolbert, considering he isn't used at FB very often, doesn't help the passing game much, crowds the back-field (even more than before), and could've gotten a cheaper FB.
I'm not positive on how much Nicks was paid, or how much our FA's were paid, but if I knew we were going to abandon the run I would've preferred we dropped Williams' contract, not signed Tolbert, and instead picked up Nicks. We could've won the TB and SEA games with better OL play, that would have us at 3-3 at least. I'm not for overpaying in FA so at the time I was content not spending a ton of money.
With Hurney out as GM, we could potentially see the new GM find ways to kill a few contracts (Gamble, Beason, and Williams all have big contracts and are going to be coming off of injuries or underperforming seasons), then opt to sign big names in FA, not that it would necessarily be better.