The first rule of Draftageddon is "you must complain about Draftageddon." The second is "the four people drafting assemble teams of Big Ten players in an effort to seem the best at drafting." The third is "you vote on who you think assembled the best team." The fourth is "This is actually our Big Ten preview."
THAT WHICH HAS COME BEFORE
Previously on Draftageddon:
- Adam takes a guy with a ~33% chance to start first overall! Joey Bosa lasts until pick 3! Seth is generally sensible! For him that counts as Heiko-ing, I think!
- Brian takes back to back QBs! Several additional Ohio State players go off the board! 24-12!
- Ace takes Braxton Miller as a QB and then shrugs expansively when he ends up a terrifying H-back!
- Seth takes a one-down pass rush specialist! Brian takes a kicker! These are both totally defensible selections! Big Tennnnnnnn!
- A run on Michigan players! Maybe people will stop hating this!
- Large kickers! Also bad safeties. Fin.
In order to ensure a bountiful harvest and that all further injuries and transfers will affect only Northwestern Wildcats, every year we sacrifice a little bit of what makes us human to discuss what just occurred, and try to summarize all of Draftageddon into a single, informative around-the-Big Ten preview.
We'll defend our teams and let you vote on them later; this is the informative part. I sent out a mini-questionnaire to all the selectors and got back the following:
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1. So many Spartans (15) and Buckeyes (19). Skip the justifiable ones and tell us which were the most overrated?
Seth: Josh Perry==Joe Bolden, and I'm skeptical of any 1st round grades for their secondary because their DL was so good we rarely got to see Powell or Bell even have the opportunity to biff a coverage. That goes double for MSU: Cox is barely holding down a job, and was behind Hicks, who was so iffy last year they had to play Lippett both ways. Neither Williamson nor Nicholson could hold off the other last year. Kodi Kieler is just okay, though at that point Ace was picking from bad OT options.
Adam: Eli Apple and Raekwon McMillan, whom Ace and I took in the ninth round, respectively. I think both guys will have successful seasons, but those are two guys who played a significant amount in 2014 but have yet to start a full year. Looking at others at the same positions, there were guys with proven track records who went later that you could make an argument for flipping with Apple and McMillan (Briean Boddy-Calhoun and Desmond Morgan come to mind). There is, however, a price to upside.
Ace: I think Taylor Decker (with Jack Conklin on the board) and Adolphus Washington (a host of quality DTs) went earlier than they should've, even though both are fine players. Demetrious Cox was one of the more questionable picks in the whole draft. I'll cop to overrating Josh Perry—I wanted Ed Davis, overcompensated in the aftermath of him going off the board, and... actually, I guess that kinda worked out.
Brian: Will Gholston.
[After the jump: why we drafted more Wolverines than Spartans]
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2. We drafted 17(!) Wolverines: 
That is the most Michigan guys in the history of this series. In fact it is more than ANY team had drafted last year. Homers? BIG TENNNN!? Or are we good?
Ace: A little bit of both. As everyone else has said, we didn't pick many Michigan guys early, which felt right, and then took a bunch later, which also felt right. I didn't come away from this draft thinking they're better than MSU, by any means.
Brian: I should point out that Cole was my "Brian never takes a punter" comedy pick and he should be dropped. Even so, I think we did homer it a bit. I took Amara Darboh too early; I think Cole wet too early; I think you could have made a case to wait on a couple other guys. But it's not a huge surprise: Michigan was a very good defense a year ago that we all saw get sold out by turnovers and special teams disasters. They return the vast bulk of said defense. I think we would have grabbed most of these players if we were a Maryland blog.
Adam: Peppers went in the second round, Butt in the seventh. After that there's a slow trickle of Wolverines taken. Better the devil you know, etc.
Seth: Or is that this format goes four deep at every position, and Michigan has a lot of okay guys? Only Peppers, Lewis, Butt, and Darboh went in the first forty picks, and the last was just because WR is so weak. On the other hand a lot came in the shrug rounds. If we weren't a Michigan blog we probably wouldn't have known about the Glasgows, Morgan, Henry, or Ross, but we'd have overrated others like Bolden. For the most part this is the Big Ten having few other okay ideas after all the good ideas are gone.
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3. What's the conference's weakest position(s)?
Ace: Running back has all of two sure things. I think we all scouted Indiana's transfer from UAB, Jordan Howard, in the hopes he'd help salvage the position, and all of us came away thinking he's not very good. Wide receiver lost a ton of talent from last year and doesn't have a lot of obvious top-tier guys stepping in. Defensive end has good top-level guys but dropped off quickly enough that two of us bumped players who mostly play 5-tech out to SDE, and both of those seemed like great ideas.
Seth: Running back is Zeke Elliott, Corey Clement, and then it's a long dive to get to Josh Fumbleson and Northwestern's sophomore who's getting pushed in camp by a trio of freshman. Receiver is a bit of an albatross. None of the top four receivers drafted (Carroo, Thomas, Hamilton or Westercamp) got drafted last year. In 2013 nobody had Allen Robinson, and I got Gallon so so late. We just don't know who the A-Robs are yet.
Brian: Wide receiver, wide receiver, wide receiver. There was no point during this draft when a wide receiver went and I thought "oh that seems like a good idea," including when I got my guys.
Adam: I took Snidely Whiplash in the fourth round. Q.E.D.
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4. What's the conference's deepest position(s)?
Ace: There are some very good offensive tackles in the league this year. I was impressed with the number of draftable defensive tackles. Cornerback doesn't boast any All-American types but goes deep with solid, up-and-coming players—we left a few guys on the board who may come back to haunt us.
Brian: Defensive tackle. There is so much quality at the spot that we took a couple extra and shipped 'em to SDE and both of those seem like excellent ideas.
Adam: Offensive and defensive line, or more specifically center, left tackle, and defensive tackle. There's more high-end talent on the D-line, but you can go through any of our lines on either side of the ball and find at least two guys who will almost certainly play in the NFL.
Seth: Punter. BIG TENNN! Also DTs and center had a lot of good options after very good one and the All American one.
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| East | Off | Def | ST | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio State | 9 | 8 | 2 | 19 |
| Michigan | 7 | 9 | 1 | 17 |
| Michigan State | 7 | 8 | 15 | |
| Penn State | 4 | 5 | 1 | 10 |
| Maryland | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| Rutgers | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Indiana | 2 | 2 | ||
| West | Off | Def | ST | Total |
| Wisconsin | 4 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| Nebraska | 3 | 3 | 6 | |
| Iowa | 2 | 3 | 5 | |
| Illinois | 4 | 4 | ||
| Minnesota | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Purdue | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Northwestern | 2 | 2 |
5. More than twice as many players (72 to 32) came from the East Division. Is that correct or familiarity?
Seth: We should add that only three of the first 28 players we took were from the West: Clement, Maliek, and Westercamp. The third shouldn't have been there even considering how shallow receiver is. The numbers in the chart are real: Ohio State and Michigan State are top 10 teams, and while Wisconsin and Minnesota are good, Michigan and Penn State have very talented defenses, and offenses of potential.
The dreks of the conference—Northwestern, Purdue, and Illinois—are all in the West. We wanted to be back with the rivals, but there's a reason the Big Ten East projects to be as brutal as the SEC West in a few years.
Adam: I don't think it's familiarity. The chart to the right shows that the distribution of picks is correlated with the level of talent, with Michigan an exception for the reason above. When you're on the clock in the 24th round would you really take a Purdue linebacker over James Ross?
Brian: Correct. Believe me, I tried to find players from the other division and there were not a lot of appealing options.
Ace: It is correct, as anyone who's watched this conference the last couple years would tell you.
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6. What did you learn about a Michigan opponent this year?
Adam: Michigan State has a known commodity at QB, but I didn't like the advanced stats for any of their WRs besides Shelton (they had relatively low catch rates and yards per target) and their RB situation is a big ol' question mark.
There's also uncertainty in their secondary, specifically at corner. I almost ended up with two injured Spartans on my defense, as I assumed Darian Hicks would start opposite Cox and was close to taking him. Now that he's out with mono the competition is again wide open. State is a top-10 team because of their quarterback and front seven, but they're a top-10 team with a lot of uncertainty on both sides of the ball.
Seth: Maryland is way worse than I thought they'd be and Penn State is better than I feared. PSU's offensive line can get to mediocre and claim a huge improvement, and a few more seconds for Hackenberg and those targets should improve the offense enough that the unit won't be the reverse of its top 5 defense again. That is a bad matchup for Michigan especially since we lack the pass rush to really punish that OL, and lack the big play receivers to test the new cornerback.
Brian: Michigan State has assembled a worrying OL.
Ace: Michigan State's defense might be showing some cracks. There's talent but uncertainty in the front seven, especially with Ed Davis out for the year, and that secondary would make me very nervous if I were a Spartan fan. Meanwhile, Penn State has a chance to be quite good if their offensive line can block a soul and Hackenberg isn't perpetually rattled.
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7. Who was your biggest steal?
Ace: Braxton Miller, first and foremost. I was pleasantly surprised Joey Bosa and Jack Conklin fell to me where they did. As much as I hate to say it, I think Riley Bullough is going to outplay his draft position, as well.
Adam: If he has the kind of year he did in 2013 it's Levern Jacobs, especially considering the sorry state of the position in the conference.
Seth: Corey Clement. There was a huge drop-off after the first two RBs, and somehow the second elite one lasted four picks after Zeke Elliott. Also Ryan Glasgow is the Big Ten's second-best NT and came in round 18. Then to add potential all-conference guys like Trevor Williams, Josiah Price, Mike Dudek and Peter Mortell with my last four picks was robbery.
Brian: Dan Vitale. In a year with this WR crop—and this slot WR crop—a guy with 40 catches who is also a terrific blocker should have been higher on people's radars.
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8. What picks among the rest really impressed you?
Adam: There were quite a few, but I thought Briean Boddy-Calhoun was a steal for Brian in round 12. I was hoping he'd survive the turn and make it to me, but recreating Minnesota's secondary just wasn't to be. From a sheer ARRRRGH perspective it was Seth taking Leonte Carroo one pick before I was going to in the fourth round.
Seth: Until August 12 I was so mad at Adam for getting Ed Davis. Ace built a terrifying front in the early rounds, while also getting Michael Thomas and Jack Conklin, then played us all for Braxton Miller: slot receiver. Brian got Ngakoue pretty late, and Vitale.
Brian: I was going to grab Willie Henry and Ace came in a pick before to swipe him. I think we were all "dangit" when Adam got Butt and Pierson-El. Geronimo Allison should be good value for Seth.
Ace: Pat Elflein is the best guard in the conference by some distance, and Dan Feeney was also a nice interior line pickup. While he didn't really fit into my defense—I wanted to keep Bosa at WDE—I still considered picking Yannick Ngakoue, someone I monitored pretty closely last year after I went Terp-crazy in Draftageddon 2014. Brad Craddock was the specialist worth taking early to essentially gain a bonus pick later in the draft. Adam got a great value for Ed Davis. Sorry, Adam. I did love the late Levern Jacobs pick; he could end up producing like a true #1 receiver.
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9. Who is the crappiest player we drafted? Who was the biggest reach?
Brian: Kemoko Turay is some fancy sack numbers against bad teams and not much else. I took that guy last year, Therien Cockran, and the only thing he did is set off the Wolverine Civil War by hitting Shane Morris helmet-to-helmet.
Barrett #1 was the biggest reach, by far.
Seth: First Brian let's learn the difference between Cochran, a highly scouted 2-star who came up through Florida's football culture, and Turay, who was vaguely aware of football as a sport when Hoke won his Sugar Bowl. We are talking about vastly different levels of athleticism and vastly different learning curves. As for worst, let's just say Brian Cole has the "most to prove" as a punter, or as a slot receiver for that matter.
As for reach, Jordan Westercamp is like a Dileo plus an inch and Bill the Butcher's mustache, i.e. exactly the kind of guy we would appreciate around here with middle-round pick. Taking him in Round 4 however is a massive over-compensation. Adam also fell for the Nebraska safety hype trap that caught me last year, taking Nate Gerry in the 16th round. Ace took the wrong Penn State tight end, then I told him, and he spent his next pick on the right tight end.
Ace: I'm not sold at all on Demetrious Cox. While I'd love to be wrong here, I thought taking Amara Darboh in the tenth round was a massive reach even when accounting for the lack of proven talent at receiver.
Adam: I don't think he's a crappy player per se, but expectations need to be tempered for any true freshman receiver, and even more so when there's a fair amount of fall camp practice buzz surrounding young receivers with no mention of Brian Cole. If he fulfills his potential he will have had a nice career when all's said and done, but I was surprised to see him picked this season.
As for the biggest reach, I have to agree with Brian that it was taking Barrett first overall. I think it's going to work out perfectly, but I can see how it's a huge reach when I was staring down a 33% chance to start, Connor Cook, and Joey Bosa.
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10. Name some of the best players we left behind?
Brian: Illinois LB Mason Monheim will probably be that guy on a bad team who makes 150 tackles. Jake Duzey will be a perfectly acceptable TE after he's back from an injury that'll keep him out a few weeks. Desmond King had a great freshman year and could bounce back strong.
Ace: Three cornerbacks immediately come to mind without even having to look them up: Northwestern's Nick VanHoose, Iowa's Desmond King, and Wisconsin's Sojourn Shelton. VanHoose is just good, while King and Shelton both had promising freshman seasons followed by disappointing sophomore campaigns—I'd bet one of them (my gut says King) bounces back strong this year.
Seth: After watching the OSU-PSU game from last year, I'm now sure Marcus Allen should have been drafted instead of classmate Montae Nicholson, let alone Gerry, R.J. Williamson, or white Iowa safety du jour (no matter their actual skin color all Iowa safeties are white). Allen really came on late last year as a run stopper, and he's a cornerback-level athlete.
Northwestern's Matthew Harris is a bigger Blake Countess in the right system for it; I like him as much as VanHoose. Sojourn Shelton had a bad year but a very good spring; it would surprise me less if he's good this year than if he's as much a liability again. Some new DE (please be Taco) on one of the teams that graduated theirs will be pretty good. Finally, I was tempted to take Tanner McEvoy because he can be a 6'6"/230 wide receiver with recruiting film and gushing spring practice reports to back that up. Dollars to donuts Brian was frantically googling this guy to see if he'd ever punted.
Adam: I think Wisconsin's Alex Erickson could justifiably been picked if only because Wisconsin has to stop handing to Corey Clement and throw a couple of times per game, probably. Sojourn Shelton could also be a viable, interception-collecting corner (he had a great 2013), but I'm leery of anyone whose return to form is as heavily dependent on confidence as the Wisconsin blogs make his out to be.
Seth: This is getting long but I want to bring up some overrated dudes I thought might get drafted and correctly were not: Donovan Clark, OG, MSU; Jordan Walsh, OG, Iowa; Geno Lewis, WR, Penn State; Alex Erickson, WR, Wisconsin; Jordan Howard, that RB transfer from UAB with 1300 yards, Indiana; Thieren Cockran, DE, Minnesota; Mason Monheim, MLB, Illinois; Dean Lowry, DE, Northwestern, and most especially Jihad Ward, DE, Illinois.