6/3/2016 football Edit

GoldandBlack.com's Purdue player draft: No. 10 overall

Kyle Charters • BoilerUpload

Staff Writer

This summer, the Boilermakers are being divided.

Reporters Stacy Clardie and Kyle Charters are going head-to-head in GoldandBlack.com's Purdue player draft, a daily selection in which separate groups of 25 are assembled over the next two months. In late July, we'll decide — based on GoldandBlack.com staff and member feedback — which team would win.

Charters is up at No. 10, and he chooses ...

Martesse Patterson needs to focus and get into better condition this summer, but if he does can be a very good tackle.

I could just nuke this whole draft process right now, only at the end of the second week, by taking another quarterback and the only other one with known value in Elijah Sindelar.

Why did Stacy put herself in this situation? Instead of choosing a quarterback — by far the most important position on the football field — she drafted Cameron Cermin. For as much value as Cermin has, because of his ability and versatility, he's still only Purdue's fourth- or fifth-best offensive lineman. And the top three are still on the board.

It was a total block move at No. 9, at a time in the draft when — in my opinion — you should be taking the best players at the most critical positions, building a roster that you think can win on game day.

I ain't playing her game.

Rather than taking Sindelar, which does nothing to help my own team, I'm going to get another key player who puts me ahead after two weeks. So with the 10th pick, I'm grabbing my first offensive lineman and solidifying the blindside — I hope — with Martesse Patterson.

The 6-foot-3, 340-pound sophomore isn't a slam dunk — isn't it bad that we're at Pick 10 and already selecting flawed players? Telling of where Purdue is — mainly because of those 340 pounds. In the spring, he showed moments of solid play in his first action at left tackle, after splitting time on the right side with Cermin for most of 2015, but too frequently he was slow to block the outside rush. That's a major concern.

And without a real presence pushing him in the two-deep, will he take this offseason seriously enough? Maybe. Maybe not. He needs to lose at least 20 pounds, not an easy task in only three months; it'll take focus, want, hard work. We'll see.

But Patterson fits what I want to do. I have deep-threat DeAngelo Yancey on the outside, with David Blough ready to get him the ball. But the QB needs time to do so, and Patterson is capable, but does have to prove it.

I'll probably be blasted by some for not taking Sindelar and dropping the hammer on Stacy, and maybe deservedly so. It would be fun to spend most of my Friday walking around the office repeatedly giving the throat-slash gesture. But I'm still in build mode. There will come a point, however, when the value of taking Sindelar (who won't play for me) exceeds the value of taking another player (who will), if that makes sense. We're not there yet, but we're close.

Very close.

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