GoldandBlack.com's Purdue player draft: No. 2 overall
This summer, the Boilermakers are being divided.
Reporters Stacy Clardie and Kyle Charters continue Tuesday 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.
With the No. 2 pick in the draft, Kyle Charters selects ...
Well, we're at only the second pick in our draft and already there are at least a couple directions I could turn.
Shouldn't this be easier?
Stacy's No. 1 pick — center Kirk Barron on Monday morning — was a complication, because she took the best player at a critical position, without an obvious backup. And now I'm stuck seriously contemplating how my team is going to snap the ball.
It makes Cameron Cermin an intriguing prospect, even at No. 2, because he can snap, having done so in a game in 2014, has experience and — maybe most importantly — is a versatile player; if I took him here, I could slide the senior in as a left or right tackle, if I figure out something else to do at center in a month (or two). And Purdue doesn't have depth on the line, so taking an offensive lineman with my first pick isn't such a bad idea.
But Cermin is returning from a shoulder injury that forced him to miss the spring. And really, is the value there at No. 2? It just seems like too big of a stretch with so many other higher-impact players on the board.
I can't do it.
I'm going best available — and risking Stacy taking Cerm at 3 and thus potentially really putting me in a bind here — and drafting Jake Replogle. The senior defensive tackle is Purdue's most-talented player, a guy who can help to control the interior line of scrimmage, especially against what will be a make-shift Barron-led OL, and could be a disruptor against the passing game.
And the 6-foot-5, 294-pounder is coming off an excellent spring, one in which he showed that he could almost single-handedly kill offensive drives. In the jersey scrimmage, he blew up the No. 1 offensive line a couple times, particularly breaking through in the gap between Barron and right guard Jordan Roos. Seems even more likely that he'll be able to do significant damage to Stacy's offensive line and will be a game-changer.
I'm building around Replogle.
No. 1: Kirk Barron
More: Discuss our picks — and give us yours — on Knucklehead Central ($)
More: Purdue 2016 primer
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