Penn State Fantasy Draft Breakdown: Tim Aydin

Having the first overall pick isn’t always so cut-and-dry. Saquon Barkley is far from the only legendary player that evokes all the warm and fuzzies, as guys such as LaVar Arrington, Kerry Collins, and Allen Robinson also hold such status. However, I wasn’t about to overthink things, so I nabbed Saquon.

What I didn’t anticipate was also nabbing KJ Hamler, Eddie Drummond, and Pat Freiermuth to join Saquon. I got some flack from my BSD colleagues for taking KJ with my third pick, as they felt it was too early in the draft, but I strongly disagree. Much like with Saquon, KJ is a versatile athlete who is a threat wherever you line him up, so long as he gets his hands on the ball. Can you imagine defenses having to account for both Saquon and KJ on the field at the same time? Yeah, that’s what I thought...

Pat Freiermuth ended up being a mid-round pick who surprisingly was still available, as I (and probably most of my colleagues) had him listed as my top overall tight end. Jared being a good 90’s kid like me though, took Kyle Brady (my second-ranked TE) which allowed me to pounce when it was my turn. Eddie Drummond was an absolute speedster and deep ball threat who is largely forgotten because he played on a couple of the “Dark Years’ squads in the early 2000’s. Much like KJ and Saquon, he is also a guy who can burn your team in ways other than just playing his natural position, so getting him very late as one of my last picks felt like a steal.

With Trace McSorley, Kerry Collins, and Michael Robinson all gone, I actually went with Rashard Casey. Yes, I got a lot of crap for not taking Zack Mills and perhaps it’s deserved, but I really feel like Casey in a modern day offense run by a competent coaching staff, surrounded by much better skill players would absolutely crush it. Plus, I still have a bitter taste in my mouth having witnessed Zack Mills’ last two mostly awful seasons.

Grabbing a pair of offensive linemen who anchored the 1994 offensive attack in Marco Rivera and Bucky Greeley was one of my prouder achievements. Chris McKelvy and Gus Felder were also starters on the 2002 squad, which was the only winning team during the first half of the aughts. For my “flex” spot, I wanted to pay homage to a fullback and thus, nabbed Brian Milne, mainly because his game-winning touchdown to cap off “The Drive” against Illinois in 1994 remains etched into my brain.

As “meh” as I am on my defensive tackles (which frankly, was slim pickings to begin with), I am quite bullish about Aaron Maybin and Shareef Miller being my edge rushers. Grabbing Navorro Bowman and pairing him with a corps including Tim Shaw and Brian Gelzhesier (one of the best defensive players on the ‘94 team, in my humble opinion) also felt pretty good.

While both safeties and cornerbacks have significant drop-offs after the first few picks on the board, I was pumped to get Calvin Lowry and even Derek Fox, to a lesser extent. I went full-on 90’s with my cornerback picks, taking Brian Miller (also a solid player on an unheralded ‘94 defense) and Bwahoh Jue (he of pick-sixing Tom Brady fame).

With my favorite placekicker of all time in Brett Conway already taken, I decided to grab Sam Ficken for the specialist spot. I did this thinking i would get the latter half of 2012/early 2013/all of 2014 version of Ficken.

I’m sure all of my colleagues who will post about their teams over the next week will say the same thing, but I’m overall quite confident putting my team up against anyone else’s, due in large part to my collection of offensive skill players. Seriously, good luck picking your poison between zeroing in on Saquon, KJ, Eddie, or Pat. Defensive tackle is my team’s weakest spot, and perhaps the secondary is ripe for exploitation, but it may not matter if Maybin and Shareef are able to get opposing QB’s to run for their lives, so bring it on!