The dog days of summer are upon us. To help pass the time, the staff at The Clemson Insider is picking sides.
Along with publisher Robert MacRae, staff writers Will Vandervort, William Qualkinbush and Hale McGranahan are drafting players from the Clemson roster to fill out their own teams.
Here’s how the fourth-round of the TCI Open Draft played out:
Will Vandervort
Fourth round (13th overall) – [autotag]Wayne Gallman[/autotag], RB (6-1, 205)
You really can’t go wrong with any of the running backs Clemson has on its roster. I’m a guy that likes to play good defense and run the football. In the first round I got who I believe is the best player of the Tigers’ defense this year and then in the third round I grabbed the best offensive tackle in my opinion. Now I have the taken who I believe is the best of all the good running backs the Tigers have.
Gallman was the Tigers’ most consistent runner in 2014 as he got better and better as the season went along. The redshirt sophomore rushed for a team high 769 yards and four touchdowns, including 571 yards in the final six games of the season.
His 191 yards and a touchdown against the Gamecocks was one of the best rushing performances by a Clemson running back in the longtime series.
Gallman’s performance in the spring only in enhanced his status as the Tigers best running back as he separated himself just enough to be named the starter heading into the fall. I also like Gallman’s ability to catch the ball out of the backfield and he improved in pass protection, though that is still his one main weakness.
Hale McGranahan
Fourth round (14th overall) [autotag]Carlos Watkins[/autotag] DT (6-3, 295)
From my perspective, Watkins sort of became the forgotten man in the Clemson defensive tackle group. Now that he’s no longer caught behind three productive upperclassmen, Watkins appears to be on track to break out in a big way.
That’s part of the reason why I decided to go ahead and snap up Watkins. The Clemson defensive tackle group is full of young, inexperienced kids and the other veteran is already off the board.
In 23 career games, Watkins has 40 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and eight quarterback pressures over 336 snaps. He’ll anchor the front of my defense, which is already pretty strong on the back end.
Robert MacRae
Fourth round (15th overall) Christian Wilkins DT (6-4, 290)
It is time that I make my first pick on defense.
With my next pick I take the most talented defensive lineman on the roster this year, Christian Wilkins.
The day the five-star sets foot on campus later this month he will be on the two-deep at defensive tackle. As the season progresses he will take one of the starting positions. Wilkins is the most talented defensive tackle to arrive at Clemson in some time.
Wilkins will give me a solid run stopper and a defensive tackle that will spend plenty of time chasing the quarterbacks in the backfield.
William Qualkinbush
Fourth round (16th overall) – Korrin Wiggins SAM/DB(5-11, 195)
When I’m drafting a team like this, I like to cover as many positions with as few players as possible. With this in mind, I value Wiggins extremely highly on my squad as a player who can do multiple things to enhance my ability to stop opposing offenses, especially in terms of the passing game.
Wiggins has settled into the nickel/SAM role in Brent Venables’ defense quite nicely, and he could certainly fill that role on my team. He could also go out wide and cover receivers if necessary, and he could also drop back to safety on passing downs if we needed him to do that.
I believe Wiggins’ presence gives us a proven commodity in the secondary that can fill whatever role we need him to fill to make our team better. I absolutely love that about a player.
Current Rosters
William Qualkinbush
(1) DeShaun Watson
(2) Ben Boulware
(3) DJ Reader
(4) Korrin Wiggins
Robert MacRae
(1) Artavis Scott
(2) Mike Williams
(3) Deon Cain
(4) Christian Wilkins
Hale McGranahan
(1) MacKensie Alexander
(2) Isaiah Battle
(3) Jayron Kearse
(4) Carlos Watkins
Will Vandervort
(1) Shaq Lawson
(2) Kelly Bryant
(3) Mitch Hyatt
(4) Wayne Gallman