I know it's a major disappointment to everyone but rather than bringing on extra staff to cover our labor shortages this summer we've decided to curtail our annual draft format All-B1G preseason series into a position-by-position chat. Fear not, we promise to do a doubly-long Draftageddon next year.

Previously:

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DEFENSIVE ENDS

Seth: /ducks

Ace: Obviously the place to start here is with the conference’s returning sack leader: Northwestern junior Joe Gaziano.

Seth: Don't sleep on Gaziano, that dragon's real, though he did most of his burninating against bad competition.

Brian: Holy crap you're right. And he was just a sophomore.

Ace: He had a pretty fun highlight in there, too:

Brian: Gonna have to be dealing with the Gaz for two more years.

Ace: Jumpin’ Joe Gaziano.

Seth: He was remarkably consistent. No more than 2 TFLs in any one game, and finished with 12.5.

Brian: he's 280? Like he's a legit SDE?

Seth: Correct.

BiSB: He's a real player. And in many conferences, he would actually be noticed.

Brian: I did not expect to spend the front bit of this post talking about Joe Gaziano, but here we are.

Ace: The spirit of Draftageddon cannot be diminished. Anyway: Rashan Gary or Nick Bosa?

…are we too afraid of both to answer?

[After THE JUMP: Well, are we?]

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Seth: Gary no homer.

Brian: I wouldn't kick either off the team for eating crackers

Seth: The thing about Gary is he would have had 20 sacks last year if wasn't always chasing a poor quarterback into someone else's sack.

Ace: Ohio State… also had some good linemen. Some will be mentioned later.

Brian: Yeah, there's so much variance in the actual counting numbers outside of their control that I wouldn't go by that.

BiSB: Mo Hurst was Rashan Gary's biggest helper and worst statistical roadblock.

Brian: PFF comes down strongly on Bosa's side.

Nick Bosa is the best defensive lineman in college football. Period. Quite frankly, it’s not even close. The college football landscape is loaded with talent along the defensive line this season, but on a play-for-play basis, Bosa stands in a league of his own.

Seth: OSU's line last year was so good that Bosa played less than 70% of snaps. Bosa's per-play numbers are ludicrous but they're also a bit unfairly weighted with passing downs.

Brian: TBH I agree with them, he was more consistently terrifying than Gary.

Ace: Yeah, grudgingly agree. That said, I’m ready to see Gary when he’s not walking off the field in obvious pain after half his drives.

BiSB: But there was a good discussion with either Don Brown or Greg Mattison last year (I forget which) about how Gary's role was of a nature that had him taking more responsibilities than simply getting to the QB.

Seth: Yes, Anchor is the captain of the DL. He sets the strength, has to decide whether the OLB flips gaps with him mid-play, etc.

Ace: The good news for the purpose of putting together an All-Big Ten team is we don’t actually have to choose.

…unless we’re starting to believe the Gaz hype.

…that we just created.

Seth: Someone should be beating that drum. But yo, Gary and Bosa are two of the best DEs to ever come through the conference.

Brian: I think PFF takes role into account.

Seth: Would you take Bosa over 2009 Brandon Graham? That's the kind of territory we're talking about.

Ace: Don’t make me do that. BG was all we had on those defenses. He may have made me cry after the Super Bowl this year.

BiSB: Anywho, I think we're all agreed on the top two. Things get interesting when you get into the next couple of guys, where there is some actual debate.

Ace: Chase Winovich isn’t far behind, either. He’s not quite on the physical potential level of the other two but his ability to maintain excellent production while almost literally never leaving the field is quite a big deal.

Why didn't you block me? [Marc-Grégor Campredon]

Brian: I cannot find this, unfortunately, but there was an article out of media days where someone asked a Big Ten tackle the "Bosa or Gary?" Q and he responded that Winovich was the toughest guy to block in the conference.

BiSB: You could make a case for probably, what, five guys as second team?

Ace: I’d probably put Winovich and Anthony Nelson there, but man, The Gaz.

Seth: The Gaz over Nelson.

Ace: We were collectively quite wrong about how alarming it was for MSU to be starting a walk-on DE, too. Kenny Willekes is… legit.

Brian: The Gaz is an SDE. Nelson is still listed at 220. Let's not throw all DEs into the same bin, it ain't fair.

Ace: Are we throwing 3-4 OLBs into the pile? If so, Andrew Van Ginkel makes this even more complicated.

Seth: Yeah I count 3-4 OLBs as edge guys. There's also Penn State's Shareef Miller. They lost a lot of defense but he's a slippery anti-spread weapon with unfair acceleration.

Brian: There's a reason PFF just goes with "edge"

Seth: Wisconsin and Nebraska are the only true 3-4 teams in the league. Maryland just pretends their WDE is a linebacker. But that guy's back: Jesse Aniebonam.

Ace: If he’s back at full strength he’s all-conference caliber. Iowa’s other DE is good too. Parker Hesse was productive and generally solid.

BiSB: You want a #HotTake? I don't know that Anthony Nelson will be Iowa's best defensive end this year.

Ace: Apparently not a hot take!

BiSB: Jinx, but... NOT TALKIN' BOUT HESSE

Ace: Oh, right, the five-star.

BiSB: Yup. AJ Epenesa was a 5-star true freshman who looked really good for a true freshman.

Ace: Speaking of 5-stars, OSU people are pretty over the moon about Chase Young and from what I’ve seen of him I can’t blame them.

Seth: Iowa has two more DEs named Nelson who are playable by the way (ignoring Ace about OSU yes of course they have some gazillion-star coming up).

BiSB: Speaking of speaking of which, with Penn State losing a starting DE this week, Shane Simmons might bust out earlier than expected.

God there are so many defensive ends in this conference.

/remembers Michigan's tackle situation

Let's talk about something else anything else please.

Ace: Uh… Northwestern had a freshman DE with 5.5 sacks? Samdup Miller.

Seth: Right. They're talking like he'll be better than Gaz this year.

Ace: Let us not besmirch The Gaz. I also liked PSU’s Shaka Toney from what I saw of him last year. There’s at least a few teams that go three-deep or better with quality edge guys.

Seth: Does any team in this conference NOT have at least one good DE this year?

Ace: I assume Rutger.

Seth: I said in this conference.

Ace: Right.

Brian: Samdup is a very Northwestern name

Ace: Sounds like he should be starting at the four.

BiSB: Rutgers doesn't have a single returning player with more than 1.5 sacks

slackbot: I think you mean Rutger

Ace: Gritty, low-usage stretch four. Indiana lost all their guys from a bad pass rush.

Brian: OKAY BUT WHAT ABOUT DTs FOLKS

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DEFENSIVE TACKLES

BiSB:

Meet @OSagapolu: Olive Sagapolu is 336 lbs

Olive Sagapolu does backflips

Olive Sagapolu is our nose tackle https://t.co/d9B2nESFLx pic.twitter.com/URLADLcQj0 — Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) May 22, 2018

QED

Ace: The People’s Nose Tackle. Put Dre’Mont Jones next to him at three-tech and that’s murder.

Seth: Why is Dre'Mont Jones still here?

Brian: shhh, Winovich could say the same

Seth: Winovich isn't a sure 1st rounder. Jones is ridikulus AND still has plenty of upside.

Ace: They still have him and Bob Landers. I do not like Ohio State.

Seth: Landers missed his calling by not playing in The Game 40 years ago. Little balls of unblockable hate with extremely white guy names should be wearing colored jackets on BTN specials about Bo and Woody, not stealing snaps from freaks of nature from the Circle of Trust.

BiSB: Are we calling Other Nelson a DT?

Seth: The 6-8 guy? Because I have some Pat Massey tape still around I could show you.

Ace: Hard pass.

Brian: No that's Anthony, the WDE.

Seth:

Brian: oh

by god these nelsons are tall

BiSB: I think Matt is the 6'8" one

Seth: Anthony is merely 6-7.

Brian: oblig

Like that, but tall!

Ace: Iowa’s run defense was not very good last year.

BiSB: (Marginally related; Notre Dame's DT is 6'7")

Ace: Leverage: it’s important!

Seth: We're leaving out Michigan State's overly tall and way more effective DT. Raequan Williams is the guy who makes the rest of that DL look good, and keeps Bachie free to wreck things.

Ace: Mike Panasiuk, the other DT, should also be in the conversation.

BiSB: Panasiak is okay, but Williams is the real deal there.

Ace: Agreed. That run defense as a whole earns both guys a spot over Taller Nelson, though.

BiSB: We also haven't mentioned a five-star moving into a starting role...

Ace: HI, I’M HERE FOR THAT.

Seth: You mean Maryland's Auburn transfer, Byron Cowart?

Brian: To be honest the internal hype at Michigan is more about Michael Dwumfour.

Ace: I’ve interpreted some of those rumblings as Aubrey Solomon’s expectations muting some of the hype.

Seth: Solomon's hype was muted because instead of getting thicc between spring and fall he literally had part of his stomach removed.

(Appendectomy)

BiSB: It's been about Dwumfour for three years. And I am very much here for that as well. But I'm with Ace: "meeting expectations" for Solomon is a different thing.

Ace: He’s a five-star entering his sophomore year who was stuck behind a ridiculously good group last year. Hype is often unfairly muted when guys miss time to injury.

BiSB: Yep, Solomon did have a vestigial organ removed like 3 months ago.

Ace: And nobody seems worried about Solomon’s readiness for the season.

Seth: Right. The lack of talk is because he wasn't on the field until just recently.

BiSB: And—and I CANNOT emphasize this enough—this still exists:

Ace: Don’t get me wrong, I think Dwumfour could be an all-conference guy, too. But I’m still more excited about Solomon. That film is absurd. We haven’t heard anything to indicate he’s off track from that.

BiSB: And, for both guys, they're playing in between Rashan Gary and Chase Winovich and in front of Devin Bush and Khaleke Hudson, with Don Brown moving things around. That's a promising situation for any DT.

Seth: So beyond our guys, Nebraska has one very good DT in Carlos Davis who can play anywhere on the line. Unfortunately that is the only good thing they have in their front seven, and cloning Davis doesn't work--his identical twin Khalil's on the team.

Ace: I haven’t seen enough to form a strong opinion but their DT Mick Stoltenberg is getting some preseason ABT hype.

Seth: "Big Mick" He's just a guy. He can take on doubles sometimes but contributes zero pass rush.

BiSB: If his nickname isn't Big Mick Energy, we have all failed.

Seth: I wanted to mention Freedom(!) Akinmoladun somewhere today. He was an exciting WDE that Diaco bulked up to a 3-4 DE and those 40 pounds ruined him. #FreeFreedom

Ace: We’ve run through almost every returning DT starter in the conference.

Seth: Doesn't Purdue have a good one?

Ace: Lorenzo Neal. 5.5 TFLs as a sophomore, not bad.

BiSB: But Purdue lost eeeeeeeverybody on defense, so his work may be in vain.

Seth: He's 6-2/325 and wears #9. Purdue hasn't much going for it but you can watch that guy all day.

BiSB: Another point in Aubrey Solomon's favor: single digit jerseys on defensive tackles are awesome.

Seth: Can't make you fly though.

Ace: Neal is the new Replogle.

BiSB: Anyone we're missing?

Seth: Penn State's.

Brian: PSU's got a couple of contributors returning. Kevin Givens is probably going to be a pretty good disruptive 3-tech. I don't like their NT that much.

Ace: Yeah, Givens was super productive on low snaps even a couple years ago.

BiSB: How much does losing Buchholz hurt them?

Ace: Depends on the young bucks. Seems like it’ll at least hurt depth.

BiSB: I feel like it hurts their depth; the backups can probably step in, but can they play 50 snaps? Jinxes everywhere today.

Seth: The nice thing about PSU is we don't have to remember which Cothren isn't Cothran versus Cothron or Cothrin anymore.

Ace: That was the worst, especially since one was significantly better than the other. Don’t ask me which.

Seth: Since there haven't been many opportunities yet to not talk about Wisconsin, we should mention that both of their projected DE starters got hurt after both of last year's starters graduated. There could be a big drop-off if anyone can get around The People's Nose.

BiSB: /17 linebackers await

Ace: Conor Sheehy is already making some NFL noise. That dude is a major loss.

BiSB: Ditto the loss of Nate Hoff at Indiana

Seth: Indiana has three DTs who weren't Hoff but should be somewhere between fine and breakout this year. Jerome Johnson played a bit last year as a true freshman and flashed big upside at nose. LeShaun Minor is a monster out of control in the Willie Henry vein. And their other DT Jacob Robinson is a senior and was solid.

Brian: what about that guy

you know

Juan Harris

Seth: Indiana was like 3 teams ago.

Brian: So he'll be back on Indiana in two teams. Which could happen by November.

BiSB: Independence Community College. He'll end up back at Iowa eventually.

Seth: I think a Pac12 vision quest has to be next on the itinerary. Or studying abroad in Paris.

Brian: Iowa is probably a Tuesday in September.

Seth: I'm sure he was there in spring but standing behind the 6-8 guys nobody saw him.

Brian: I think this post is over when we're talking about guys not even on Indiana's roster.

Seth: We only mentioned two Ohio State DTs so yes.

BiSB: /giphy debord

​

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Our All-Big Ten picks:

Brian: I'm going full specification you can't stop me. (Yes Willlekes is a WDE cheat).

ENDS AND 3-4 OLBs

Tm Seth Ace BiSB Pos Brian 1 Rashan Gary, MICH Nick Bosa, OSU Rashan Gary, MICH SDE Nick Bosa, OSU Nick Bosa, OSU Rashan Gary, MICH Nick Bosa, OSU WDE Chase Winovich, MICH 2 Joe Gaziano, NW Chase Winovich, MICH Chase Winovich, MICH SDE Rashan Gary, MICH Chase Winovich, MICH The Gaz, NW Anthony Nelson, IOWA WDE Anthony Nelson, Iowa 3 Jessie Aniebonam, MD Anthony Nelson, IOWA Shareef Miller, PSU SDE Joe Gaziano, NW Anthony Nelson, Iowa Kenny Willekes, MSU Kenny Willekes, MSU WDE Andrew Van Ginkel, UW 4 Shareef Miller, PSU Shareef Miller, PSU AJ Espensa, IOWA SDE Kenny Willekes, MSU Parker Hesse, Iowa Chase Young, OSU Joe Gaziano, NW WDE Chase Young, OSU

Seth: With apologies to Van Ginkel, Willekes, Samdup and Espensa. Too many great DEs this year.

TACKLES AND 3-4 DEs