Y11 Notes: The Beast
Sidy Sow, Jose Ramirez receive draft-worthy grades in The Athletic's annual draft guide.
Y11 Notes: Monday, April 10
Where EMU players are ranked on The Athletic’s ‘The Beast’ guide
There are 17 days until the NFL Draft. I don’t love sports drafts for labor-related reasons, but I do love the pageantry of the NFL Draft because it really does end up feeling like a more appropriate graduation for the college-level players getting into the league.
For that, the annual tradition to help celebrate another draft season happened today: Dane Brugler’s draft guide was published in The Athletic. The Beast is an overwhelming amount of information on quite literally every draft prospect in consideration, from picks 1 to 259. Almost every draft-able player has write-ups with player strengths, weaknesses, and summaries, so it’s generally a great resource to have on hand.
Here’s where Eastern Michigan’s players were ranked in their respective positions:
Taylor Powell: QB #35
Dylan Drummond: WR #208
Hassan Beydoun: WR #258
Gunnar Oakes: TE #49
Sidy Sow: OG #9 (4-5th round grade)
Overall, Sow needs further development with his sustain and recovery skills to maintain engagement, but his body type, play strength and functional movements are solid foundational traits of developmental blocker. He projects as a day three draft-and-develop prospect.
Richard Bates Jr.: OG #97
Jose Ramirez: Edge #31 (6th round)
Overall, offenses will find success running to his side of the field, but Ramirez gets the quarterback off schedule with his relentless pass-rush sequence. He projects best standing up as a rotational edge rusher.
Jordan Crawford: DT #142
Russel Vaden IV: S #68
Brandon Benson: S #145
Sidy Sow and Jose Ramirez have, of course, been the most talked-about names out of EMU this year, and there’s no surprise from me to see them considered as high as they are on Brugler’s rankings.
Of the two though, Sow’s the one who seems to have the most potential to be picked very early. He’s got great size and athleticism for his position, but he’s not a polished enough product for him to be an obvious Day 1 or Day 2 pick by Brugler’s estimation.
Ramirez, EMU’s first-ever MAC Defensive Player of the Year honoree, has a 6th-round grade by Brugler. We’ll see at the end of the month how NFL teams truly do feel about these two (and everybody else, of course), but this draft guide is a good primer for how lots of teams, not just Brugler, value these players.