:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66790858/nateandjelliot.0.jpg)
Just jumping in? Here are the previous rounds of the Missouri Tigers Football Draft:
Round XII (this has the halfway point breakdown and links to rounds 1-11)
Welcome, Tiger fans, to #PeakOffseasonContent. Despite a lack of championships, the Missouri Football Tigers have had some excellent players throughout the years, both at the college and professional levels. There have been excellent ambassadors on and off the field, as well as some that changed the program or revolutionized a position. So what better time than now to draft a hypothetical team of these exquisite athletes?
BK and I will build a team of 22 starters (sorry, specialists!) to craft a team to play against the other. For simplicity’s sake, we’re limiting our selections to guys who played on the 2000 team going forward, including the current roster in 2020. Each Round will alternate who goes first and we’ll provide our reasoning/explanations/defense afterwards.
At the end, you all will be able to vote for who you think has the best team! And of course, we’d love to hear your picks for each round as well and why we are dumdums who don’t know what we’re talking about.
Team Gold. Team Bold! Nate has the next pick:
Round XVI, Pick 31: Nate selects OG Kurtis Gregory
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19961434/112901514.jpg.jpg)
Kurtis Gregory is another unheralded piece to the awesome Missouri offenses of the late aughts. He earned starting time as a redshirt freshman in 2006 and went on to helm the right guard position for the rest his career.
Even as a freshman coming out of Blackburn’s Santa Fe High School, Gregory was an imposing 6’6”, 290 pounds. Once he was put through Dr. Pat Ivey’s House of Pain™, he came out the other side as an imposing interior lineman, able to maul tackles to the ground or pull outside to level a defender on quick screen passes. The only time I remember seeing him truly beaten was when he was going toe-to-toe with Ndamukong Suh in the 2009 Nebraska maelstrom (ya know, the one where the power went out and Suh broke Blaine Gabbert in half). Every other game, however...if you noticed Gregory it was because you noticed some dude laying on the ground in pain.
One of my favorite aspects of that 2007 team, and the offense in particular, was that every starter except for Chase Daniel was from Missouri. I’m happy to add another Missouri lineman to the squad!
Round XVI, Pick 32: BK selects TE Michael Egnew
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19964532/112841266.jpg.jpg)
There are a total of six Missouri football players to be named a consensus All-American over the last 20 years. Four of them have already been selected in this draft. Michael Sam and Michael Egnew are the two that remain.
Not anymore.
Egnew gets lost in the shuffle talking about Mizzou’s tight ends, and Chase Coffman and Martin Rucker get plenty of love. In recent years, we’ve had countless conversations about Albert O’s role...
But let’s not forget about the man in the middle, Egnew.
His 90 receptions in 2010 remain tied for the most by a Mizzou tight end in a single season over at least the last 20 years. Those 90 receptions in a season is also tied for fourth among all Mizzou pass-catchers over that same span. His 760 yards that season were the 3rd most productive season by a Mizzou pass-catcher this century.
Yeah, he was pretty darn good.
At 6-foot-5, 250 pounds running a 4.5 40, Egnew was a freak athlete that absolutely dominated in 2010. He didn’t see the same numbers come his way in 2011, but that was more a product of the change in offensive scheme than a change in his play.
Egnew, Jeremy Maclin, Justin Gage and Emanuel Hall lining up in four wide sets with Chase Daniel and Henry Josey in the backfield. Yeah, that’ll play.