The Missouri Tigers Legends Draft: Round XIV

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)

Round XIII

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.

Nate kicks off the FOURTEENTH round of picks!

Round XIV, Pick 27: Nate selects OT Tyler Luellen

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

For the nascent Gary Pinkel regime, the acquisition of Tyler Luellen was one of the biggest acquisitions in terms of impact AND size of the dude that the Tiger program had seen. The kid from Bethany, MO was 6’7” 275 AS A 17 YEAR-OLD while being not only the 4th best prospect in the state but also the 19th best tackle in the entire country for the 2003 recruiting class. Rumors abounded of his surprising quickness as he dominated practice squads during his redshirt year and was pressed into duty in 2004 when All-American Rob Droege went down with an injury. Once he took the helm, he never missed a start.

Luellen was a pivotal piece in the ascension story of the 2007 Tigers, protecting Chase Daniel’s blind side while paving the way for Tony Temple’s off-tackle jaunts. He never had the accolades of his Tiger peers, but was an impact tackle (is that a term? I just made that a term) that helped Missouri climb all the way to #1. Welcome aboard, Tyler!

Round XIV, Pick 28: BK selects DT C.J. Mosley

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

Brad Smith wasn’t the only stud on the early 2000’s Gary Pinkel squads. Not by a long shot. C.J. Mosley was one hell of a player along the defensive line.

An honorable mention Freshman All-American, he finished his redshirt freshman year with 39 tackles, 3 sacks and another 8 tackles for loss. He followed that up with 2nd-team All-Big 12 honors as a sophomore while racking up 16 tackles for loss and 6 sacks. His finished his final season at Missouri in 2004 when with another 6.5 sacks and 14 tackles for loss.

CJ Mosley will help stuff the run alongside Aldon Smith, Zo Williams and Markus Golden. That’s not a bad defensive line right there.