GoldandBlack.com Purdue player draft: Nos. 49, 50 overall

This summer, the Boilermakers are being divided.

Reporters Stacy Clardie and Kyle Charters are going head-to-head in GoldandBlack.com's Purdue player draft, a daily selection in which separate rosters of 25 are being assembled.

Next week, Clardie and Charters will make pitches for each team, and GoldandBlack.com staff and members will chime in on the finalized rosters to decide the winner.

The final selections:

Would like to finish strongly with my last selection, but, honestly, I'm not quite sure who to choose to fill in the last remaining spot on my O-line.

I could take Peyton Truitt, largely to spite Kyle, but I have doubts about Truitt's ability to play at this level at this point in his development. So I’d rather Kyle have him at center, a position Truitt had never played before entering the spring and, expectedly then, struggled to learn in a timely fashion. Truitt would be better-served at my guard spot, probably, but, again, not feeling that pick.

So that leaves the newcomers, JUCO transfer Jalen Neal and freshmen Tanner Hawthorne and Grant Hermanns. (The only other scholarship lineman is Johnny Daniels, and he’s recently converted and has a long way to go.) All likely project as tackles, though. So I potentially would have to slide Bearooz Yacoobi inside to guard, which he’s played so it’s not a huge issue, but I would rather have a tackle with college experience, which he does.

I’m wary of a JUCO O-lineman in his first season — most JUCOs in that scenario, actually. Neal appears to be a big fellow, but I am concerned he may be too slow. Yacoobi has decent enough athleticism that, at least, I know what I’m getting with him at tackle.

Hermanns is honest about his lifelong challenges to gain weight — exacerbated by now being an O-lineman; he was a defensive end only two years ago — and he admits a redshirt may be the best option for him to get more physically prepared.

That leaves Hawthorne, who has experience across the line, even playing some center over his career. His most recent experience is at tackle — he played both left and right in high school — but because of that center experience, maybe he could adjust to guard OK. He says his strength is pass blocking, which is a boon for my group. (Even though I have Markell Jones, I intend to pass a lot. Isn't it nice as No. 2 "option" is a nearly 900-yard back?) Plus, Hawthorne impressed me during our two interviews pre-Purdue arrival with how much he wanted to soak up the knowledge of Purdue’s strength staff, how eager he was to get to work at transforming his body and how he'd planned to just put his head down and work. At 6-foot-6, he may be a bit tall for a guard, but he already was about 275 pounds coming in and probably added to that this summer, so I think he’ll hold up OK against (likely) a fellow freshman on Kyle’s team, Anthony Watts.

May be taking a chance on the young guy, but for all those reasons, Hawthorne is my final pick.

Mr. Irrelevant might be anything but.

On my team, Peyton Truitt might be the most relevant player.

The redshirt freshman is going to need to get my offense started and he can do that. He's not a finished product, not even close, but few are as second-year offensive lineman. But Truitt endured a crash-course training at center during the spring — frequently getting one-on-one coaching from GA Justin Sinz (who is going to be a great coach, by the way) — and improved tremendously from Practice 1 to 15.

Most important point: Truitt didn't have any catastrophic plays, no awful snaps, that hindered his offense during either the jersey scrimmage or spring game. So the thought that the 6-foot-5, 296-pounder will derail my offense in our fantasy game is nonsense. He'll be able to get by, and it'll help to have a veteran in Jordan Roos to his right.

Stacy could have taken Truitt at some point over the last couple weeks and plugged him in at right guard; it would have really put me in a bind. But had I thought she was going to do so, I would have taken him earlier. Glad to have gotten him now.

It's not like Truitt's going to have to worry about getting pounded in the middle of the line of scrimmage either, facing up against a second-year player in Eddy Wilson and a true freshman in Lorenzo Neal.

We'll make our final arguments next week — after media days in Chicago — but quickly on this topic: I like my offensive line better than hers, despite her getting the first pick and taking Kirk Barron.

Well, there ya go, teams are complete. Final arguments, debates, votes and Brian Neubert's thoughts all next week.

More: Draft ticker 1-40 | 41/42. Hardy, Logan | 43/44. Cooper/Watts | 45/46. Henley/Hayes | 47/48. Faison/Burgess

Countdown to Camp: Quarterbacks | Linebackers | Receivers | Secondary | Running backs | Defensive line | Offensive line

More: 2016 football primer

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