BTN.com's 2013 Big Ten football mock draft

Last summer, BTN.com hosted a football mock draft featuring a beat writer for every Big Ten team. It was a fun project. This summer, your friends at BTN.com held their own draft.

The participants: senior writer Tom Dienhart, video operations manager Wesley White and web news editor Brent Yarina.

This is how it worked: The draft consisted of eight rounds (QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, K, D) and it went in snaking order, starting with Dienhart and ending with Yarina.

Here's who we picked:

TOM'S TEAM
QB: Braxton Miller, Ohio State
RB: Venric Mark, Northwestern
RB: Ameer Abdullah, Nebraska
WR: Jeremy Gallon, Michigan
WR: Christian Jones, Northwestern
TE: Jacob Pedersen, Wisconsin
K: Mauro Bondi, Nebraska
D: Max Bullough, LB, Michigan State

Analysis: Strength – Rushing yards/scores; weakness – Receiving yards/touchdowns

WESLEY'S TEAM
QB: Taylor Martinez, Nebraska
RB: Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin
RB: James White, Wisconsin
WR: Cody Latimer, Indiana
WR: Jared Abbrederis, Wisconsin
TE: C.J. Fiedorowicz, TE, Iowa
K: Drew Basil, Ohio State
D: Chris Borland, LB, Wisconsin

Analysis: Strength – Speed and big-play ability; weakness – A lot of Badgers and only one ball to go around.

BRENT'S TEAM
QB: Devin Gardner, Michigan
RB: Zach Zwinak, Penn State Carlos Hyde, Ohio State
RB: Stephen Houston, Indiana
WR: Allen Robinson, Penn State
WR: Kenny Bell, Nebraska
TE: Devin Funchess, Michigan
K: Jeff Budzien, Northwestern
D: Ryan Shazier, Ohio State

Analysis: Strength – Receptions, receiving yards/scores; weakness – Both running backs missed time last season.

And here are the official draft results:

ROUND 1
TD: Braxton Miller, QB, Ohio State
WW: Taylor Martinez, QB, Nebraska
BY: Devin Gardner, QB, Michigan

Analysis: No surprises here. Not a single one; in fact, nearly every B1G draft of this kind would include these three in some order.

ROUND 2
BY: Zach Zwinak, RB, Penn State (Carlos Hyde, RB, Ohio State)
WW: Melvin Gordon, RB, Wisconsin
TD: Venric Mark, RB, Northwestern

Analysis: Mark, perhaps the Big Ten's top returning running back, is the third from his position off the board. Interesting.

ROUND 3
TD: Ameer Abdullah, RB, Nebraska
WW: James White, RB, Wisconsin
BY: Allen Robinson, WR, Penn State

Analysis: Hello, running back run! The Robinson selection ended a run of five consecutive backs.

ROUND 4
BY: Kenny Bell, WR, Nebraska
WW: Cody Latimer, WR, Indiana
TD: Jeremy Gallon, WR, Michigan

Analysis: Got to like the back-to-back picks of Robinson (Round 3) and Bell (Round 4), which puts the Big Ten's two top wide receivers on the same team.

ROUND 5
TD: Jacob Pedersen, TE, Wisconsin
WW: Jared Abbrederis, WR, Wisconsin
BY: Devin Funchess, TE, Michigan

Analysis: Abbrederis, the fifth receiver off the board, is a pretty nice value pick here, no?

ROUND 6
BY: Ryan Shazier, LB, Ohio State
WW: C.J. Fiedorowicz, TE, Iowa
TD: Christian Jones, WR, Northwestern

Analysis: We have the first defensive player off the board, and it's Shazier, the do-it-all star linebacker.

ROUND 7
TD: Mauro Bondi, K, Nebraska
WW: Chris Borland, LB, Wisconsin
BY: Stephen Houston, RB, Indiana

Analysis: The way he finds the end zone and catches the ball out of the backfield, Houston is a lot better than most expect.

ROUND 8
BY: Jeff Budzien, K, Northwestern
WW: Drew Basil, K, Ohio State
TD: Max Bullough, LB, Michigan State

Analysis: Bullough, the best Mr. Irrelevant ever?