How strategy played a role in Pitt's spring game draft
When Pitt senior defensive tackle Amir Watts made safety Jazzee Stocker the first pick in the spring game draft Thursday, he shouted, “You’re the first pick. We want to make you a very rich man.”
But Watts’ co-captain on the gold squad, senior wide receiver Maurice Ffrench, had another reason for making Stocker the first overall choice.
“I’m trying to have a big game,” he said.
With starting safety Damar Hamlin sitting out the game while nursing a minor injury, Ffrench wanted to make sure Stocker, an experienced senior safety, will be a teammate and not an adversary Saturday at Heinz Field.
After all, aside from impressing his coaches, Ffrench has another reason for trying to build a winning team. The winners get steak and lobster at their next team meal; losers dine on franks and beans.
Other players selected first and second at their positions probably will mirror the identity of the top players when the games count this fall. They include:
• Quarterback Kenny Pickett and Nick Patti.
• Running backs V’Lique Carter and A.J. Davis.
• Wide receivers Aaron Mathews and Taysir Mack.
• Guards Bryce Hargrove and Chase Brown.
• Tackles Carter Warren and Gabe Houy.
• Defensive ends Patrick Jones and Rashad Weaver.
• Defensive tackles Keyshon Camp and Jaylen Twyman.
• Middle linebackers Elias Reynolds and Wendell Davis.
• Outside linebackers Phil Campbell and Chase Pine.
• Cornerbacks Jason Pinnock and Damari Mathis.
Paris Ford followed Stocker off the board among the safeties.
Coach Pat Narduzzi conducted the draft, but didn’t overrule his players’ picks, even when the gold team chose Reynolds, who may not play due to a minor injury.
Of Patti going second after Pickett, Narduzzi said, “They feel like there’s a guy they can win with.”
Blue co-captain Saleem Brightwell said he chose Carter for his ability to make splash plays.
“We’ve seen V’Lique do amazing things,” Brightwell said.
Narduzzi theorized that Carter went first because the Blue team was comfortable with either of the two bigger backs, Todd Sibley and A.J. Davis.
The Gold took Davis. Sibley went to the Blue.
Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
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