3.13 Detroit Vipers - WR Bruce Ellington

In the real world: The San Francisco 49ers nabbed Ellington, the cousin of Cardinals running back Andre Ellington, in Round 4. Although he's short for a wide receiver at 5'9", his height, weight and speed are comparable to Randall Cobb of the Green Bay Packers (although, as with most rookie wide receivers, he needs to work on route-running). In front of him right now are Michael Crabtree, veteran Anquan Boldin, and recent trade acquisition Stevie Johnson.

In the TUFF world: I also considered three other players (Dri Archer and John Brown; faster and smaller players in the T.Y. Hilton mold; and RB De'Anthony Thomas). But those three don't have the physicality of Ellington, who is considered to be one of the best available players at this point by such sources including (but not limited to): Sigmund Bloom (47th on his Post-Draft 100, which includes individual defensive players; take those IDPs out, and Ellington is the 36th best offensive player on that list) Scouts, Inc. (grade: 79--five points ahead of Paul Richardson), and NFLDraftScout.com (ranked #77 out of 2,254 players, but after considering only the offensive positions TUFF uses, he's more like #27). The National Football Post (ranked #67 out of 305 players; after considering QB/RB/WR/TE/PK, he's #24). This write-up by Matt Waldman put Ellington over the top for me. His job situation sucks, but the talent is there. Sure, I could have taken "possibly the next T.Y. Hilton" in Archer or Brown, and yes, both of those guys went earlier than Ellington in the NFL Draft. But if Cobb is a better receiver than Hilton, then "possibly the next Randall Cobb" should be a better pick than "possibly the next T.Y. Hilton."