BadgerBlitz.com's Wisconsin player draft: Round 1

This summer, the Badgers will be divided.

That is, they'll be separated into three imaginary teams, set against each other by a BadgerBlitz.com.com Wisconsin player draft, a daily selection in which separate groups of 23 are assembled.

Over the next four weeks, BadgerBlitz.com reporters Jon McNamara, John Veldhuis and Jessi Schoville will draft Badgers, picking players one-by-one and placing them on their respective teams, trying to assemble the best 11 on offense and defense, plus one reserve.

Then, in late July, we'll decide — based on BadgerBlitz.com.com staff and member feedback — which team would win.

Who will be selected when? How will the teams develop? What reasoning will be used?

And most importantly, do you agree with the picks? Be sure to discuss in the Badgers' Den.

Via a coin toss win, McNamara gets the first overall pick and selects ...

With the entire roster available, I drafted a player who has yet to take an actual game rep at Wisconsin. But that's just fine with me, because Ryan Ramczyk earned the respect of his coaches and teammates during a redshirt season last fall.

“He’s a freak, man,” senior running back Dare Ogunbowale said of Ramczyk earlier in the spring. “He’s a very athletic guy. Even last year (Joe) Schobert would talk about how Ramczyk was just a beast down on scout team. Obviously he couldn’t play, but he’s a special athlete and we’re excited to have him holding down that left tackle spot.”

In constructing a team -- specifically at a program built to run the football -- there's no better place to start than left tackle. At 6-foot-6 and 308 pounds, Ramczyk has to a chance to prove to the Big Ten that he's one of the premier linemen in the conference. And in terms of this specific draft, I felt the gap between Ramczyk and then next best tackle on this roster -- likely Jacob Maxwell -- was too significant, signaling that I needed to lock in a player at that position in Round 1.

Let me open by telling you all how excited I am to be writing for Rivals.com. It’s an honor to be working with an organization that I, myself, grew up reading and watching. This year will be my last at UW-Madison and I couldn't think of a better way to wrap up my time here at Wisconsin.

Now, let’s get to the business at hand.

When I was first told we were going to have a draft my initial thought as General Manager was, “How am I going to construct a team.” The answer for me was actually rather simple: Leadership on and off the field.

I tossed around the thought of taking Corey Clement, but the shaky 2015-'16 season, in addition to coming off injury, makes it a slightly risky pick in my mind and a little too precarious for Round 1, in my opinion. Not to mention the Badgers are so deep at the position that none of us will really be hurting in that department.

With all of those factors in mind, I landed on Vince Biegel. I chose to go with the boisterous leader because he has had sustained success in addition to possessing recognized intangibles. This was a relatively easy decision since along with being one of the premier pass rushers on Saturdays, he’s a top-notch leader off the field as well.

During practices you can find him working with other players and creating energy day after day, while on game days you can find him filling up a stat sheet with that same passion and fire.

Putting it bluntly, I would have taken Biegel over Jon’s pick of Ryan Ramczyk, being that he is still so fresh to this type of stage. However, if the mythos surrounding the new tackle comes to fruition I may be eating those words, and you cannot fault the timeless logic of building a team starting with the offensive line.

The one negative I could see in examining this pick is that Joe Schobert has moved on to the NFL and you could argue that Biegel’s success was partially a product of the disruption he caused on the other side of the line. Though that argument does probably contain some truths, I think it undersells Biegel as an explosive playmaker of his own.

And, besides, he has the best haircut on the team.

With the team's "franchise left tackle" and top pass rusher off the table I figured Clement was the best player available, even if you factor in his injury-riddled 2015 campaign. When healthy I'm confident Clement can be a major playmaker in the running game, and adding him felt like the best way to start filling my roster.