I Just Added Two More Guys To My Wolfpack

The NFL Draft started this past Thursday, and spilled into the weekend.  Since the NFL has moved two teams out of St. Louis during my lifetime, I really do not follow any of the teams.  I turn on a game from time to time, I also check in on some of the players I have watched attending college games locally.  I pay very close attention to the former NC State players, a Duke player or two, and a couple from Mizzou, not local I know.  They were my college football team growing up.

Some of my current favorites at the moment are Jacoby Brissett...

who is one of four former NC State players to start a game as a quarterback last season along with Phillip Rivers, Russell Wilson, and Mike Glennon.  I check in on Wilson and Glennon most of the time, Rivers was before my time in Raleigh.  

I also check in on David Amerson, who along with Russell Wilson, was probably the best player on the team while I was in school at State....

He owns the NC State and ACC record for most interceptions in a season.  

Which brings us to this year's crop of NC State players in the NFL Draft.  There were seven to ten players who had a chance of being drafted, with the best of them being defensive end Bradley Chubb.  Before the Draft, most Mock Drafts had him somewhere in the Top 5.  Many had him going to the Browns with the fourth pick, but he slipped one spot further.....

With the fifth pick in the 2018 #NFLDraft ...

Take it away, Austin!

📺: @nflnetwork/@NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/jtTCqsbhlR

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) April 27, 2018

Avoiding the Browns means there is a chance that Bradley Chubb will play for a winning team.  The only real negative out of Chubb being a top 5 pick is the fact that his football cards are fairly pricy.  I know, you do not read this blog for football cards, I do pick up an occasional NC State card.  Especially the Elite Draft set, which features players in their college uniforms.  

That Panini NCAA license comes in handy again.  

The Chubb autographs have been out of my range of comfort on a football card, likely they will never reach that point.  Luckily there are two other Wolfpack players from the Elite Draft set, both had a good chance of being picked, and are exciting players in their own right.  Both players also have a more affordable cards.  

First up is Nyheim Hines.  He's a local kid from Garner, which is southeast of Raleigh, and he's best known for his speed.  Not sure if he was the fastest player in this year's NFL Draft, but he was in the top two or three at worst.  Besides football, Hines was also a star track runner during his time at State.  Kick returns, punt returns, innocent looking running plays could all turn into touchdowns because of his speed.  

He was drafted by the Colts in the fourth round.  The football card.....

I was initially a little disappointed to end up with the blue parallel of this card, but I kept missing out on this card when I first started trying to land one.  A few I got sniped at the end of auctions on Ebay, others I just plain forgot to bid on.  I guess the blue gives the card a nice combination of the uniform colors of State and the Colts.  Given the other schools in the neighborhood, the color blue is not exactly popular around Wolfpack fans, Colts pick redeems this card.  

I also like the "Dark Howl" jersey that Hines is wearing on the card.  State wore these against Louisville this year, and that was a game that I got to attend.  

A quick video of Hines getting a few yards near the end zone.  

The other affordable player from NC State, with a card in the Elite Draft set, is offensive player Jaylen Samuels.  I say offensive player because he's a running back, a tight end, a receiver, anything that State uses him for on the football field.  He was nicknamed "The Swiss Army Knife" while he was in college.  

Samuels ended up going to the Steelers in the sixth round.  A little bit lower than most draft projections had him going, but an NFL job is an NFL job.  Right?  On to the football card....

Easily my favorite of the two Elite Draft cards that are in the post.  Not that the blue trim on the Hines card is bad, but I like the card's color scheme, in sets with colored variations, to have some sort of significance.  I believe that this is the base version of an autographed card in this set, but have the red, silver, and grey color scheme on this card pops with the picture of Samuels in the Wolfpack's road white jerseys.  

Two new NC State cards make me happy, and I will be content with owning these two cards considering the going rate for Bradley Chubb cards from this set.....

Just two guys in my Wolfpack.