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2. Tell us about your draft class. Is there anything that makes it special in comparison to other classes? Where did your fellow draftees land, how are they doing? Did anyone turn out to be an unexpected steal of that draft based on what you know today? Do you think anyone in your draft class will become a hall of famer? If you’re new to the league, how do you think your class will do? Where do you think people will get drafted to?
As a member of the season 29 draft class, my player and my peers are starting to decline after reaching the primes of our careers just a couple of short seasons ago. With that in mind, it's a great time to take a retrospective look back at the players and users that made up the S29 class, where they were drafted, and how their careers have gone to this point. I'll start with the easiest player to talk about: Dante King, my own receiving running back who was drafted first overall by the Baltimore Hawks as the first of the team's four first round picks in this class, one that would hope to be foundational for the franchise's future. I think that I've been a helpful player to the Hawks and ranked as the third-highest TPE player in the class at my peak. While another player we'll get to shortly has been better at my position, I think that I was a solid choice for Baltimore as I've been a very loyal contributor over my career. The other three Hawks picks were cornerback Lip Gallagher at third overall, defensive tackle Will Smyth at tenth, and linebacker-turned-saftey Tre' Mendus Johnson at thirteenth. Gallagher and Johnson both ended up living up to their draft slots by TPE (second and eleventh in the class, respectively) while Smyth topped out at just under 700 TPE - not an absolute bust, but certainly not what Baltimore hoped. Johnson and Gallagher unfortunately both ended up departing the team unexpectedly, so while they were smart selections at the time, Baltimore has to look back with some degree of disappointment.
In the first round, there were a couple of other notable busts - the biggest being Suggs Upshar, drafted by the Orange County Otters at sixth overall, who went inactive with just 319 TPE and never applied any past the DSFL cap, I presume never playing a down in the ISFL (but can't be bothered to look it up for sure). Fifth pick Chevvy Bronko, seventh pick Sam Squanch, and twelfth pick Marcus Jones each ended up in similar places as Smyth, topping out at 626, 726, and 718 TPE respectively.
On the other hand, there were also several steals worth mentioning. The first and foremost player to note has to be running back Jay Cue Jr., who was drafted as the second RB off the board all the way down at eleventh overall. He leads the class in peak TPE (one of the highest totals ever I believe) and has already put together a Hall of Fame career for himself, ranking in the top ten all-time in rush attempts, rush yards, rush touchdowns, and scrimmage touchdowns as well as the top fifteen in scrimmage yards. However, he bolted for the Arizona Outlaws, the user's former career-long team, shortly after his rookie contract, meaning the Wraiths didn't get a chance to earn much value on their selection. However, it's pretty mind-boggling that such a well-respected user ended up falling so low. Besides Cue, John Huntsman (seventeenth overall to Sarasota), Buffalo Hunter (fifteenth overall to San Jose), and Rean Schwarzer (twenty-ninth overall to Orange County) all ended up in the top ten of TPE for the class despite being selected outside of the first round, making them very valuable selections that ought to have been picked earlier in hindsight.
All things considered, the season 29 draft class has made its mark on the league and produced a fair number of impactful contributors to the league, although it's not immediately clear to me which outside of Cue are positioned to etch their name in league history by entering the Hall of Fame when their careers are up. This class is only a couple of seasons into regression, however, which means there is still plenty of ball to be played for King and co.