Round 2, Pick 42: Jason Pierre-Paul, Defensive End

While I am confident my strategy of Darrelle Revis/Tony Romo would have never worked out, the strategy of Tony Romo/Darrelle Revis shockingly almost did. But Revis was taken one pick ahead of me, which brings back personal memories of the Jets doing the same to the Steelers in the 2007 draft.

Oh well. There are two key elements of pass defense, so instead I had a backup plan and that was Jason Pierre-Paul. Wanting to run a 4-3 so I do not have to blitz much, it was crucial that I found an edge pass-rusher. JPP may have had a down year in 2012, but so did the Giants in many ways. He is 24 years old, has freakish athletic ability, and is a player I would expect to lead the way on my team for many years to come.

Defensive end is a position I put a high premium on. While there are some fine defensive ends on the board, JPP’s age and athleticism were too much to pass up at 2.42.

Round 3, Pick 74: Aaron Hernandez, Tight End

I have my (and Terrell Owens’) quarterback. Since Romo is mobile, I do not feel the need for premium offensive linemen the same way I would with an immobile quarterback. Also with his success of getting good production out of lesser-known wide receivers, I stayed away from that position believing there is a ton of value remaining.

But what I feel Romo does need is a good tight end, as he loves to use Jason Witten. So I went with a younger option in Aaron Hernandez. He may be three inches shorter than Witten, but he is more explosive and can be used in a variety of ways. With Rob Gronkowski taking a lot of his targets in New England, I think Hernandez can easily be a 1,000-yard, 10+ TD player the next few years as a No. 1 TE.

Not sure I would line him up at RB as the Patriots have done before, but it does show how versatile of a player he is. With Tony Gonzalez pondering retirement, Antonio Gates and some others aging, Witten having a lot of wear and tear at age 31, I think tight end is a position with slumping value and acted quickly on a young, budding superstar.

Round 4, Pick 116: Jared Allen, Defensive End

Originally I thought I could add Henry Melton to get an inside pass rush, but then I noticed Alex Miglio snatched him up nine picks after I had taken Aaron Hernandez in the third round. That’s okay, as for the last few picks I have strongly considered another defensive end to match up with Jason Pierre-Paul. With over 20 of them off the board, the top-tier guys were running dry, but I did notice some real quality veterans still available.

That gets back to what makes this project interesting: what kind of team are you building and how will you do it?

I am thinking of it as an alternate reality where the NFL is replaced with a new league from scratch, and this draft will determine the rosters moving forward. Winning now is still huge, so I want to be competitive right away. Without crunching the numbers, I think a lot of young players have gone that are clearly not better than many of the veterans available at the same positions. But if you are looking for long-term value, then there is nothing wrong with that. It all comes back to how you choose to build your team.

When you look at successful teams, they tend to have a solid mixture of veterans on their last legs, veterans in their primes, good developmental players, raw youth, and a few contributing rookies to round out the roster. You need each layer present, not just for on the field but also in the locker room and for educational purposes. Let these guys teach each other to be pros.

Everyone chosen so far can be considered at least a “good” player, Many deserve a better compliment than that. But when the reality of a salary cap kicks in, most teams are only going to have a handful or two (at most) of really good players. There are positions that will be liabilities, but that’s just how the league works. You can’t have a stud at every position, so you must understand which ones are most important to you.

Defensive end is a big one for me, and while Allen will be 31 years old, I still very much look at him as one of my cornerstone players for the next five-plus years. He already has 117 career sacks and his relentless motor is intact. He has also done a good job of avoiding serious injuries in his career, so I see no reason why he cannot play well until he is 36 or even older. Reggie White (39) and Bruce Smith (40) lasted a long time. Michael Strahan was 36 when he went out on top with the Giants in 2007.

I also could not pass up the matchup problems created with opponents having to worry about both Allen and Pierre-Paul coming off the edges from my 4-3 defense. Who do you chip? Who do you slide protection towards? If there’s a weak tackle on your team, which is a good chance in any league (real or fake), then it is going to be attacked every time by one of these guys.