Missouri's most valuable: Ranking the 10 most important Tigers

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Football is the ultimate team sport. Part of its allure is that one superstar often isn’t enough to carry a team to victory; it takes 11 players simultaneously filling their roles on each play. Of course, some players are still more important than others. A recent debate on our message board about the most important players on Missouri’s roster inspired us to take a look at some data and produce these rankings.

Note: This is not simply a list of the most talented or productive players. Importance factors in the reserves behind each player and the intangible aspects they bring to the team. In short, it’s a ranking of the 10 players on the Tiger roster who would be most difficult to replace. We bet you can guess No. 1.

He plays the most important position in sports and Missouri is engineering its offense to suit his skillset. None of the eligible backups behind him has ever taken a meaningful snap. Enough said.

The “quarterback of the defense,” so to speak, Garrett has not only started each of the past two seasons, he will almost certainly be responsible for calling the signals and directing his teammates on the defensive side of the ball. Garrett tied for the SEC lead in solo tackles a season ago, and he played a whopping 698 snaps in the regular season, third-most on the defense. His backup, Jamal Brooks, played 31. Garrett should be both the best player and the emotional leader of Missouri’s defense this season.

Missouri already faces the challenge of having to replace one tackle from last year’s starting offensive line. If it were to lose Durant, whose job is to protect the No. 1 player on this list, there would surely be a noticeable dropoff. Durant gave up the fewest quarterback pressures of any lineman in the SEC last season according to Pro Football Focus. Think about this: If the Tigers had to replace Durant, it would likely be either Javon Foster, Bobby Lawrence or an incoming freshman who took his place. Those players have combined to play exactly zero college snaps.

Almost certainly the most unique player on Missouri’s roster, Okwuegbunam provides opponents with a nearly impossible matchup as he can both stretch the field vertically and high-point passes in the red zone. The only reason Okwuegbunam isn’t higher on this list is because tight end might be Missouri’s deepest position, and the team went 3-1 with him out of the lineup at the end of last season. Still, make no mistake, Bryant’s life will be much easier if No. 81 is on the field this season.

Missouri is losing its two starting defensive tackles from a season ago in Terry Beckner Jr. and Walter Palmore, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of concern about the position. That’s largely thanks to Elliott, who finished last season strong. Head coach Barry Odom has stated on the record that he believes Elliott could be the best defensive tackle to come through Missouri. Not only does the coaching staff have high expectations for Elliott this year, but the backups behind he and Kobie Whiteside, while talented, are unproven. None played more than 30 snaps a season ago.

With Damarea Crockett gone to the NFL, Rountree is moving from co-starter to the lead man in Missouri’s backfield. He showed last season what he can do in that role, amassing 458 yards in the final three games of the year and over 1,200 yards on the season. The Tigers will undoubtedly lean heavily and Rountree and the running game this season. Like Okwuegbunam, the only reason he isn’t higher on this list is because he has three promising backups behind him and Missouri has shown an ability to run the ball well the past few seasons regardless of who lines up at tailback.

That’s right, the kicker cracks the list. Honestly, he might deserve to be higher. McCann is the only scholarship kicker on Missouri’s roster. He handles kickoffs in addition to placekicking duties, and he could wind up serving as the punter next season, too. While Missouri would like to see more consistency out of McCann, there appears to be a pretty significant dropoff between him and backup Sean Koetting. Plus, the Tigers saw firsthand last season how drastically special teams can impact a game.\

Right guard Tre’Vour Wallace-Simms probably also deserves a spot on this list as well, but we gave Colon-Castillo the nod over the other interior linemen because center is the most difficult position to replace in terms of chemistry with both the rest of the line and the quarterback. Colon-Castillo has manned the starting spot each of the past two seasons, and while Jonah Dubinski has some game experience at the spot and Case Cook could play center if needed, the coaching staff would surely like to see Bryant getting his snaps from Colon-Castillo all season.

Typically, wide receiver is regarded as one of the easier positions to replace a starter, but Missouri’s production with and without Emanuel Hall last season proved how big a difference a reliable playmaker at the position can make. Knox hasn’t yet approached Hall levels of productivity, but he’s the leading returning receiving among Missouri’s corps of wideouts (we’re discounting the slot receivers here). Plus, the Tiger coaching staff has raved about Knox’s offseason development. The team will need to see it translate to results on the field. Aside from Knox and fellow sophomore Kam Scott, none of Missouri’s wideouts has ever caught a pass in a Missouri uniform.

He hasn’t been quite as productive, but from a versatility standpoint, Byers is kind of like the Okwuegbunam of the defense. He can fill multiple roles, and there’s not one player who can replicate his skillset. Byers will likely play defensive end on first and second downs this season while sliding to defensive tackle as needed. He doesn’t have the explosiveness of a dominant pass-rusher nor the size of a run-stuffing nose guard, but the flexibility he affords defensive line coach Brick Haley earns him the last spot on the list.