The following depth chart assumes that the following seniors depart from Ann Arbor after 2020 and that Jalen Mayfield continues on to the NFL:
- WR Nico Collins
- TE Nick Eubanks
- RB Chris Evans
- S Brad Hawkins
- DT Carlo Kemp
- FB Ben Mason
- K Quinn Nordin
- DE Kwity Paye
- C Andrew Vastardis
It also assumes that every currently rostered player and every currently committed prospect will be here in 2021, which is obviously not true.
Hit the jump for the depth chart.
QB: Cade McNamara (RS So.), Joe Milton (RS Jr.), J.J. McCarthy (Fr.), Dan Villari (RS Fr.)
RB: Hassan Haskins (RS Jr.), Zach Charbonnet (Jr.), Blake Corum (So.), Christian Turner (RS Jr.), RB Tavierre Dunlap (Fr.)
WR1: Cornelius Johnson (Jr.), Xavier Worthy (Fr.), Mike Sainristil (Jr.), Cristian Dixon (Fr.)
WR2: Ronnie Bell (Sr.), Roman Wilson (So.), Andrel Anthony (Fr.)
WR3: Giles Jackson (Jr.), A.J. Henning (So.)
TE: Erick All (Jr.), Luke Schoonmaker (RS Jr.), Matt Hibner (RS Fr.), Louis Hansen (Fr.)
LT: Ryan Hayes (RS Jr.), Trente Jones (RS So.), Jeffrey Persi (RS Fr.), Giovanni El-Hadi (Fr.), Tristan Bounds (Fr.)
LG: Chuck Filiaga (RS Sr.), Zak Zinter (RS Fr.)
C: Zach Carpenter (RS So.), Nolan Rumler (RS So.), Reece Atteberry (RS Fr.), Raheem Anderson II (Fr.)
RG: Andrew Stueber (RS Sr.), Joel Honigford (RS Sr.), Greg Crippen (Fr.)
RT: Willie Allen (RS Sr.), Karsen Barnhart (RS So.), Trevor Keegan (RS So.), Jack Stewart (RS So.)
SDE: Aidan Hutchinson (Sr.), Gabe Newburg (RS So.), Michael Morris (RS So.), T.J. Guy (Fr.), Dominick Giudice (Fr.)
DT: Chris Hinton (Jr.), Julius Welschof (RS Jr.), Jess Speight (RS Sr.), Kris Jenkins Jr. (RS Fr.)
NT: Donovan Jeter (RS Sr.), Mazi Smith (RS So.), Phillip Paea (RS Sr.)
WDE: Luiji Vilain (RS Sr.), Braiden McGregor (So.), Jaylen Harrell (RS Fr.), Quintin Somerville (Fr.), Kechaun Bennett (Fr.)
Viper: Michael Barrett (RS Jr.), Anthony Solomon (RS So.), Quinten Johnson (RS So.), William Mohan (RS Fr.)
SAM: David Ojabo (RS So.), Branden Jennings (Fr.), Ben VanSumeren (RS Jr.), Tyler McLaurin (Fr.)
MIKE: Cameron McGrone (Sr.), Kalel Mullings (So.), Jaydon Hood (Fr.), Cornell Wheeler (RS Fr.)
WILL: Josh Ross (RS Sr.), Nikhai Hill-Green (RS Fr.), Joey Velazquez (RS So.), Edward Warinner (RS Jr.)
CB: Gemon Green (RS Jr.), Andre Seldon (So.), Jalen Perry (RS So.), George Johnson III (RS So.)
CB: Vincent Gray (RS Jr.), D.J. Turner II (RS So.), Darion Green-Warren (So.), Eamonn Dennis (So.), Ja'Den McBurrows (Fr.)
FS: Daxton Hill (Jr.), Sammy Faustin (RS Jr.), German Green (RS Jr.), Rod Moore (Fr.)
SS: Makari Paige (RS Fr.), Hunter Reynolds (RS Sr.), Jordan Morant (RS Fr.), R.J. Moten (RS Fr.)
K: Jake Moody (Sr.)
P: Brad Robbins (RS Sr.), Tommy Doman (Fr.)
Barnhart will start. With Hayes improves his strength to take back the LT spot, or Filiaga will have to improve ... everything. Keegan actually looked promising too. Hopefully OL is much improved in 2021
ReplyDeleteQB should be a battle between Cade & JJ. Milton just doesn't have it
I don't know how Josh Gattis moved Milton ahead of McNamara and McCaffrey, unless the obvious is true, that Gattis isn't ready to run an offense. He would likely mishandle McCarthy too.
DeleteHas to be one of the biggest QB blunders of all time
DeleteNot really. McNamara hasn't been very good either and lacks Milton's upside. He deserves the start but as with OKorn, one game against a bad team doesn't tell you much. The coaches were wrong on this, but it remains to be seen how bad it was and how much health played into things.
DeleteWhat upside?
DeleteMcNamara played in his first live action, and demonstrated a B or C level ability. Milton is in his third year - getting live snaps in ea - and looks lost. In an interview with his HS Coach, he admitted to be lost ... he still is. F grade for his performance, is much lower than Cade's, even with limited sample size
DeleteCade McNamara might be a good fit at Oklahoma. Hes got such great accuracy, and a quick release.
DeleteMeanwhile, Milton's best fit is ... an AAC school? Sunbelt ... D2???
DeleteMaybe the coaches are dumb dumbs but some might ask why it was that McNamara didn't beat out Milton and McCaffrey.
DeleteThere was a similar situation a couple years ago when a sophomore QB failed to unseat unimpressive upperclassmen. He got thrown in and looked solid against a weak opponent, but was clearly protected by coaches, and struggled against real competition. But fans needed hope so they rejoiced about his potential and count up how many years he has left to lead Michigan to glory...
Turned out -- Brandon Peters wasn't anything special. If he had been he would have beaten out O'Korn and Speight. McNamara may improve more than Peters did but I wouldn't bet on it.
It doesn't mean the coaches are dumb. A decision was made before pads went on. McCaffrey didn't look very impressive in limited action last year. McNamara was injured most of his FR year. Milton has a cannon
DeleteBut once they went live, it had to be clear. Even the playcalling scaled back to limit Milton's exposure - he's a liability out there
I don't think McNamara showed anything special, but he did seem to do some very Patterson-like things, and led scores against the same Defenses, under the same game plan that Milton was either going 3 & out, or tossing INTs ...
As for Peters, I see similarities with Milton: an impressive throw now & then, followed (and surrounded by) ineffectiveness. The difference is turnovers. Milton's look ridiculously ugly-helpless even. He has time, but needs a whole lot of live reps. He's not good enough for a P5 program, but might do better around lesser completion (worked for Josh Allen)
JE - yeah I'm back!
Fun exercise though there will certainly be a lot of departures, as well as maybe a few surprise returns.
ReplyDeleteOne takeaway is that at the moment there are very very few guys that are gone from 2020 that will really be missed. Like, an extraordinarily small number I can not recall seeing before.
Paye leaves a huge void of course and Hawkins would be not be easy to replace. But otherwise... Kemp is a fine player but at this point he is filling in for Hutchinson. Everyone else is not an impact guy and has a replacement lined up or already taking away a lot of their snaps.
In other words, Michigan could return most of their squad, which typically works out pretty well if there is coaching continuity - which I believe there will be, at least with Harbaugh and Warriner.
Obviously way premature but OL could be a critical strength area, if they build on their experience and gel as a unit. The DL, perhaps with a new coach, could really take a big step forward if somebody pops at the weakside end (McGregor or Ojabo). If nothing else 2020 has built up depth on our lines.
Questions will remain for coaching, QB, and the secondary, but talent and experience shouldn't be a problem for Michigan in 2021.
-Lank
Interesting that you moved Johnson over Bell at WR1 given he is again the top receiver on the season.
ReplyDeleteHopefully recruits see the opportunity in the secondary.
Don't read too much into the order of the receivers.
DeleteThanks as always. You sure McGrone is a Sr. next year? This year does not count. Also, other than early entries Michigan most of the guys on the roster today are here through 2022.
ReplyDeleteThis year doesn't count, but I've decided I'm just going to count years like it does. I'm not going to call a fourth-year player a junior. It would get too confusing making up for this one-year glitch. Everyone knows what a redshirt junior is, a redshirt senior, etc. There's only really much of an issue, IMO, if guys come back for an extra year beyond their eligibility. And I really don't expect many guys to do that, if any at all do. I would only expect that if a senior/redshirt senior with NFL dreams and without much exposure suddenly got injured, and he just had to come back if he wanted any hope of getting drafted.
DeleteVery few guys come back for a 5th year regardless. Should just call people what they are or will be in real life (fresh, soph, jr, sr, grad/5th).
DeleteMy bad about the years Thunder didn't read all comments till now. I thought maybe cause I didn't watch the games all the way through some already burnt a RS year. RS are awesome for lineman but for skill players you hardly ever see 5 year players be studs unless we see we unforseen injuries or some other weird situation.
DeleteMcgrone is only a RS Soph this year. So yes next year he will be a senior of technically a RS Junior. One question was Jordan Glasgow a 5th year or not?
DeleteYou say "very few" but there are 11 players on the team who are 5th year players, including Eubanks, Vastardis, Hart, Nordin, Kemp, Evans, and Schoenle, all of whom are guys who play a fair amount.
DeleteThis is about what you call them which ultimately doesn't matter, but it was only applied in a meaningful way to 2 guys (Nordin and Eubanks) who followed a traditional path in the 5-years-at-one-school model.
DeleteIt is convention but the standard nomenclature is built on a model that does not apply for the vast majority of kids that come through Michigan and elsewhere. Your list is a single digit percentage of players on the team, as it includes walk-ons. It also includes guys who were not labelled as red-shirts (Evans and Kemp) because they played as freshman. Meanwhile guys like Spanellis and Dwumfour DID red-shirt and were labeled as such but aren't here. In other words the distinction was not useful more often than it was useful.
This has been true for many many years and gets more true with every season. 5 game limits for red-shirts. grad transfers. rise of early graduations. more NFL departures every year. more transfers in general. COVID exemptions. If ever there was a time to evolve it is now.
You can still have these guys on the team. This doesn't require bringing up how many games they played their freshman year for every season. It's just not meaningful enough to keep doing.
It IS most accurate to call them what they are: freshman, sophomore, junior, seniors and then treat the grad eligible/5th year as a mostly independent decision point that will be used by very few players. Even with Eubanks and Nordin it was a point of uncertainty and discussion if they would come back for grad school this offseason - as it was for Kemp and Evans also.
I know it's conventional practice but it's increasingly irrelevant. Yes it's more info to provide potential eligibility info - but it's not particularly useful when you spend 4 years noting it for everyone and then it pans out for 2 guys. There are any number of things that are more interesting and informative and would apply for more than 2 guys.
Ask yourself if it was useful in 2018 to call Kemp a Junior and Dwumfour a RS sophomore. It wasn't predictive of anything. If anything it contributed to a false narrative of upside for Dwumfour. More misleading than useful.
DeleteSimilar situation at QB. Milton is a junior not a sophomore. People have been speculating about his transfer for longer than two years! He has played meaningful downs in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Wisconsin and Rutgers have lined up against him 3 times each...annnnd he might have 3 more years of eligibility.
What is it telling us to call him a RS Soph as opposed to a Junior? If it tells us next to nothing about his past or his future - why do we bother to distinguish?
Another case -- Brandon Peters wasn't an upside puppy when he transferred even though he was a "sophomore". He was a graduate! He left because he was worse than classmate (and rising senior) Shea Patterson. He was certainly never going to be as nearly as good as classmate Dwayne Haskins, who had already been drafted in the NFL when he arrived at Illinois. But people still acted like Peters was a kid with a bunch of untapped potential because he was a "sophomore". And here he is in year 5 still averaging 6-7 YPA just like he did when he was a "freshman" at Michigan. Maybe if he returns for his 6th season he'll finally be that guy people imagined him being when he was in his 2nd year.
Is Chris Evans going to make the pros? I think he's being misused this season. Would he be eligible to play next year because of corona this year?
ReplyDeletejoseph dreamed dreams
Yes, he would be eligible to play in 2021. I do not expect him back, but it's possible. Why would he come back to a school that only gave him 25 touches in 6 games (or 4.2 touches/game)? It seems to me that he would either try his hand at the NFL or transfer somewhere else.
DeleteHe should transfer to Ohio St if possible. He played great against them.
DeleteHe should go to Miss St. He will be used like he would in the NFL around 5 - 10 carries a game along with plenty of route running and receptions. Half serious going to play for Leach. Thought Evans is going pro though because didn't he accept his bid to play in East West shrine game.
DeleteEvans should be welcomed back but if he still has NFL dreams he would be better suited to showcase his skills elsewhere.
DeleteIt's a far bigger concern who will coach next year than what players will still be around. Ed Warinner, Mike Zordich, and Jim Harbaugh are the only ones I want to see back. If Jim Harbaugh goes to the pros, then he does. There are very good coaches who would lilely feel very honored to coach at Michigan.
ReplyDeleteWith how players are coached now in many positions, it is hampering thier talent and their chance of getting into the pros.
joseph dreamed dreams
You want Harbaugh back? With indiana headed to the B1G title game, that leaves michigan with rutgers and maryland as the only teams to have not won the division
DeleteI would want him back but with and upgraded coaching staff.
DeleteIt looks like the Iowa St coach is saying he wouldn't take the Michigan job if offered ut.
There are conflicting reports about whether Campbell would take the job or not. Personally, I think he would.
DeletePart of the other is the carousel of coaches. We've tried that, and know what the one constant is: Harbaugh
DeleteBring back Harbaugh! Campbell is nothing special and I'm amazed people want him. He's winning a bunch of close games this year not building any kind of powerhouse. You want the next Urban Meyer not some guy scraping around 500 in the Big 12. Look at what Meyer did at Utah in short order. Honestly what is going on at Indiana and MSU is more impressive than what is happening at ISU.
DeleteIm only wondering about the Iowa St coach, that he has such a good thing going there, if he eould want to stay and keep building there.
Deletejoseph dreamed dreams
I think Evans stays another year..maybe Mason too.Don't forget Upshaw at WDE. It will be very interesting to see if there is a shift back to Harbaugh's offense and a coordinator change (assuming Harbaugh stays). A different coordinator could mean a great deal to some players and their potential for playing time.
ReplyDeleteI think a new defensive coordinator is pretty much a guarantee. I'm not so sure on offense, but I would also like to see a change there. Gattis has not shown me that he can coach an offense well enough. He did fine with a bunch of NFL linemen last season, a solid QB, and some NFL wide receivers, but when the experience dropped off this season, the offense couldn't do jack squat. Big plays on offense were practically non-existent, and that's with a stable of running back and a bunch of speedy wide receivers.
DeleteDon Brown has had plenty of time, and things aren't really working out. I could see a plea for Gattis to get more time, and it's a little unfair that he's only had about 1.5 years, but still, the O should have been better this year.
Other way around for me. Brown is a proven performer with top 10-15 defenses year in and year out. We all know the issues with OSU but we're seeing him try to adapt. That seems like the right move. I give him a pass for 2020 for all the reasons but in particular the loss of Shoop. Let him come back and do his thing in 2021.
DeleteGattis just doesn't have the same track record as Brown. He was handed the keys to a pretty good offense in 2018 with most of talent coming back. It was a VERY rough start to 2019 and 2020. Yes, the close of 2019 was strong and some of the 2020 stuff can be excused but we saw a lot of head-scratching stuff in terms of scheme and the QB situation has been baffling too. Just haven't seen enough from him, even though he is learning on the job.
The offensive plays were terrible and Charbonet where was he this year? Especially the last two games did he even play? Was he hurt? I guess when I watch other teams there offense looks good and they have half the talent as us and put up 40 or 50 every week. Gattis didn't seem to utilize his talent or play to there strength just like Brown doesn't seem to do.
DeleteHave a question? Didn't JH run a pistol or a modern type offense with CKAP in SF? Or am I wrong? And if Jim is putting his imprint on offense can't someone explain to him it sucks!! Like his own Son or is Harbaugh got to much pride. I know alot coaches wont change or evolve and pride ends up being there downfall. The best coaches can Evolve and win championships if you have the right talent and the ones who don't I think lose their jobs or never win when it really counts.
DeleteBrown needs to go too. This year may be an anomaly, but our issues on D are every bit related to recruiting, and his handling of the roster on that side of the ball. In fact, the HC should have handled that long ago. By not doing so, he owns this mess
DeleteHarbaugh has said over and over again that Gattis is in control of the offense. Yes, Harbaugh coached a pistol offense. He has coached all different kinds of offenses. What he did at Stanford is different than what he did at San Francisco and different than what he did his first few years at Michigan and different than what's happening now. Harbaugh has had different defensive systems, too.
DeleteI think we're not being realistic if we say that Harbaugh won't adjust systems. There's proof of that being inaccurate.
The offense has changed so much from 2015 to 2020. Harbaugh is adapting.
DeleteWe can certainly criticize the outcomes and lack of consistency in vision but he has certainly demonstrated a willingness to change and evolve. I think he deserves credit for that.
I continue to think the fatal flaw is the NFL perspective - specifically putting too much on these kids plates. Maybe it worked better with Stanford level recruits. For Michigan I think you'd want to dial it back and keep things more consistent and simple in the scheme. Brown has mostly had success doing this but is also trying to get more sophisticated with zone deployment -- may explain some of the struggles vs just going man to man on 90% of downs.
Offensively, the scheme is pretty simple. The passing game is too simple, in my opinion. But with the offensive line, the scheme hasn't been too difficult. It's the injuries and inconsistency that have bogged them down.
DeleteNotice on a few guys you have there years wrong. McGregor and Seldon are going to be RS fresh right
ReplyDeleteIn this here life they'll be sophomores. Eligibility in 2024 is irrelevant right now.
DeleteOne issue that should be noted given the concern about how few carries some of RBs received esp Zach: when u go 3 and out a lot, there aren’t going to be many carries to go around.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure RB carries per game is really down very much at all. Would guess it's in line with the Harbaugh offenses in years past and maybe up from Hoke/Rodriguez too.
DeleteAs with so many things about Michigan football - people will complain if you have RB depth and they will complain if you don't.
Charbonnet should probably transfer out. Wisconsin wanted him. Maybe there's a chance to still go there.
DeleteWell, there goes our starting Center
ReplyDeleteMaybe followed soon by Zach Charbonnet.
DeleteThere has to be some attrition from the running back room. There's no way around it.
DeleteAccording to Rivals there will likely be attrition of contributors from every position group. There are going to be a lot of strike-throughs in the next version of this post. Yikes.
ReplyDelete-Lank