Name: Chibi Anwunah
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 268 lbs.
High school: Canton (MI) Plymouth Christian
Position: Edge
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #95 #97
Last year: I ranked Anwunah #121 and said he would be a backup defensive end (LINK). He did not play.
TTB Rating: N/A
Anwunah has had a little bit of a ride during his college career so far, bouncing back and forth between the tight end and edge positions. Last year he was listed at 6'5" and 242 pounds, so he has put on 26 pounds since the previous weight update. That's a significant change and may indicate a little more readiness to play. At his height, it might be kind of difficult to see the field at 242, but 268 is a much more playable size.
The edge positions appear to be pretty set for this fall with Derrick Moore and Josaiah Stewart looking like the starters, and with people like Enow Etta, T.J. Guy, Cameron Brandt, and Kechaun Bennett all vying for playing time. Anwunah is unlikely to beat out many - if any - of those guys, but it's possible that he could get a few snaps if there are some blowout opportunities.
Prediction: Backup defensive end
Is this the preferred walk-on Edge who was getting some hype for being a high upside find?
ReplyDeleteGood story on the kid posted in the freep:
https://www.hometownlife.com/story/sports/2022/02/18/michigan-football-signs-plymouth-christian-defensive-end-chibi-anwunah/6834766001/
Basketball and track kid so you'd think there'd be some athletic upside untapped perhaps, but he grew up in Michigan so this is not an Ojabo or Welshof situation of still learning the game.
I kind of had the opposite thought about the weight gain. Stewart is 245. At that weight he is at now he maybe losing some speed, but maybe he's not really a pass-rush specialist type and more of a Wormley.
Anyway, nice kid to have on the depth chart as he sounds like he could be serviceable depth. Going forward in the portal era, it may make more sense to have PWOs like this on the roster relative to high school recruits who may be dipping after 1 year.
not the freep my bad
DeleteYes, he's the walk-on who had some people a little bit excited for his upside.
DeleteJosaiah Stewart is only 6'1" and plays the outside linebacker position; he's the replacement for Jaylen Harrell, who was 242 pounds.
Derrick Moore is 6'3" and 258 pounds, replacing Braiden McGregor, who was listed at 267 last year. So basically Anwunah is the same exact size as McGregor.
Semantics I guess but Harrell, who is 6'4, played EDGE and was drafted as an EDGE and was listed as an edge on his UMICH bio. Stewart was his primary backup and is now his replacement.
DeleteThey are no more or less EDGEs than bigger guys like McGregor or Rashan Gary (who is 277 pounds and frequently listed as a LB in the Packers system).
Going from Harrell's size to McGregor's size isn't necessarily a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to readiness to play. Michigan, like many other teams, tends to put a 240-250 pound guy at one EDGE spot and a 260-270 pound guy at the other EDGE spot. But they can rotate and switch pretty freely with various edges, some weighing more than 290 and some weighing less than 240.
Anwunah didn't have a meaningful playing time role last year at his lower weight so maybe this change will help him. There's some opening on the DL in general with Jenkins, Goode, McGregor, Harrell departing. The other 5 guys in the rotation will step up into bigger roles but they'll need a lot of help.
I'll add here that Harrell actually dropped weight in 2023 (from 246 to 242) according to the Michigan roster, putting him back to his weight in 2021. Stewart is slightly bigger.
DeletePer Stewart's Michigan bio:
"• Appeared in all 15 games at edge rusher; led all defensive linemen with 38 tackles including 8.5 for loss with 5.5 sacks and added three quarterback hurries and two pass breakups to earn his first varsity letter at Michigan "
They're different positions. It's been the case...well, forever, but since Michigan adopted the Ravens' defense, you have the DE (Hutchinson, Morris, McGregor) and the OLB (Ojabo, Harrell, Stewart).
DeleteLinebackers are linebackers, too...except there are strongside linebackers, middle linebackers, weakside linebackers, etc.
Neither the MIchigan program (as shown on mgoblue) or the NFL are making the OLB/defensive end distinction you are.
Delete---------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's a reason that the nomenclature has moved to EDGE. Just as there was a reason we stopped worrying about who was a split end and who was a flanker and just started talking about wide receivers more generally.
An EDGE has to be able to rush the passer from outside the tackle, stunt inside, hold the edge in the run game, defend a zone read in space, and drop into coverage. That's true if he's Mike Morris or Josh Uche. That's true regardless of specific individual traits. Roles vary from play to play and second to second. The EDGE on the open side is suddenly not, if the TE motions over.
Likewise, a specific defense might need to have a strong safety and a free safety on a given play, or even a majority of them, but most modern defenses are going to need to be multiple and Michigan's secondary in particular flips assignments depending on offensive alignment, not predetermined positions. There is no designated free safety or strong safety. Safeties are safeties. They all have to be ready to be the single high safety, play in quarters, match up in man, or rotate into the box.
You don't hear our coaches talk about who is the free/strong safety nor do you hear them talking about weak/strong/middle linebacker in the context of position groups or personnel. If they are it's in the context of specific playcalls, not personnel. Just like they might talk about right guard or a left corner back or a split end. It sometimes matters for the play, but you don't differentiate your personnel based on it.
Linebackers are linebackers -- we usually have 2 of them and they are mostly interchangeable. Safeties are safeties - we usually have 2 of them and they are mostly interchangeable. WRs are WRs - we usually have 2 of them and they are mostly interchangeable. The POSITIONS that are substantially different now from those are nickel (a hybrid DB who has to execute corner and safety duties) and a slot WR (which is arguably the same as a 3rd WR but some guys are limited in their skillsets so won't ever be used outside).
Don't worry I don't expect you to change your mind. I'll just note that the rosters and the coaches don't really talk about their positions this way. You won't hear Brian Jean Mary dividing his group by weak/middle personnel and viper no longer exists. He's got the linebackers, and he's telling them all the same stuff. You won't catch Ron Bellomy talking about his flankers and his split ends - he's telling them all the same stuff. And you won't see Lou Esposito setting aside his outside linebackers from his defensive ends, because he's telling them all the same stuff. You WILL hear Grant Newsome talking about tackles vs guards and centers. You WILL hear Steve Casula talking about fullbacks vs tight ends. Lamar Morgan wil talk corner, nickel, and safety. You WILL here about different responsibilities depending on the playcall.
Modern defenses have to be multiple - personnel and positions reflect that. EDGEs have to be OLB on one play and DE the next (and a ILB the next after that) so you have to distinguish the role for the playcall with the position on the roster.
Rosters won't tell much. For example, a roster might not distinguish between Left & Right Tackle either, whereas a dept chart more than likely will. Employment on the field tells the rest of the story, but one must "understand the game"
Deletehttps://mgoblog.com/content/depth-chart-class
https://www.detroitlions.com/team/depth-chart
Exactly JE. You can't play OT, you can only play LT or RT. Whether you play LT, RT, or both, you are an OT. You can't play WR you can only play split end, flanker, or slot. There are different positions on the field that cover the same skillset and guys can generally readily switch between them, so they get lumped together.
DeleteThere's some nuance between LT and RT sure, and on a given play call they can have totally different roles, but those roles can be flipped on the very next play. It matters somewhat which is the QBs blindside for example or if you tend to be righthanded or lefthanded in your strongside formations and playcalls, but the differences are less than 5% and the similarities are 95% so you're never going to see a person listed as a RT (and not a LT) when it comes to coaching position groups or drafting NFL players. Guys who play one side for a long time will get comfortable with a certain set of movements (just as there are left-handed and right-handed refrigerators) but the job is the job.
They're different positions on the field but the same personnel.
You might see a guy whose pass protection isn't elite but is great at run blocking framed as more of a RT than a LT, but that's based on assumption that the QB is right handed and his blindside is getting protected. Regardless of his skills, strengths, and limitations he's an OT. Period. He may lineup on the right or left side, but that depends on the team he is going to more than his characteristics.
In other words OTs are OTs, even if they are lining up at RT or LT.
--------------------------------------------------
We stopped differentiating between split end and flankers 40 years ago. It hung on in some circles for a while after it was dead, but it absolutely is all the way dead except in old people like us who remember the 80s. One WR still lines up on the line and another often lines up off the line so on the surface nothing has changed, so we could keep on with the charade of pretending that these are different positions but it stopped being useful a long time ago. So we stopped bothering to differentiate the two "positions". Nothing has been lost.
Finally, what we've seen evolve at Michigan and other places is that you want a continuum of skillsets along the DL. A guy who is 350 and eating up multiple blockers is useful, as is a 300 pound guy who can burst through gaps and hold his ground, as is a 290 pound guy who can toggle between interior and exterior at the drop of the hat, as is a 270 pound defensive end who fits best on the strongside, as is a 240 pound rush linebacker who works most often on the weakside, etc. They're all DL and we'd love to have a guy who fits every box but you don't need all of them every year to be excellent and many guys are going to check multiple boxes anyway as you put together your 8 or 9 person rotation. It's too fluid to say you need each of these players to fill a "position", but they are nice to have. After splitting between interior and edge it's really diminishing returns -- which is why Michigan doesn't bother doing it.
Rashan Gary can be a strongside defensive end, an ANCHOR, an edge rushing linebacker, or (probably) he could bulk up and move inside like his predecessor at Michigan - Chris Wormley did - playing NT and DT in the NFL at different times. Wormley, Gary, and Hutchinson all played the same position for Don Brown at Michigan. One way to see it is that this no longer extant DE/Anchor spot at Michigan covered 5 different positions, another is to just say it's an EDGE position. The latter is more accurate.
Just like saying Myles Hinton is an OT is more accurate than saying he is a LT or RT.
@ Lank 4:39 p.m.
DeleteYou do this way too much, Lank. You take a simple concept and try to make it extremely complicated. Here is a conversation I can guarantee you never happens in the coaches' meetings rooms:
Esposito: "Hey, Wink, what position do you want me to put Josaiah Stewart at?"
Martindale: "Edge."
Esposito: "Yeah, I mean, I know that, but...like...what side?"
Martindale: "Either one. I don't care. Doesn't matter."
Esposito: "Okay, but if you had to choose, where would you put him?"
Martindale: "On the field somewhere. But not in the middle. On the edge."
Esposito: "Like...wide side? Boundary side? Over the tight end? To the open side?"
Martindale: "Doesn't matter. He's an edge. That's what the roster says, so that's what I'm sticking to. The roster is like the Bible, but stricter. The Ghost of Fritz Crisler will strike me down if I stray from the roster."
Esposito: "Ohhhh...got it! Yeah, the roster is pretty powerful. I'll just throw Josaiah and Derrick Moore out there, and hopefully they don't end up standing right on top of each other thinking they're both supposed to be on the same edge! Hahahaha! Good talk, Wink. Now I see why you've been so successful at the NFL level."
I think I'm trying to make it simpler actually. EDGEs are EDGEs. Linebackers are linebackers. Safeties are safeties.
DeleteFull circle to the point for Edges like Anwunah -- 240 pounds isn't worse than 260 pounds inherently.
Hopefully it's better for him tho!