Previously: Podcast 11.0A, Podcast 11.0B, Podcast 11.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver.

Depth Chart

Fullback	Yr.	Tight End	Yr.
Ben VanSumeren	Fr.*	Sean McKeon	Jr.*
Ben Mason	Jr.	Nick Eubanks	Jr.*
--	--	Mustapha Muhammad	Fr.*

For eight solid years this section started off with a fine-grained sifting of various blocky/catchy guys into bins, because manball. No more. Ol' Murderface is (mostly) a 270-pound DT. Josh Gattis insists his offense doesn't have a fullback, and the distinction between a "tight end" as a glorified offensive lineman and a "flex TE" as a whiz-bang downfield guy is pointless now. All tight ends are flex.

RIP, annual explanation of the fine gradations of blocky/catchy. RIP.

This preview is still going to designate a fullback because Harbaugh mentioned that Ben Mason was going to get some time on offense, and if this happens he will be used as a hammer. The fine distinctions are gone. Despite that, this position remains as critical as ever. In a spread-to-run world the tight end has a ton on his plate.

TIGHT END: THE TESLA EFFECT

RATING: 4

McKeon (#84, left) was Patterson's arc sidekick [Patrick Barron]

SEAN MCKEON broke into the open field against Wisconsin, but instead of waving his hand in the air for a pass he was seeking someone to hit. A baffled cornerback presented himself. McKeon shoved him and continued on, arcing outside. He eventually caught linebacker Ryan Connelly and knocked him over; 81 yards and a couple of goal-line plays later Michigan had broken a zero-zero stalemate.

McKeon had just signed up for a whole offense.

[After THE JUMP: blockin'. Murderin'?]

These days when you're talking about tight ends you're usually talking about a guy with crazy gumby arms with a planetary catching radius, and then at the end you get a paragraph or two about how he's generally in the way when he's asked to block. McKeon is an exception to the rule. His 2018 was all about blocking. After Penn State, when he put up a +11-10=1 UFR grade:

The sheer quantity of grading both guys came in for is remarkable. I don't know if I've ever had 21 total points for a single TE before and there's no way 35 between two TEs has ever happened. There was a ton on their plate as Michigan continually attacked PSU's DEs, who were very bad against the run, and did all that split zone and arc frippery.

It wasn't going to be, to start. This space had flashbacks to the bad old Borges days after the Notre Dame game, when Michigan repeatedly attempted to run shotgun zone plays that looked like they had a mesh point but read nobody. This went about as well as it did when Borges was around. But Harbaugh is, as ever, willing to throw over something that's not working. We covered a chunk of this when talking about Patterson; we did not talk about how much got tossed on Sean McKeon's plate in-season. It was a lot.

First he was Patterson's personal protector on arc reads. This went fine. But when Warinner put in a bunch of stuff designed to play off the arc, McKeon had issues executing it. This (along with Patterson's still-developing sense of when to pull) was a major reason Michigan's ground game didn't pay off like it should have against MSU:

McKeon's pulls across the formation went badly more often than not. This looks for all the world like a trap that's going to get a chunk until McKeon runs by the DT:

#84 TE pulling left

That could be a Ruiz error but given the context my bet is it's on McKeon. Even if it is Ruiz you should probably hit the giant green thing in front of your face

The reason you'd pass that up? You've been doing a ton of arc blocking where you do skip the giant green thing in front of your face.

Sometimes he'd release, and read the situation just fine, but he'd take bad angle. He felt uncomfortable, uncertain. Here he releases to the safety, but he's taken a step or two inside and ends up getting nothing on a guy he had a free run on:

McKeon's checking the LB level to make sure no one's hauling for the QB; no one is. McKeon makes the read but as he's doing so he's drifting inside is taking him inside, and then he gets unproductively aggressive in response. There were just too many plays where McKeon pulled across the formation and then was unable to block anyone because he was running an arc instead of a play that looks like an arc:

This is our concern, dude.

McKeon's improvement was rapid. Just a couple weeks later he had a near-flawless game against Indiana:

After a couple weeks of complaints that McKeon wasn't pulling tight to the line when he came across on certain plays, he executed that from the drop:

#84 TE pulling across formation

This was another particularly good instance of McKeon seeing what was in front of him. He checks two options that aren't a threat before extending to the safety:

The quoted section above about how McKeon making contact "almost always goes well" is worth emphasizing. Last year—as a redshirt freshman!—McKeon was in the 90th percentile as a run blocker, per PFF. That continued into 2018; a large majority of the negatives he got in UFR were for mental errors like the above. As an inline guy he got work done:

TE #84, end man on line to top of screen

TE #84 to bottom of screen

His run blocking grade dropped there as it did here, but a hypothetical "run block grade when McKeon IDs a guy to go hit" would have improved incrementally.

And then there's the bit that leads most TE evaluation these days: catching the ball. McKeon was by far Michigan's most boring and least efficient option last year. While Gentry and Eubanks were wooping it up with 16 and 18 yards per catch, respectively, and 11 yards per target, McKeon was almost exclusively targeted on short stuff. His yards per catch was worse than every non-RB except slot chain-mover Grant Perry, and his yards per target of 4.7 is… rough.

I only clipped four receiving events for McKeon all year. One was a screen, one a tough catch in the flat. The other two were McKeon dropping a deep out that hit him in the chest and stopping his route to disastrous effect:

Despite being near omnipresent McKeon got just over half of Gentry's targets. This is an area for improvement.

The weird thing is that McKeon looked promising as a redshirt freshman. That was the QB disaster year; even so last year's preview featured some impressive clips, including McKeon lining up as an outside receiver to good effect.

He had a ton of production in O'Korn's Flowers For Algernon game, and felt like the kind of smooth athlete who can run away from linebackers. Because he was running away from linebackers.

McKeon doesn't have to be the boring guy in the flat. Back in high school he had the top SPARQ number of any tight end his year with a verified 4.6 and a 32-inch vertical. He's flashed that on occasion, and now the 6'8" guy who runs just as fast as him is a Steeler. Michigan will give him every opportunity to take the receiving mantle, especially after his offseason drew the kind of praise you don't always get about a returning starter:

"When you look at our tight ends – obviously Sean McKeon had one of the best springs I’ve ever seen of a tight end,” Gattis said. “I was really excited about it. He was probably one of our top two offensive players in the spring. Just consistent in everything that he did."

Sherrone Moore was even more enthusiastic:

"[Eubanks and McKeon] have been phenomenal this spring. Especially Sean. Sean as a blocker has been really good, as he’s always been, but his receiving ability—catching the ball in traffic, making the hard catch, making competitive catches to the point where Khaleke [Hudson] came up to me and said, ‘Man, Sean’s gotten so much better.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, he has.’ It’s a credit to him and what he’s done this offseason. He really hasn’t had ay drops. He’s going to pluck the ball, he’s going to make competitive catches so I’m really proud of him as a receiver."

He's flashed the ability, and his Dumb Flat Routes 2018 was understandable in context. He's got a shot at being a real threat down the seam. Like everyone else, targets might be hard to come by, but if there's anyone who is looking forward to Gattis's offense it's the tight end who's a blocking threat in an offense that suddenly turns those guys into hand-wavingly wide open dudes downfield.

McKeon should at least be an A- blocker in year two of a spread to run ground game. His receiving chops are much murkier. It's a reasonable expectation that he'll get up to 25-30 catches and radically improve his per-target efficiency. These days you need the whiz-bang reception stats to get All Whatever attention, and McKeon isn't likely to pop up on those lists. If his ability to target his blocks bounces back I wouldn't be surprised if PFF beat the drum for him as an All-American. Probably he ends up short of that because he's not going to be an elite receiver.

BACKUPS

Never bunt, hit dingers [Bryan Fuller]

Junior NICK EUBANKS [recruiting profile] is TE #2 without much competition. He got a fair amount of playing time last year, which he spent alternately dorfing too many blocks and catching bombs. Going into the Ohio State game he was averaging 25 yards a catch on, uh, six catches. It was a little disappointing to see him catch enough short stuff at the tail end of the season to get his average under 20.

Eubanks is the one guy who might miss Pep Hamilton, because when he caught passes he was blitheringly wide open about 80% of the time:

The exception was Patterson throwing the Mitch Leidner memorial back-shoulder corner route at him in the Northwestern game. Eubanks displayed good body control to adjust to an extremely nonstandard ball:

Other than that he didn't really have many opportunities to impress. His career highlight remains his first catch, which came against Florida in 2017. Eubanks is running by NFL-level dudes in the secondary here:

That paid off much of the recruiting hype, which was that he was a hyper athletic large person still learning how to do football things.

He also paid off the other half of that. Eubanks's blocking was rough last year. He was –8 on low volume—by far the worst performance of any blocker who saw meaningful time a year ago. Airballs were common.

TE #82 to bottom of line

So were mental errors. Tru Wilson drew praise for rescuing some weird blocking against SMU, and that weird blocking was Eubanks changing his mind mid-play. Most mentions of him on the site mentioned both sides of his game:

…made a couple nice catches; I think he had a couple of run game biffs. The Joe Gaziano TFL in the second half saw Eubanks go to the second level immediately and Owneu get run by because he couldn't get there in time; I don't think that's on Onwenu, but rather Michigan not blocking a first level defender.

Fixing this is going to be crucial for Eubanks's playing time. This is no longer an offense that's going to have a ton of 2 TE snaps, so if he wants to play he's going to have to do some blocking things. The coaches have certainly put that onus on Eubanks in press conferences. Moore this spring:

“And Nick, Nick has always kind of had that natural receiving ability but he’s taken a step in the run game to help himself and he really wants to be more physical and do those things.”

McKeon is plenty capable of eating up a vast majority of TE snaps if Eubanks doesn't get this portion of his game in shape. So far so good under Gattis…

“Nick Eubanks is guy that had tremendous talent. He had a spring where it was kind of a learning adjustment for him. Didn’t quite fine-tune all the details, but showed his athletic ability. We really challenged Nick coming out of spring, and to see where Nick is today – those two guys, I believe, are hands down the best tight ends in the country, Sean McKeon and Nick Eubanks. Nick is playing at an unbelievable level right now, throughout this camp.”

…but even there you see the uncertainty. When you are "really challenged" out of spring you are in a spot, and it is not the spot they want you to be at. A couple weeks in fall camp are promising. They are not definitive. Eubanks is thus one of the bigger X-factors on the offense, a guy who could fade away into a role similar to the one he had last year where he pops up to catch a bomb from time to time while causing facepalms with his blocking. Or he could be an NFL-level prospect.

a gift from the headline gods, this kid [Bryan Fuller]

This preview believes that the shift to a real spread with a 4.3 40 kind of H-back means that nearly all meaningful TE snaps will be absorbed by McKeon and Eubanks. Reinforcing that belief is the fact that of the other three TEs on the roster, it's true freshman ERICK ALL [recruiting profile] who's drawn the lion's share of the talk that gets this far down the depth chart. All is listed at 229 pounds, which makes him a jumbo wide receiver.

Your author believes he should just be a jumbo wide receiver, because [gestures at roster]. Also All can almost certainly hack it. At 6'4" All turned in a 4.2 shuttle and a 35 inch vertical at his Opening regional. His 40 wasn't in the same class, but if you've got change of direction and long arms and a big vert, I mean… yeah. That'll work.

And it seems like it is. You can't throw a rock without hitting someone who's talked up All's receiving chops, from Bill Greene ("is going to get open, and he is going to catch the football. PERIOD.") to Steve Lorenz (…"already on the short list for best hands on the team") to Rivals ("might have the best hands of anyone on the roster"). Sherrone Moore had high praise for him in both phases:

"The kid is just extremely tough and he does some things for a freshman that you don't really expect… He's as tough as they are, he's physical and he catches everything. He has suction hands. He's going to be a really good player for us."

And this anonymous source is similarly hyped:

"His hands are probably the second best on the team behind Nico (Collins)," a source recently told 247Sports. "He and Josh Metellus had some great battles downfield throughout spring and there were a few times that All would just stick out his hand and grab the ball with little to no effort. He has the potential to be great."

All has also drawn praise for his willingness to block. There was a fairly hefty section of his recruiting profile that drew a contrast between All and Devin Funchess, the obvious comparable, because All gave his, uh, all as a blocker. So he could be a tight end once he fills out some more. But [gestures at roster]. Anyway.

Muhammad is now the beefiest TE on the roster [Bryan Fuller]

Redshirt freshmen MUSTAPHA MUHAMMAD [recruiting profile] and LUKE SCHOONMAKER [recruiting profile] have not drawn much discussion outside of press conference answers where literally everyone at a spot gets a shout-out. For Schoonmaker this is obvious. He was a high school quarterback out of Connecticut with great taste in whiteboard quotes…

…and virtually no shot at contributing early. He's still working his way up to TE weight, which is considerable at 6'6". Ask again next year.

Muhammad has drawn a little more mention, with Gattis asserting he's "had a really good camp" about a week in this fall and Lorenz saying he's "very likely to play" since he's "further along in the weight room" than much of his competition. Muhammad is up to 261 and is the heaviest TE on the roster, which might give him a role in short yardage. It kind of feels like it'll be another year for him, too. Harbaugh in spring:

…Muhammad is in a backup role right now. He needs to be more consistent, and will be a big factor for us once he does.

Muhammad was a big-time recruit who Michigan snapped away from home-state Texas and others and might get an opportunity to flash that.

FULLBACK: ONE MORE TIME WE'RE GONNA MURDERATE?

RATING: 4

i mean [Patrick Barron]

This preview is all about moving to the spreadiest spread that ever spread, and has been virtually since its inception. But even your author isn't letting go of BEN MASON, short yardage destructor, without a fight. Look, here's a quote from Harbaugh this spring!

"Ben Mason is backing up (DT Donovan) Jeter. … He’s also starting at this hybrid running back-tight end position that we have on the team."

There have been conflicting reports about how much time Mason might get on offense now that he's 270 pounds. That's all the better to hammer people with but may end up taking away from Mason's ability to put himself in the correct gap. I'm guessing hurdles are off the table.

But last year it was dumb to do any short yardage things without Ben Mason.

This preview feels like it might be dumb to do short yardage things without Ben Mason this year, and that Michigan needs to keep Mason in its back pocket when things get constricted. Josh Gattis doesn't want to say he has a fullback, so fine, call him a tight end or a running back or a Zomboback or whatever, but make him an option.

This is actually the continuation of a complaint from last year. After five games spanning from WMU to Maryland in which he put up +5, +2, +4.5, +7, and +5.5 Mason virtually evaporated from the offense. He got a few carries here and there; the adoption of the arc blocking system saw him dropped from his fullback role. I get that to some extent but it was a little disappointing Michigan couldn't work him in from time to time instead of Gentry or Eubanks. Solutions are probably not forthcoming.

But it would be nice to see if the VanSumeren/Mason I-form paves as much as you think it might.