Previously: Podcast 15.0A, 15.0B, 15.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Interior OL. Offensive Tackle.

EDGE: BETWEEN TWO AND SIX

  Depth Chart

HEAVY	Yr.	NOSE	Yr.	TACKLE	Yr.	OPEN	Yr.
Braiden McGregor	Jr.*	Mason Graham	So.	Kris Jenkins	Jr*	Jaylen Harrell	Jr*
Derrick Moore	So.	Kenneth Grant	So.	Rayshaun Benny	So*	Josiah Stewart	Jr
Kechaun Bennett	So.*	Cam Goode	6th			TJ Guy	So*

To the surprise of only Jim Harbaugh, Michigan did not, in fact, just replace the greatest defensive end pairing in school history. While team sacks (37) in 2022 marginally increased from 2021 (34), Jesse Minter’s zone blitzes, contributions from the back seven, and atrocious competition (CSU and Indiana gave up 7 sacks each) had far more to do with that than the edges. Michigan used a rotation of six guys and four starters with disparate skillsets who played between 200 and 500 snaps for new DL coach Mike Elston. Mike Morris was a Guy until his ankle got crumpled in the last quarter before the Illinois-OSU-B10-CFP gauntlet; everybody else was definitively Not Hutchinson or Ojabo.

Morris was one of only two Michigan players with more than four sacks last season and got drafted. The other was 4+ sack man was late transfer Eyabi Okie, who was optioned to AAA Charlotte in the offseason. The guy who stepped on Morris's ankle was another playing time transfer. The other half of last year's edges will be joined by an undersized Looney Toon from the portal, age up a year, and probably comprise a four-man rotation whose performance falls somewhere between last year's six and the two from before them.

Depending whom you ask Michigan has between zero and five distinct positions at edge. For the sake of preview formatting we're going to separate them into "OPEN" (aka SAM Edge aka Weakside), which includes pass-rushier side of their 4-down fronts and the LB/DE hybrid role in their 3-down fronts, and "HEAVY" (aka Anchor, aka SDE, aka Closed), which is the guy usually lining up over the TE's side. Don't get too hung up on the differences; they talk about more positions so they can name more starters, but in practice they might play two Open edges or two Heavies, or two opens and a heavy for a passing down, or what have you.

OPEN EDGE: I HAVE TO TRUST YOU

RATING: 3.

15 yards for attempt to meme. [Bryan Fuller]

Ask Michigan who's their best defensive end and they'll unanimously tell you it's JAYLEN HARRELL [recruiting profile]. He led all Michigan edges in snaps by over a hundred last year. Talk from the program this offseason has been boringly positive team leader stuff with a side of "he's rounding out his game." Jim Harbaugh says he's "really becoming a complete player" after characterizing him as a run-stopper. Jesse Minter, who has Rod Moore, Kris Jenkins, Will Johnson, and two 6th year seniors on his roster, called Harrell the "most consistent" player on it.

…how he plays down after down, play after play," Minter said. "Versus the run and the pass. Very technical. I was actually meeting with him earlier today, he is one of the most self-made players in our program. He was a MIKE linebacker in high school. Moved him to the edge and the work ethic, the way he trains, the way he goes about his business, the way he studies other players, off the charts. Unbelievable. He became a force for us last year. It doesn't always show up in stats but his consistency, his ability to set the edge, his ability to be really disciplined in moments like that."

Draft people think Harrell's a 6th rounder and about the 13th edge defender. Dane Brugler has Harrell his sixth-best draft-eligible underclassman, behind four five-stars and one spot ahead of another. This may be the biggest lie of the offseason, because in almost no sense of the word is Harrell an "underclassman." He sat out 2020 but has been a platoon starter since 2021, even getting more snaps than Ojabo against Georgia.

[After THE JUMP: Clearly the charting is wrong.]

The reason for this is Michigan plays a Ravens-style defense that requires its ends to keep everything inside of them, and Jaylen Harrell does not get edged.

Such consistency alone is enough to earn consistent playing time on a championship-caliber defense, effusive coach praise, and draft talk.

Unfortunately consistency alone is what Harrell brings to the table. His coverage is good for a DE, but not in the linebacker distribution. He lacks the speed, dip, size, and athleticism to be any kind of danger as a pass-rusher. As a result, the kind of external grading that focuses on events more than who's showing up to them thinks Harrell's right in the middle of mediocre. PFF gave him a 62 and 69 overall for the last two years, where anything about 70 is decent. They weren't alone.

2022 Jaylen Harrell
Opponent	Snaps	+	-	Tot	Notes
Colorado State	28	10.5	2.5	+8	Pass rush events mostly pushing that RT. Owned edge.
Hawai'i	20	4	1	+3	Has more versatility than other main Edge competitors.
Connecticut	31	7.5	3.5	+4	Sets a marvelous edge, not remotely a pass-rusher.
Maryland	50	7	9.5	-2.5	He's part of the pass-rushing issue.
Iowa	39	4	3	+1	Presence not felt.
Indiana	36	8.5	4.5	+4	Overall good but can he hold off…
Penn State	23	6	1	+5	Ojemudia-esque weapon vs zone reads.
Michigan State	23	1.5	4	-2.5	Not his kind of game.
Rutgers	0	0	0	-	DNP
Nebraska	22	2	3.5	-1.5	Cannot pass rush, not in for enough runs to matter there.
Illinois	45	2	8	-6	Bopped.
Ohio State	61	9	5	+4	My apologies, King.
Purdue	40	5	3.5	+1.5	Not an issue, bonked once.
TCU	48	4	7	-3	Pretty good for him, takes bad steps in pass rush.
2022 TOTALS	466	71	56	+15

As with OL, we're looking for a 2-to-1 ratio to be called effective. Harrell was more like a 1.5-to-1 player who was hard to fool and hard to see unless you're giving him a free shot inside your tight end.

The main difference between us and PFF is I thought Harrell was pretty solid against OSU, and PFF had that as his worst game, though his consistency was such that by "worst" they they only gave him a 57. My take after that game was Michigan had Harrell pretend to be a C-minus-at-everything player all season to long play Ryan Day.

Ryan Day, MGoBlog Reader, was absolutely convinced that Harrell was the weak spot he wanted to attack on 4th down. The plan here is to get the tight end blocking then sneaking out with Harrell none the wiser. Wide open tight end, easy catch, big long gain on 4th & short, everybody hails Ryan Day, Football Genius. Except if Day actually had read MGoBlog this year he'd know the one thing Harrell absolutely doesn't do is give up easy –2 mistakes. The tight end leaks out, Harrell goes with him, and even a perfect pass doesn't connect because the second the ball touches the TE's hands Harrell is tackling, adding a whole 'nother round of physics to the equation.

#32 DE on the bottom

Still, congrats to me for executing a flawless long play on Ohio State. I did not get owned by Jaylen Harrell. Please do not put in the newspaper that I got owned.

Jesse Minter referenced the play above as the moment that turned momentum in The Game, so Jansen asked Harrell about it.

“that wasn't even my man … I felt it, because of the way he blocked out on me, it wasn't like a normal — like a base block. And I know when he blocks me, the safety is going to trigger. So after he blocked me I was like, ‘I just gotta go with him.’ So I just stayed on him and covered him. … It was 4th-and-1, so he’s triggering. … I got that same play my sophomore year, Washington, in the red zone. I remembered that play. So I was like, ‘Nah, I’ve gotta stay on him.’ That was the same exact play.”

So it was.

Harrell's remarkable ability to not allow anything large explains why they're unbothered by limitations that became a persistent source of things small.

#32 DE on the top

As a run defender Harrell was the guy consistently getting to the right spot before somebody bodily ejected him from it.

This was in stark contrast to his five platoonmates (not to mention the two from 2021) who routinely caved in that block, even if they arrived to it later.

The one thing Harrell was categorically Bad at was pass-rushing. This is coming from a second-year charter whose first year was Ojabo-Hutchinson, but I've imbibed the UFR grading of every rusher since 2006 and can't remember an edge so consistently wiped out by non-elite tackles. When it was Harrell's turn to benefit from a blitz or stunt, it almost invariably became the other team's turn to convert a 3rd and long.

The "I have to stop denying it" moment was Eyabi Okie stepping on the field and ruining a pair of Terps who'd kept Harrell quiet all day.

Again, these issues appeared to be mostly physical. Despite some high school scouting that argues otherwise, Harrell has none of the proverbial "Bend" that made Uche and Ojabo so tough to handle. Harrell hasn't the size to bull rush like Mike Morris, nor the length to keep linemen from his chest. Two of Harrell's 3.5 sacks from last year were complements of Purdue's injury plague at right tackle…

…and the other 1.5 were generated against the atrocious lines of CSU and Indiana (the latter wiped out because Harrell wiped his nose afterwards, which is the softest penalty I think I've ever seen).

The reason Michigan could get away with this was that good-enough coverage. Harrell was three times as likely as his platoonmates to drop into a short zone, which opened up Minter's blitz book.

Also that shoulder at the end was a potential game-saver if the hold wasn't called. You can see why they like him.

The goal for this year was to get stronger against those bonks and refine his pass-rushing to something close to passable. There's a lot of talk that the latter was achieved, but Harrell came back the same weight he was last year, and 7 pounds bigger than his listed weight in high school. He's probably close to his ceiling as a role player, which in this defense is that of a Mario Ojemudia who can be trusted to babysit an edge while others go out for dinner.

MAYBE I CAN HELP?

Does this make me look taller? [Barron]

Since Harrell is unlikely to threaten anyone past the Ulizios of Indian, finding a bona fide weakside rusher in the portal was near the top of the offseason shopping list. Pickings were slim, but Michigan realized they had a connection to Sainristil high school teammate/Coastal Carolina up-transfer JOSIAH STEWART [transfer profile], and moved in rapidly with USC and LSU behind them. Quick googling told Michigan fans this guy had 13 sacks as a true freshman, and flipping to the video tab quickly confirmed they were of the "things flying everywhere" variety:

Stewart was a young-for-his grade 2021 who was committed to BC until a late coaching change forced him to find a landing spot. He produced 12.5 sacks, and via PFF 41 pressures, as a true freshman before falling back to Earth in sacks (3.5) and pressures (uh, 40) as a sophomore. That coincided with dropping 15 pounds and a quasi-position change, as Coastal made Stewart the Jack when they switched to a Stunt 4-3 system.

The nutshell on Stewart is he's as rascally as a carnivorous marsupial, and barely larger than one. His evocative nickname "Taz" paints a picture of a low-stature, high-motor chaos machine. Both he and his coaches describe Stewart more like tiny forklift CMU transfer Mike Danna. Minter in fall:

“It sounds crazy, but he is a very, very powerful rusher and a powerful edge setter because of his ability to play with leverage on people.”

It didn't sound crazy at all actually because we saw it literally in the first play of the Spring Game.

Stewart set about deflating our hopes for backup OT Tristan Bounds while setting an edge as well as Harrell and flashing a lot more speed. Lorenz called him Josh Uche in 247's preseason podcast, then doubled down when fall camp started.

How that projects past the Sun Belt and Michigan's 3rd line OL is an open question, but the short history of the portal suggests the exchange rate for pass-rushers is strong.

• • Ochaun Mathis went from 73 and 69 pass rush grades his last two years at TCU to a 78 at Nebraska.
  • Jared Verse went from an 84 at *Albany* to an 87 at FSU.
  • Jared Ivey was a 72 both years at Georgia Tech and a 74 last year at Ole Miss.
  • Kameron Butler was a 77 his last two years at Miami (no not THAT Miami) and a 69 at Virginia.
  • Lonnie Phelps was a 91 for Miami (NNTM) and 83 for Kansas.
  • The Murphy twins were a 90 and 91 at North Texas and an 87 and 82 for UCLA, respectively.
  • Okie had a 67 grade at Tennessee-Martin and a 76 grade for Michigan.
  • Antonio Moultrie was a 67 and 64 at UAB and a 73 at Miami (yes THAT Miami).

Transfer rankings are a new business but Stewart was #70 overall and the #3 Edge to 247, which is the site we tend to stan for most. On3 had him ranked higher overall but behind six other edges, while Rivals ranked him the #62 player in the portal but the #7 linebacker. Dane Brugler had Stewart two spots lower than Harrell—at #8—on his list of underclassman edges.

Michigan's Ravens-style is the polar opposite of the Stunt 43, but now listed at 6'1"/245 (Coastal had him at 6'2"/230 last year), Stewart seems ready to be more than a situational pass-rusher. Expect a relatively even split with Harrell that varies based on opponent, with Harrell getting a greater share of 5-2 OLB work and Stewart's usage leaning towards four-man pass rushing situations. My stupid prediction is he leads the team with 7.5 sacks.

BACKUPS

Michigan is likely rotating through the two guys above and the two guys who head the next section, but when a fifth edge is mentioned it's usually TJ GUY [recruiting profile]. One of the last gifts of Don Brown's eye, Guy showed signs of being a Dude as a redshirting freshman with that one impressive rush vs Taulia Tagovailoa, followed by some Harrellian edge defense in the spring game and non-conf walkovers last year. PFF actually had him Michigan's second-most effective DE (with a 74.7), albeit over fewer than 50 snaps. If Guy had bend he'd probably be a Dude, but Guy has more size than Harrell, and reputedly brings a similar game, as attested by last year's faint charting.

2022 TJ Guy
Opponent	Snaps	+	-	Tot	Notes
Colorado State	3	1	0	+1	Just one play but good vibe with this one.
Hawai'i	27	4	1	+3	Harrell but a few more linebacker genes.
Connecticut	6	2	1	+1	Harrell in training.
Purdue	5	2	0	+2	Two good edges set late.

Also in quasi-LB backups, Guy classmate and former ILB TYLER MCLAURIN has reportedly bulked up. The freshmen who project to the open side are all long-term projects.

ANCHOR/HEAVY: WHERE THE F_(X) = 2^X

RATING: 4

Yes that is a full sleeve Space Bitches. [Patrick Barron]

If looking like Aidan Hutchinson meant anything, BRAIDEN MCGREGOR [recruiting profile] would be in the Heisman discussion already. They're both Michiganders, similarly ranked, similar uncommon bend and quick feet. They're both three-sport lacrosse players (Aidan: hoops, Braiden: hockey). Their first names rhyme. They are the same height. They have the same tight end-y build. They have the same color hair. McGregor's #17 is annoyingly easy to mistake for a #97 in 2021 vintage mp4s. I'm not alone; refs gave him the Hutchinson treatment, fans couldn't tell them apart in the parking lot, and people in the program were telling Braiden they just saw him a moment ago.

“[Minter] is like, ‘Man, you have what it takes. It’s all mentality. You’re the same size as Aidan. You run pretty similar times. You have the same physical tools, and you saw what he did with it, so it’s your turn.’”

Some people take the comparison too far. Dr. Chris Hutchinson points out that his son doesn't have tattoos, keeps his hair shorter, and doesn't go so hard with the eye black.  Also Aidan Hutchinson had a broken leg in 2020 that he had to come back from, but by that point we already had a promising 2019 and a few 2020 performances that were on par with the 2021 romp.

McGregor's injury was vastly more serious. He tore the MCL, PCL and meniscus in his right knee. It wiped out his last year of high school and first year of college. The following year he played just enough to burn a redshirt, but he was far from back. Last year was the first we could expect to see anything, but we didn't really see it until the end when Mike Morris was injured for the Illinois-TCU part of the schedule. Illinois didn't go so hot, but we thought we detected a breakout against Ohio State.

McGregor's coaches and teammates did too, and are using that as a basis to build hype.

Zinter:

It didn't even cross my mind to name him most improved because I feel like he had that last year. … He's definitely going to have That Year.

Colson:

“Oh, yeah. You’re about to see something crazy this year. He’s about to have a crazy type of year. He’s stepped into his own. He believes in himself and you can tell he has all the traits and tools to be great.”

Harbaugh:

He's the next guy. He's the guy that's on the verge of of stardom.

McGregor told Alejandro Zuniga he finally felt like his confidence returned against Ohio State (uh, yeah), and told Jon Jansen it was because he wasn't thinking about the leg anymore. The charting supports this timeline.

2022 Braiden McGregor
Opponent	Snaps	+	-	Tot	Notes
Colorado State	12	6	5	+1	Hands are great, lower body strength way behind.
Hawai'i	14	6	5	+1	Most likely to beat a blocker then miss a tackle.
Connecticut	23	7	0.5	+6.5	Losing sacks to uncalled holding is very Hutchinson.
Maryland	24	8.5	3	+5.5	Finishing still a thing, still probably ready for bigger role.
Iowa	10	0	1	-1	Probably wasn't his kind of opponent.
Indiana	10	4	0	+4	Won his reps vs bad OL, dwindling snap count though.
Penn State	5	0	0	-	In late, DNC.
Michigan State	8	4	0	+4	Hello again.
Rutgers	9	1	0	+1	Similar day to Moore.
Nebraska	4	0.5	0	+0.5	Unimpactful few snaps.
Illinois	20	4.5	5	-0.5	Tryout results: Still not big enough.
Ohio State	27	11	2	+9	Stepped up.
Purdue	34	7	1	+6	Purdue OTs weren't good but he looked ready to start.
TCU	20	6	2	+4	Michigan's best DE today. Offseason hype: Go.
2022 TOTALS	220	65.5	24.5	+41	A 2.7-to-1 ratio: Good!

Even the post-TCU "Offseason hype: Go" prediction was a cheat, since the hype train left the station in Columbus. When all his parts are working McGregor has the capability to deliver a Hutchinson-shaped body to places Harrell can't get to.

Over the course of last season I was working on a theory that McGregor was working on his upper body while waiting for the knee parts to knit themselves back together, creating an upperclassman on a pair of freshman legs. There were many times he'd whip a tackle with an upper-body move only for his feet to be going somewhere else, and you'd wonder what kinds of plays he might be making if that right leg would just plant a little bit faster.

For some guys it's just a question of their athleticism but when McGregor says it's just a matter of getting his body to trust itself again, this tracks, because when he's not thinking he moves around like a linebacker, or at least enough of one that his size is too much to get around.

Here I also want to point out that McGregor pals around with Zinter, Keegan, and Nugent, and is part of the senior cadre the staff is comfortable putting in front of a forest of microphones. The head, after all, is above the torso.

He has very few mental minuses in our charting; most of his –1s are from falling down or shooting too far inside. McGregor wouldn't get bonked out of the play like Harrell, and that's probably why one played 51% of Michigan's edge snaps and the other had three fewer snaps than a true freshman. Given the distribution of those snaps and the four-game sample after Morris went down, I'd buy that last year was the redshirt freshman campaign and this one's the breakout. We're not predicting Hutchinson—that would be irresponsible—but I'd buy that McGregor has passed the inflection point. I'd even buy that he's going to start all season, if not for that true freshman.

CHECK YOUR PRIVELEGE

Blubberin' Bert might have a point. [Barron]

One benefit of winning championships and going to the Playoff is you become more attractive to a certain caliber of player. For years your Alabamas and Ohio States got locked in a cycle of winning, graduating 3rd year players to the NFL, and replacing them with playable 5-stars who'll be ready to start for a championship team in Year 2 and go high in the draft in Year 3.

DERRICK MOORE [recruiting profile] is one of those guys. Because he went to St. Frances, (Biff Poggi, Blake Corum et al.) Michigan was talking to him before and after he committed to Oklahoma. A few things happened then. Michigan also beat Ohio State 42-27, won the Big Ten, and went to its first Playoff. In the process, David Ojabo morphed from raw foreigner to (pre-injury) 1st rounder. Michigan's 2021 edge class fell apart in December while Moore obliterated an All-America week, ultimately winning MVP of the UA game. The last bit was Lincoln Riley leaving for USC. Moore shook loose, Michigan closed in, and by spring ball they had One of Those Guys. He also checked in at 279 pounds.

Mass has a quality of its own. This didn't seem to be a problem. In contrast to Harrell, Moore's method for edge control was less about getting to a spot than making a mess of it.

Remember my main complaint about Harrell's run defense last year was when someone came across the formation, Jaylen didn't have the oomph to hold his ground without perfect technique. This wasn't a problem for Moore, even when he didn't get the leverage he's supposed to.

Here he actually ended up on the wrong side an Iowa tight end, but put that guy so far in the backfield it didn't matter:

#8 DE on the top

You'll note a lot of these clips are against tight ends and teams with bad OL: Iowa, Hawai'i, Indiana, Purdue's RT, PSU's RG, Maryland's LT who should have been a G, CSU, oh lord CSU…

But if you're looking for reasons Michigan kept rolling out Harrell and Upshaw last year, it's pretty obvious they didn't yet trust Moore to get wide and set an edge.

That's understandable when you're talking about a 280-pound true freshman. His game was mostly made out of physicality, which was murder on anyone not equipped for it.

More capable blockers and the nuances of the Big Ten's particular aversion to flagging holding didn't shut Moore down, but they did make him human.

2022 Derrick Moore
Opponent	Snaps	+	-	Tot	Notes
Colorado State	12	8	0	+8	Standing by my podcast take he's the dude by Ohio State.
Hawai'i	28	4	1.5	+2.5	Got a lot of run, still showing signs of late-season breakout.
Connecticut	11	4.5	0	+4.5	I'm still banging the drum here.
Maryland	11	4	0.5	+3.5	Ditto. Sack was impressive after other guys got run away.
Iowa	5	2.5	0	+2.5	Quietly getting really good at non-flashy things.
Indiana	27	6	0	+6	It's happening more slowly.
Penn State	12	1	4	-3	Blew the tunnel screen, they don't call holds in the B10.
Michigan State	8	0	1	-1	Not a DT.
Rutgers	11	1	0	+1	Mostly pass rushing on quick fades.
Nebraska	6	3	0	+3	Impactful few snaps.
Illinois	22	1.5	3	-1.5	Tryout results: Still just a kid.
Ohio State	17	1	0	+1	See very good things.
Purdue	41	8.5	1	+7.5	Standout game, bad RT helped.
TCU	12	1	0	+1	Something to build on.
2022 TOTALS	223	46	11	+35	A 4.2 to 1 ratio: very good.

PFF gave him a 68 with a 69 (nice) for pass-rushing his highest breakout score, and that feels about accurate. This was a training wheels true freshman deployment that fell short of our lofty predictions; even with Morris out, Moore wasn't ready to start against Ohio State. His unrefined physical approach found its limits against a Wisconsinized offensive line in Illinois, and that in turn opened the door for McGregor to start the next game in Columbus. Still, it did nothing to dissuade my recruiting profile takeaway that Moore was Rashan Gary 2.0. His long arms make him difficult to control and extend his range in pursuit, which should generate a lot more sacks.

When teams ran power at Moore they got the same result they would have if run at Mike Morris. Power is difficult to stop for a freshman DE because you have to close in, set up in the right spot, then essentially two-gap the guy coming at you. Moore got the setup down quickly, and against most comers Moore was so strong he didn't have to be perfect on his technique to make a hash of everything.

Was it pretty? No! But one thing every freshman at Michigan learns is a little Fleetwood hippie hash in the wee hours can hit the spot.

And now he's not a freshman. Unless there's another in front of them, the Bama/Georgia/OSU Those Guys usually take a big Year 2 leap into good starter territory. Jeff Persi is probably a few notches above the CSU/IU/Purdue's RT line of competence—he held up okay when starting against a decent pair of Rutgers edges last year. I mention this because…Wooooow:

As much as the program has spent this offseason pumping up McGregor they've been saying Moore is right there with him. They're also letting Moore speak to the media—for this program, a sign that a guy's hitting his benchmarks—and when he is put before a microphone he talks about playing to not get pulled, and the moves and counter-moves of setting up his pass-rushes. According to himself, Moore's a very different player now.

This program also likes to pump up guys when they know they're going pro after the season, but I think we all understand one of the reasons McGregor is planning on entering the draft next year is Moore can't. Moore is on the older end for his class, but when a guy looks like that in the spring game of his sophomore year the variable is the exponent.

Then he showed up 21 pounds lighter. The surprise of the 2023 phonebooks was Moore checking in at 258. It's reasonable to assume freshmanity was the main reason that Moore's playing time was limited last year, but since we're talking about a 280-pound defensive end it's certainly plausible that conditioning was a part of it. That assumption gained more credibility when he and Minter started saying it out loud.

"He's just figuring out what's best for his body, where he can play, the things we ask him to do. He is playing at a high level right now," Minter said earlier this fall.

[Moore:] Last year, I was 20 pounds heavier. I was like 280. I want to say this year I just dialed into taking more care of my body. Putting the right things in my body, eating more protein, more vegetables, get more sleep and stuff like that.

I feel like that's all helped shed all the fat off me.

I felt it was important because I talked to a lot of my coaches about it. I got with Abigail [O’Conner] about it — we talked a lot about it. I talked to Abigail about how I wanted to be more fast coming off the ball. And she helped me write up a meal prep plan and I just stuck to it.

… I feel way better. I feel quicker, faster, more twitchy, more explosive. I don't feel any type of weak anything. I just feel way better than I felt last year.

Moore also talked about using more speed rushes that he sets up with power and emulating Mike Morris and Joey Bosa in how they use their hands. Talking about it doesn't mean he's there any more than beating up on the worst slate of offensive tackles in recent memory. But for many reasons Moore looks on track for a big sophomore leap to Good, with a Watch Out planned for 2024.

BACKUPS

The one guy past the four-deep other than TJ Guy who started making his way into the conversation this offseason was Guy's fellow 2021 prospect KECHAUN BENNETT [recruiting profile]. Guy and Bennett represent the last of the Don Brown Edge Recruits, and he's always had an eye for such things.

The position was called "Anchor" and we trusted Don Brown knew what he was doing whenever he offered a prospect there. Kaleb Ramsey, Harold Landry, and Zach Allen did it for him at Boston College. Chris Wormley, Rashan Gary, Kwity Paye, and Aidan Hutchinson all starred in turn at the role, a kind of strongside DE-plus whose job it was to soak up attention from the tight end and tackle

If Brown said a 223-pound wrestler from an academy in Connecticut can play, he probably knew what he was talking about. By the time Brown was recruiting Bennett, sites were coming around to this view as well. Rivals and ESPN called him a four-star and the #1 player in Connecticut; 247 was just behind. Bennett is now a RS sophomore, listed at 6'4"/257, and drawing mention from insiders like Lorenz.

Kechaun Bennett is a player I've continuously mentioned as being a year away. In asking around on him, there is real progress on his end but it's my opinion he's on the outside looking in for the rotation right now at edge.

That sounds like there's a substantial gap. Since he's the 5th or 6th DE right now that's fine. The charting on Bennett thus far is zero (PFF has him for 6 snaps in two games) since  We saw a couple of good things from Bennett in the spring game against backup tackles, and will probably see a few more against the backup opponents this year before he's raised to functional backup to Moore next year.

Past him there are walk-ons and true freshmen. One of those walk-ons is high-ceiling project CHIBI ANWUNAH. If anyone emerges from the depths it's probably their top-100 prospect ENOW ETTA [recruiting profile], who obliterated low-level Texas competition. Etta's supposed to be a Mike Morris type, but he checked in this fall at 295. That size and the competition jump both gesture hard towards a redshirt.