Your First Harbaugh Depth Chart Comment Count

Brian

Via a Utah beat writer. I put it in a table. Returning starters are bolded.

Offense

Position First Second Third
QB Jake Rudock OR
Shane Morris
Alex Malzone OR
Wilton Speight
 
RB De'Veon Smith Derrick Green OR
Ty Isaac
Karan Higdon OR
Ross Taylor-Douglas
FB Joe Kerridge Sione Houma OR
Henry Poggi
 
TE Jake Butt Khalid Hill OR
AJ Williams
Ian Bunting
WR Amara Darboh OR
Drake Harris
Mo Ways  
WR Jehu Chesson OR
Grant Perry
Brian Cole  
LT Mason Cole Logan Tuley-Tillman  
LG Ben Braden David Dawson  
C Graham Glasgow Patrick Kugler Ben Pliska
RG Kyle Kalis Juwan Bushell-Beatty  
RT Eric Magnuson Blake Bars  

Defense

Position First Second Third
DE Willie Henry Taco Charlton  
NT Ryan Glasgow Maurice Hurst  
DT Chris Wormley OR
Matt Godin
   
BUCK Mario Ojemudia Royce Jenkins-Stone Lawrence Marshall
ILB Desmond Morgan Ben Gedeon Mike McCray
ILB Joe Bolden James Ross  
OLB James Ross Allen Gant  
CB Jourdan Lewis Jeremy Clark  
CB Channing Stribling Brandon Watson  
FS Jarrod Wilson Delano Hill  
SS Jabrill Peppers Dymonte Thomas OR
Wayne Lyons
 

Special Teams

Position First Second Third
K Kenny Allen OR
Kyle Seychel
   
P Kenny Allen OR
Blake O'Neill
   
LS Scott Sypniewski Andrew Robinson  
H Blake O'Neill OR
Jake Rudock
   
KO Kenny Allen OR
Kyle Seychel
   
KR Jehu Chesson OR
Jabrill Peppers
Grant Perry  
PR Jehu Chesson OR
Jabrill Peppers
Grant Perry  

Quick react

Uh, what? Part one. Willie Henry, strongside end, with Wormley back at DT. On the one hand, Henry has a lot of grrr arrgh pass rush upside. On the other, I thought he was better suited on the interior than Wormley for the reasons I posted today.

Uh, what? Part two. Channing Stribling is listed as the starter opposite Jourdan Lewis. This is odd for a number of reasons. One: Stribling didn't get a call last year even when Gary Nova was going off on Blake Countess. Two: we have heard nothing about him in about a year. Three: they moved Jeremy Clark to corner, and the assumption was that maybe that was not so much a good sign for Stribling.

If this is real, and all depth charts have to be looked at somewhat skeptically, I'm actually rather happy. Stribling looked about as good as Lewis as a freshman before evaporating.

Okay dot gif. The OR at QB. On the other hand, Smith had enough of the starting RB job that they didn't give him one at one of the most OR-tastic spots on the roster.

Poggi at FB. Weird. 266, reputed to be an inline blocking TE. Expected Hill and Poggi to be flipped. Good that Hill's done enough this fall to catch Harbaugh's eye.

No Drake Johnson. Still recovering from injury.

Grant Perry realness check. Good sign for his jitter and reliability that he's an option on returns.

The sweetest or. OR Drake Harris. I want to believe.

Ross an ILB backup and OLB starter. An indication that he will get snaps in the nickel.

Comments

LKLIII

August 31st, 2015 at 6:22 PM ^

He tweeted out a pretty depressing/resigned looking tweet a few days ago. Although it was vague, I took it to mean he got some bad news RE: his spot on the depth chart right now.

reshp1

August 31st, 2015 at 6:07 PM ^

Kugler made the chart, hopefully means good things about his health. With Miller's departure having him available is huge, since Glasgow can plug in just about anywhere. 

reshp1

August 31st, 2015 at 7:05 PM ^

That's what I'm saying. We know Canteen, Mone, Darboh and Kugler were all held out for various injuries during the fall scrimmage. Darboh and Kugler are on the chart now, Canteen is not, along with the one we definitely know is long term (Mone), so it looks like the chart reflects injury and availability, which is good news for Kugler.

Gr1mlock

August 31st, 2015 at 6:07 PM ^

This is the most hilariously unhelpful depth chart in the history of depth charts.  Almost every position battle is listed as an OR.  I love it - give a depth chart while providing as little actual, usable information as possible.  

M-Dog

August 31st, 2015 at 6:17 PM ^

As the driver of the Drake Johnson bandwagon, I am not happy about this turn of events.

I am more excited about the return of a healthy Drake Johnson than any other player.

He is a difference maker at RB and runs differently than any other player.  He has a quick wiggle at full speed that can squirt through a half-open hole before it closes.  

He runs "digitally" like a Frogger video game . . . in one lane, then in another lane in a microsecond, then in a third lane, all at full speed.  He reminds me of my favorite Michigan RB of all time - Tony Boles.

Ohio State had no answer for him until he got hurt.  Had he stayed healthy, I still believe that we would have won that game.

Watch the videos in the Running Backs preview.  The man is a completely different cat.

Our two Drakes, healthy and at full speed, make us a different offense.  They intorduce the dynamic threat that has been missing, and the defense having to account for them makes everybody else better.

sum1valiant

August 31st, 2015 at 8:03 PM ^

17 rushing attempts went for more than 20 yards last season.  From memory, it seems that at least half of those were the result of Gardner taking off.  That leaves roughly nine attempts that top end speed really came into play.  Find the hole, hit it, and gain 5 yards.  I can stomach watching him get caught from behind once in a while if it means he's consistently finding holes and gaining the yardage that is there.

WolvinLA2

August 31st, 2015 at 8:12 PM ^

I agree.  Top end speed is way overrated for a RB.  Sure, it's great to have.  But that top end speed doesn't come into play until you're about 30 yards past the line of scrimmage, which is the minority of most running plays.  Yes, it's nice when a guy can turn that 30 yards into a TD, but I'm much more interested in a guy who can turn 0 into 3 or 3 into 6 on a regular basis.  

bronxblue

August 31st, 2015 at 6:24 PM ^

I will look at this depth chart with skepticism, and really any, until Thursday rolls around.  My guess is that even if this is semi-official, Harbaugh will mess around with a couple of the positions as the game gets closer (and afterwards).

MChem83

August 31st, 2015 at 6:26 PM ^

I wouldn't be surprised if Harbaugh is just jacking the opposition around and trying to give them as little to scheme on as possible.  That this is even less informative than the usual depth chart is probably not an accident.  And in any case, I expect we'll see enough rotation and multiple sets to render the chart fairly meaningless anyway..

tjking82

August 31st, 2015 at 6:42 PM ^

No real surprises on O; lots on D.

Surprise #1:  Henry to DE?  The more I think about it, though, the more I like it.  Even after Mone's injury, I like our DTs better than our DEs.  Glasgow and Wormley are both very solid, and Henry and Hurst have better moves than our DEs.  I wouldn't mind seeing a steady diet of those 4.

Surprise #2:  Lyons to backup safety?  I had dismissed the practice reports because I mean...Lyons was the heir apparent at CB2, right?  People were saying he was clearly an upgrade on Countess; he was an NFL guy who would compete with Lewis for the top CB spot... unless this is a JH bluff, these predictions were clearly way off the mark.  This reading is further bolstered by the move of Jeremy Clark to CB, a position that would have had plenty of depth if Lyons were as advertised.  I will be very disappointed of Lyons is not logging starting time somewhere on this defense.

Surprise #3 (related):  Stribling at CB2?  With no OR?  Look, I loved Stribling as a freshman, thought he was this close to becoming a real difference maker.  For his height and length, he was shockingly good at getting in a receiver's pocket, and showed a great ability to get his head around and make plays on the ball.  But we haven't heard from him much since then, and he was conspicuously absent from any practice reports.  Hopefully this means he's great, and not that Countess/Lyons has left us thin at CB.