Michigan Hype Train continues: 14 Michigan players make PFF Pre-season All Big Ten team
Just came out on Wolverine Digest. Fourteen Michigan players are listed on PFF Preseason All-Big Ten teams including 7 on the 1st team. Link provided below:
1st team:
JJ McCarthy
Blake Corum
Zak Zinter
Drake Nugent
Kris Jenkins
Will Johnson
Rob Moore
2nd Team
Donovan Edwards
Mason Graham
Josaiah Stewart
Junior Colson
Mike Sainristil
3rd Team
Roman Wilson
LaDarius Henderson
Notable exclusions (My opinion)
Paige
Keegan
Cornelius Johnson
Loveland (more projecting that by the end of the season, PFF will notice)
Are there any others you may feel could make the post season PFF All Big Ten Teams?
Donovan Edwards should be 1st team.
It is going to depend on how he is used. I am not hating on our coaching staff, they are doing a phenomenal job. However, there are have been like 5 times under Harbaugh where I looked at the offensive pieces and thought "this is going to be really dynamic" and each time... no, it was pretty vanilla. Edwards is not a Corum type back and will not be used heavily that way in a pure grind-them-down offense. What Edwards does this year is really dependent on whether they have expanded his role on offense, particularly in the passing game, or if he is simply "Corum's backup."
I don't think Edwards is less of a player because it only takes him 3 touches to take it to the house...
Seriously he's a homerun hitter that shouldn't be used when you're trying to grind out a time consuming drive. I think the Reggie Bush comparisons are valid.
OSU was playing an insane scheme against Michigan. Edwards is explosive but last year was not a constant stream of 80 yard Edwards touchdowns. He is a very good back and is an explosive runner but if he is used simply in the manner he was last year he is not going to have the touches or the numbers to be all BIG first team.
Teams are being forced into crazy schemes because they can't stop what we're doing. I see more big play opportunities for Donovan this year with Corum healthy, a reloaded line and JJ taking a step forward. It may come more in the pass game than the run game.
Edwards with healthy hands is probably the best receiver on the team. There's a ton of wild stuff they can do with him on the field.
And CAN needs to turn into WILL, very often.
Edwards could play WR in the NFL in my opinion.
His skill sets are extraordinary.
He should be a matchup nightmare and I hope they schemed him all offseason.
He reminds me a lot of Deebo Samuel. Or maybe that is just how I wish we would use him.
What we really need is speed and space.
Interesting. So, you're saying Edwards shouldn't have been put in late against OSU because we were just trying to grind it out (obviously if Corum had been available)?
Okay. So, only put in Edwards when you plan to hit a homerun. Makes perfect sense. I wonder who on the coaching staff has that intuition and can know when that's going to happen so we can put him in.
Snark aside, I would disagree. Edwards was a down-to-down back when needed. And, Corum hit several homeruns (Iowa, PSU), which are obviously not predictable.
He was not a particularly effective down-to-down back. The TCU first half is pretty much the offense with Edwards as the down-to-down back instead of Corum.
And as far as "the coaching staff are always geniuses" I would point you to the Pep-cat. Michigan under Harbaugh has been inconsistent (at absolute best) in putting explosive offensive players in the right positions to make the biggest impact.
Edwards isn't Corum, one of the greatest down-to-down backs I've ever seen. But he certainly was solid against OSU and Purdue, when called on. OSU was playing incredibly high risk defense to stop us, and it bit them elsewhere. When they stopped for a couple drives in the 2nd half, Edwards chunked them away for our 4th touchdown. He's developed pretty good vision and more power.
And no one would call Harbaugh an offensive genius would they? I'm just saying that you can't predict when you're going to hit a homerun, so you wouldn't know when to put Edwards in.
Edwards can take it to the house and has nice wiggle, but Bush was on another level. Best wiggle and escapability since the GOAT Barry.
Edwards is fast.
Bush was track fast - he ran a faster 100M (10.42 vs 10.44) and 200m (21.06 vs 21.89) than Denard Robinson.
Haven't logged in here in a week or more did so just to say NAILED it.
Edwards can be just a back up to Corum and be highly productive member of this offense. Or they can tweak some things focusing on ways to use his skills to exploit defensive matchups that may turn this offense from good to ELITE. Edwards is the dynamic piece IMO to making this be next level good.
Maybe on a per snap basis, but Braelon Allen and Nick Singleton are really good and will get more touches.
so swap out Corum for Edwards? Because they both would never be 1st team, especially when the conference is absolutely stacked at RB.
Both. It would be unusual and probably unprecedented, but I think there's a case for both.
Yes I would like to see both on the field simultaneously, also Edwards can motion or lineup in the slot, plenty of possibilities to say the least.
Corum ran routes a ton out of the backfield in 2021 w/Cade, he's a fine receiver.
Would like to see some Jedd Fisch-like creative playcalling this year!
I think you can play both and motioning Edwards out and creating a LB match-up in particular is an almost automatic win.
The biggest key in the offense going to the next level, IMO, is JJ progressing and hitting the mid to deep balls per and putting defenses into a bind. If the two pick-sixs vs TCU are an outlier to his arm feeling better - JJ putting defenses into the bind of not being able to stack the box as the primary strategy will create that havoc all year. Wilson should have had another 6-8 TDs last year if only half of the long routes I remember him open on had hit.
That would put teams in a position to deal with Corum at the first level, likely a combination of Edwards and/or Loveland 1-1 with LBs and deep threats that have to be respected which takes the 2nd level support to deal with that.
All that is to say there are options and Harbaugh will still line up and pound everyone on 90% of the snaps, but the talent is there with progression to really be something interesting with some creativity in design and play calling.
Hard to grasp their logic. I can maybe understand how two great RBs on the same team might skew their stats, particularly since Edwards’s NFL value is as a receiver. What I don’t get is putting Allen in 1st team ahead of Henderson or Singleton. If I wasn’t putting Edwards there, I’d have Treveyon ahead of the other two.
Agree with that. No coach in the league would take Allen over the other 3.
Dude, Allen is a stud was a 17 year old freshman and was only 18 his sophomore year. Some freshman were older then him his sophomore year. He might not be a great receiving threat but that should be seen this year with the offense changing. In saying that Allen is probably the best runner besides Blake in the Big Ten. Allen is a special talent and I don't care for Wisconsin at all but the dude as a freshmen was beating Barkley's OSU records as a 17 year old freshman at Wisconsin in terms of Squats and deadlifts.
On that note, for his financial interest, Edwards should probably formally switch positions. The NFL RB market is pretty bad. Barkley, who at 26 should be in his prime, is getting a 10 million franchise tender for one year with no long term guarantee. Would make him the 28th best paid WR. Barkley's also the most Edwardsy guy I can remember. (Maybe McCaffrey)
They should just start calling him a slot receiver and use him the exact same way. NFL is so strange about the RB position now that it would probably make a difference in the draft.
Ideal scenario is cash in and retire by 30
Treveyon is IMO not a very good RB. He had a great year in the crazy 2021 offense but he was mostly just a very athletic cog in the machine. He has speed but little vision or ability to break tackles. I don't even think he is the best back on his team.
I agree, but I think Edwards seeing himself on all these second team lists is going to righteously piss him off and make him even more of a monster on the field. Could work out okay.
It's PFF O-line grading but still insane that Iowa had the worst line in the conference and they get a first-team guard while Keegan gets left off entirely.
Rob Moore? Remember when Bell Biv Devoe "secretly" inserted the lyric, "Rob Moore, you're dead." That was something.
1:40 mark:
Wrong move you’re dead.
Allegedly....
It's Rob because of the interceptions.
For context, here are totals for other teams with at least 1 first-teamer (and MSU):
OSU: 15 players
PSU: 11 players
Iowa: 8 Players
Ill: 6 players
MINN: 6 players
UW: 5 players
MSU: 2 players
Rutgers: 1 player
This doesn't make any sense at all. No way MSU is twice as good as Rutgers.
Yeah, the preseason hype that MSU is getting from some - not all - is unreal. Would not be surprised to see them get beat by Rutgers and Indiana. I think Maryland definitely beats them
Wow the one Rutgers player...none other than Aaron Lewis. Good for him, but imagine this team if he had stayed.
This is his life. It's not what it was before.
Imagine their team if he had.
OSU looks unstoppable then. Time to pack it in...or wait...?
Fortunately, they are only built to win national championships and not for the path leading there. Sometimes you are farther away from home than third base.
Just sayin'...
Michigan has seven first teamers-and that is with Mikey being unjustly supplanted. OSU loves to bark about having the more highly rated recruits. The Michigan recruits play the game!
Not sure if this needs it's own post but The Athletic has Johnson as the 12th ranked senior WR and Wilson as the 18th. They also include the top 15 draft elgible underclassman, so both guys are roughly in the top 30ish NFL elgible guys.
33 WRs were taken in last year's NFL draft.
PFF puts Wilson as the 8th best WR in the conference, CJ outside the top 12 obviously.
Speaking of WRs, could we just have one that is the level of some of what OSU has had the past several years. In the past 4 years they have had: Jameson Williams, Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr., and Emeka Egbuka. Throw in there Julian Fleming who was a 5* and ranked higher coming out of HS than all of those above mentioned players.
Give us just one of those guys and it's game over on offense.
We did. Nico and DPJ. And we didn't use them much. If you're a 5* receiver, and you can be the #3 option and still get more targets than UM's #1, I'm not sure why you'd do it differently.
Nico or DPJ would be at the bottom of that group. I still think a high end five star talent would do just fine at Michigan now that we have good QB play.
Come in and be alpha guy on a National Championship contender and good things would happen and the NFL is going to know who you are.
Michigan's system isn't really predicated on passing the way that OSU does. Michigan will get talent, but barring a massive fundamental overhaul in the way Harbaugh views offense (which is as likely as Rutgers making the CFP if we're being honest), I don't think you're going to see receiver talent at Michigan that is close to what OSU has.
Receivers are important components of Harbaugh's offense, but they are not the focal point the way that they are at OSU. The second or even third receiver on OSU's team will probably get more opportunities with the ball than Michigan's first guy. Harbaugh just wants a different approach for his offense, so I don't imagine a lot of five star receiver talent coming to Ann Arbor anytime soon.
Honestly, as long as Harbaugh keeps winning, he can handle this however he pleases.
I mean, you try but any kid who knows he’s legit won’t go to a harbaughfense. Simple equation: how many targets are you gonna get? UM: a few OSU: every play…hmmm…tough choice (/s)
We should be ok with the way our TE's will be used in the expanded passing game this year.
Yes, the ones left out. I just wish they could find something to motivate them.