NFL Combine Final #s

They (DPJ, Black, Collins) were 'crooted to play in Pep's pro-style, but nobody (WRs, QBs, or RBs) could figure it out in the time they had to work with it (20 hrs/week).  It failed - Pep's passing game was an abject failure here.  Gattis' offense had a steep learning curve, which they're still working on.  We saw it get a lot better later in the year, but it still needs work.

The change in offensive styles is an effort to catch up to the rest of college football by making much better use of the athletes available as weapons.  We saw it's benefit late in the season, and we'll see more this coming season.  Hopefully, whichever QB replaces Patterson will be better equipped to run it than Shea was.

I won't make an argument that player development couldn't be better.  But I'll put some of the issues on the near constant changing of offensive styles and coaching turnover.  I hope that stability with the Offensive staff this off-season reaps some benefits for the players.

I'd like to understand your contention and what it's based on. 

Let's limit it to this thread though - I assume you're noting Metellus' 40 time and DPJ's overall dominance of the combine as reasons why coaching is the problem?  

Metellus was a good player for Michigan.  He's a 9-3 / 10-2 type of player.  Do you think he was as good as Ohio State's safeties?  In 2017 Malik Hooker went in the first round.  This year Jordan Fuller will go in the 2nd or 3rd*.  Metellus won't sniff that.  He's a late round pick or UDFA.  And before you get into "if he were developed, he may have gone higher", the NFL drafts on potential all the time.  If he was a 3rd string career back-up at Michigan and had the measurables, they'd draft him.  But Metellus was not - there's ample film on him from years of play, and he's a 6th rounder to UDFA.  You could argue that Harbaugh and staff overachieved with him at safety (or one could argue that they should have recruited a better player to substitute for Metellus... but that's the opposite of your argument).  This would also be more of a critique of Don Brown than Harbaugh.  Brown is revered as one of the best in the business at developing defensive players. 

DPJ dominated the combine, just like everyone knew he would.  I'm very open to the idea that the ball should have gone to him more, but when I think about it, who should have gotten it less?  I would have preferred Nico Collins received more targets this year, and most Michigan fans, posters on this board, and the proprietor of this site would agree.  So then less targets to Bell?  Maybe, but bell was a very productive receiver who made a lot of his opportunities.  Based on his play, and even with the insane measurables, it seems like DPJ is going to be a mid-round pick.   Someone may reach for him, but if they do it will be based on potential and not production.  Maybe that's lack of development, but I see a crazy athlete who doesn't have great hands and isn't elite at getting open, which are the two most important things for a WR.  Josh Gattis has quite an amazing record of developing WR's going back several stops, and Harbaugh brought him in.  DPJ was hurt much of spring last year, so maybe that hurt his development if in fact he was under-developed.  But here as well, Ohio State had two WR's taken in the second round 2017-19, another in the 3rd, and another in the 7th.  DPJ is a guy who helps you go 9-3 / 10-2.  Ohio State has playoff guys.  I think part of this is just luck, as OSU wanted DPJ as badly as Michigan.  

*They also had an incredible 3 cornerbacks go in the first round 2017-2019, and another in the fourth 

Most of these kids from most of these schools are putting up good numbers. 
 

Michigan is winning a lot of games.  Clearly we all want more. 

Yeah, the guys have already been practicing these combine tests on their own. They know the ones they're not good at doing. So some of them will choose not to participate in those tests, since that's allowed at the combine.  

Shea is such a conundrum!  On one hand, he has some great stats, nice wins, and some really good looking film.  On the other hand, he missed a crap load of passes and zone reads, and lost a bunch of big games when the offense failed to show up.  Alternately, I have a lot of respect and thankfulness for what he did here, yet I also have some regrets about what he left on the table.  I think about his ability to hit a big pass while scrambling and run a ZR to perfection to keep drives alive.  I also think about the lack of downfield hits and the all-to-often behind the back (or stretched out) catches his receivers had to make that eliminated any YAC.  I remember a quick release that could whoop a blitz.  But I don't remember the fast strikes all over the field that obliterated defenses.

I want to look back and love Shea's time at QB here.  But he makes it so damn difficult to do so...