Previously: Podcast 14.0A, 14.0B, 14.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Offensive Tackle. Interior OL. Defensive Interior. Edge. Linebacker.

Depth Chart

Corner	Yr.	Corner	Yr.	Nickelback	Yr.
DJ Turner II	Jr.*	Gemon Green	Sr.*	Mike Sainristil	Sr.
Will Johnson	Fr.	Jaden McBurrows	Fr.*	Rod Moore	So.
Jalen Perry	Jr.*	German Green	Sr.*	Michael Barrett	Sr.*

This isn't quite the halcyon days of five or so years ago when David Long and Jourdan Lewis were hanging out with Lavert Hill waiting his turn. It's not that far off, though, thanks to a belated but massive recruiting hit named DJ Turner and the addition of a can't-miss kind of five star recruit. Michigan has a couple of veteran guys to go with them, and so far they've kept their nose in front of the five star. It would be nice to have another top-100 guy floating around here but for this year that'll do.

CORNERBACK: SPIN THAT ISH

RATING: 4.

if you were a DJ calling yourself DJ Turner would be too on the nose [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

The emergence of DJ TURNER last season was unexpected. Sometimes guys burst through and are clearly the best option at cornerback after having scant roles early in the season, but almost always those are young players. Turner was in year three and didn't have world-beaters in front of him. Vincent Gray was a UDFA after entering the draft; Gemon Green had an up-and-down season we're about to address.

Since corner is the most ruthlessly physical position in football, if you're a dude you're immediately a dude. Sometimes you can go from a disaster to a guy (JT Floyd, Gray), but you usually cannot go from off the radar to dude. Unless you're Turner, who apparently decided to be one halfway through year three. Going over the UFRs was entertaining, because the summary section contained bits headlined "Maybe Turner can play?" and "Turner might be real?" for a solid month. Yes, Virginia, there is a cornerback.

Not that we're complaining. Turner's sudden emergence turns this position group from a question mark into a likely strength, and it's backed up both by on-field production and eye-popping physical numbers. The numbers first, as Turner was the only Michigan player outside of the defensive line to make Feldman's Freaks article:

He is the fastest guy on the Wolverines, having hit 23.07 mph on the GPS and run a 4.28 40 — out of a two-point stance, no less. His 3-cone time is even more stunning. He clocked a 6.29 this offseason, and strength coaches think he has a good shot at besting the combine record of 6.28, set in 2018 by Oklahoma’s Jordan Thomas.

Harbaugh also asserted Turner runs a "sub-4.3" 40 and runs "right there with" Roman Wilson, who just got a section in the wide receivers post about how all he does is fast and that's fine because he's just that fast.

Did that translate? Ask first-round pick Jahan Dotson.

Ask him again if you want.

DID I STUTTER JAHAN

Dotson did rack up some numbers in that game thanks to a ton of screens and some absurd throw/catch combinations; his nine catches went for 61 yards. That's 6.8 per. Seth in the aftermath:

DJ Turner II has arrived. … Penn State often signed Dotson up on one side and put all the rest of their eligible receivers to the other side to run screens. This gave Dotson plenty of room to shake his cornerback. He just could not do so. Even with the ball in space, where Dotson has been a nightmare this year, every time Jahan opened his eyes Turner would appear.

Turner did give up a couple of catches in that game late, but what are you going to do? Sometimes you just get got even when you get your hand on the ball or you give the offense two square inches to hit.

This was a theme throughout the season, and not in the Channing Stribling way. Turner made plenty of plays on the ball—9 PBUs despite not emerging into a full-time role until the midway point. If it was reasonable for him to get his head around, he got his head around.

The thing about Turner is that even the bad stuff that happened while he was in frame was mostly improbable dimes on which the offense just gets to win…

…or getting Tyrone Prothro'd…

…or absurd officiating.

Those are the kind of things Turner gave up last year. Everything was contested. You got nothing for free against him. This is less Channing Stribling and more Jourdan Lewis. The Dotson matchup was a lot like Lewis's matchup against Aaron Burbridge back in the day: yeah the WR put up some numbers, but on how many targets?

Meanwhile that last clip above is useful because look at what Turner's doing: he's got his head around. He is not panic-grabbing the opposition. Turner is in fact the least grabby good Michigan corner in recent memory. He's not worried about guys getting past him because he'll just catch up if they do get a step. Here he's got Garrett Wilson running a fade and he's both casually over the top of it and able to anticipate and defend the back shoulder:

There are not a whole lot of people in the country who would not think "oh God oh no" and bail in that situation. But when people can somewhat credibly claim you run a 4.3 and also you might set a combine record in the agility drills, you get to do that.

Can he nickel though? Most of Turner's clips are him going head to head with guys on the outside but we do have a couple instances of Turner playing over the slot—or defending slot-type stuff—successfully. There is the Dotson slant break up above, and this is another:

He had a third against Garrett Wilson. If the Sainristil experiment—about which more in a sec—doesn't work out, putting Turner and his three-cone time over the slot and bringing in Will Johnson seems like an excellent backup plan. Clinkscale did mention that Turner has been repping some in the slot.

Can he run support though? Yes. Early in the year Turner had some issues replacing on run plays. When not doing that he was a plus guy on the ground. He torched his share of screens and was a good tackler in space. His explosion allows him to shut down things faster than you average bear, and at 6'0" he's bigger than most CBs.

Add it all up and Turner is going to be a star. He more or less already is to the charting folks. By the end of the season Turner had become PFF's highest-rated Big Ten corner, and they named him a third-team All-America entering the season. He turned in a +10.5 against Penn State and a +7 against Ohio State in UFR, truly absurd numbers at a spot that often enters the screen because something's gone badly. He's battle tested against NFL first rounders, he's already grading out great, and his athleticism is Freaks List-worthy. He has a shot at the first round in 2023.

upside still [Patrick Barron]

Next to Turner, at least to start the season, is the well-travelled GEMON GREEN. Green is sort of like Turner in that he's a better athlete than his recruiting rankings imply and frequently finds himself in the hip pocket of the receiver. Also a lot of bad stuff happened in his vicinity that doesn't really feel like his fault.

You also called the coverage good. I saw the catches.

Green continued to be bit by the bad luck bug this year. The late State Padder is a perfect example:

Sure “get your head around” is a thing you yell at cornerbacks, but there are few places you could want them to be when the ball arrives than “in chest.” The WR caught this one on Green’s elbow.

If you’re trying to use it to extrapolate what will happen when an average ball gets near an average Gemon Green, well buddy…

Unlike DJ Turner, he got replaced by DJ Turner. The reason for this, and a thing Seth got increasingly rabble-rabble about as the season went on, was something that popped up in the opener:

Green remains a good to excellent man-to-man cornerback. … Unfortunately he still seems a little lost in zone.

Don Brown recruited Green in a system that was almost exclusively man, and when he got stuck in something else it didn't go so well. This popped up most frequently against Rutgers, of all teams:

[Green] got hit with an underthrown back-shoulder fade early in the game and said NEVER AGAIN to the point of absurdity. This is in Cover 2, where the hitch route is supposed to be his first look and primary concern:

#22 the cornerback on the top:

I have yet to see Green drive well in any sort of zone coverage. It may just be beyond him. Again, as with Cover 3, in Cover 2 you can work around that by having him play some simple coverages that treat the cornerback as a man defender unless the guy stems (MOD or MEG if you want to read up).

Seth thought Green was a primary culprit on most of the very frustrating dink completions that dragged this reaction out of me in the game column:

WHAT ARE WE DOING? Takes a special kind of baffling thing reoccurring repeatedly for me to start swearing in the stands at this late date, but Michigan's defense accomplished that by repeatedly offering Rutgers a free eight yards on simple hitches on the outside. Completely bizarre. You are playing Noah Vedral!

This is our concern, dude, and Green was replaced shortly thereafter. Since he was replaced by a guy who was unreasonably good after being inserted into the starting lineup this is not a death-knell. It is a concern. One of the themes that pops out from Seth's clips last year is Green getting victimized in bunch formations where he's supposed to pick up whoever breaks to the outside, or inside, or whatever. These reads were often blown:

CB to very top

There is really no excuse for the outside guy on a bunch to get beaten that badly to the, you know, outside. Seth's frustrations with Green are based in fact.

HOWEVA! Different eyes will have different opinions on a player and that's the case here. Green obviously had some issues but after going over everything from last year I have a more optimistic take than Seth does. This is no doubt because I have the luxury of taking all the information in at once. Yes, he got passed by Turner. No, that's not actually a knock on him. But by the time Georgia rolled around Seth was like "this is PI" and I'm like "rubbin's racin'."

Green isn't Turner, and by midseason he's not likely to be Will Johnson. He's displayed enough in man coverage to think that he's got a shot nonetheless. I will take the grabby guy who's in the pocket in man coverage over the guy who just can't run but is very coachable every day. Even at this late stage, I think Green has upside. Considerable upside. Not enough upside that I buy this…

On who’s playing opposite DJ Turner at cornerback:

It’s very competitive. Gemon Green, I felt, had a better spring than DJ did. And we challenged DJ from the spring. He got better at the end of spring.

…but enough that I think Green has a reasonable shot of fending off, or at least remaining in a starting rotation, with Johnson.

Program chatter has been uniformly positive about Green. Lorenz asserted that he's been "buying a bounce back year … for months" and is "buying even further into it now"; Webb relates that Green has "had the best camp of his career … stepped his game up in much the same way DJ Turner did last year"; Lorenz further asserts that he's "had an excellent spring, summer and fall."

This chatter is borderline in terms of believability. They have Johnson so they don't absolutely need Green, but credible competition other than Johnson is limited. The only other CB to draw much hype is injured. I think we've seen enough from Green on the field to believe that if he can just get some stuff straightened out he can be a player, and the massive shift in defensive philosophy last year encouraging in this regard. If Don Brown was still around and Green was behind mentally that would be lights out. But sometimes guys just need a year when things change. If you believe the talk, that's Green.

This space is up in the air about the outcome here. Green can be a great one-on-one defender. He may be able to pick up the defensive nuances. It's a good sign that he's stayed ahead of Johnson and has garnered a ton of chatter. His age makes that somewhat dubious, and we still expect that Johnson usurps his job at some point this season. But there are far worse things than having Green as your second or third corner.

NICKEL: SWITCHED UP

RATING: 3

sometimes you have to play DB when you're a WR [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Last year this was Dax Hill on 90% of snaps. This year Michigan is going to try to cobble together Zombie Dax Hill from three or four different bodies. They have a true viper in MICHAEL BARRETT, should they want to use him in that role. They have an actual nickel corner in MIKE SAINRISTIL for third and medium. And there's been talk about Makari Paige making a move, which would free up ROD MOORE or possibly freshman ZEKE BERRY to attempt a like-for-like impersonation of Hill. Everyone except Sainristil has a more natural home in another post; they're addressed as linebackers or safeties.

So: Sainristil. Last year Sainristil was doing this:

He was a wide receiver. Now he is the dreaded position-switch starter, at least in Harbaugh's formulation where the defense has 18 starters. This space is relatively sanguine about this development. The backup plan above means Sainristil going bust is something easily mitigated. Also the way Harbaugh talks about him lends confidence:

On other position battles that he’d like to settle:

I feel good that everything is settled and we have a plan moving forward. Take corner for example. DJ Turner, Gemon Green,  Mike Sainristil, those are your starting corners. And there's two in base, but there's three when you go to nickel. Mikey is our starting nickel, but they can also go interchange in base as well. I mean, they got three starters there.

No separation between the top three is good, right?

Certain aspects of his WR play should translate. Sainristil was in the Martavious Odoms mold of tiny mountain goat blocker…

slot WR to top

…and should be reasonably physical for his size. Sainristil does not shy away from contact.

And if Sainristil does get an opportunity for an interception he will likely do better than RJ Moten:

They will not be able to use the "well, that's why he plays defense" chestnut against ol' Mikey Sainristil, no sir.

While we have next to no visual evidence that Sainristil can corner the one thing we got from the spring game is extremely impressive. Here he's on the outside in zone. The outside WR hitches up as Andrel Anthony runs a slot fade; the ball is put right on him, and Sainristil breaks it up:

CB to bottom

That is advanced stuff for a guy who's mostly played offense. Seth spent much of last year crushing Green for not doing anything like this. It lends an air of believability to this quote from Clinkscale:

Mikey’s still playing both sides, and he’s doing a great job of understanding and embodying what we want on defense. And to be honest with you, man, he’s so natural. Sometimes, when I watch film, I’m like, ‘Wow, he’s only been over here with us for a few months.’

Sainristil has the speed and agility to make it work, and if he's ahead of the game mentally this should work out. The one worry that pops out is the dreaded slot fade. Nobody's going to mistake Sainristil for Will Johnson any time soon, and it's possible a lack of height makes it relatively easy to hit him deep.

Other than that… seems fine? Sainristil was named a captain for a reason, and it's not because he doesn't belong on the field.

BACKUPS

If history is any guide, WILL JOHNSON [recruiting profile] may not linger in this section very long. Five star cornerbacks who are 6'2" just do not miss. From his hello post:

If Johnson can stay in that 5-star range another year, the on-field fail rate on guys his size is near zero. I found eight CBs in the 24/7 database who were 6-2 or more and ranked within 20 spots of Johnson on the composite.* All eight started as freshmen, all but one with off-field issues were excellent college players, and all were in the NFL after three years, though a couple of them went undrafted. You have to get outside the top-50 to find a guy who didn’t work out.

* [Patrick Peterson, Patrick Surtain II, Kevin Toliver, Tyson Campbell, Dre Kirkpatrick, Eli Ricks, Tavarus McFadden, and Antontio Cromartie.]

Johnson did stick, landing 14th overall on the composite. This is because he should not be 6'2" and also do the things he does on a football field. Some takes from the recruiting profile:

"Excellent combination of size, experience, ball skills and intelligence. Basketball player with very natural athleticism and ability to track and play the ball in the air … Smooth in his backpedal and transition." … "Prototypical wingspan and height … nightmare for quarterbacks….One of the best all-around athletes I have studied thus far in the 2022 cycle." … "His size is overwhelming and his athleticism isn’t missing any components. The reach on this young corner, alone, is a major problem for wide receivers."

Johnson enrolled early and participated in the spring game, but didn't have a flashy moment like Sainristil had. The only moment he comes up on Seth's clips is when he passed Amorion Walker off to a deeper zone; I did find him defending an endzone fade against Cornelius Johnson:

You'd rather see him try to stick with Johnson's fancy routes than defend a fade—we know the 6'2" can defend fades—but it's spring, you get you get.

Program chatter has been about what you'd expect. Alex summarized:

Green will be a starter unless Will Johnson rips it away from him. Harbaugh described Johnson as "as good as advertised", while all the other insiders have said he will be a freshman who "plays all year". One insider was the first to proclaim Johnson a surefire starter "at some point" during the year on Saturday ($), while the others aren't quite there yet.

The way Harbaugh talks about him lends confidence:

Will Johnson is right there as well, coming out of camp tremendous. Maybe our best freshman that's on the roster. He just looks great at corner. And so those four will be the corners. Consider them all, really, first-team players.

So the other three guys are starters and Will Johnson is a "first team player." That Harbaugh. He's gone from releasing no depth charts to releasing one where 40 guys are starters. Never say the man doesn't move with the times.

Green has a shot at fending off Johnson for a while but a dollar says that they're 50/50 by midseason and Johnson pulls ahead as The Game nears. Green will still get time; they'll rotate. Johnson will flash this year and enter next year as a starter.

street clothes only so far [Patrick Barron]

Beyond Johnson is murky. It seems like the coaches really like JA'DEN MCBURROWS [recruiting profile], but he's the one guy on the roster with a major injury question entering the season:

Clinkscale confirms Ja’Den McBurrows is not back to 100% yet, but says he’s “like Junior Clink” out there in the meantime. Said he saw McBurrows’ physicality and quickness last year, and now his game understanding is improving.

Said he’s hopeful for a return this season.

— Zach Shaw (@_ZachShaw) August 11, 2022

To be specific, Clinkscale said that "medically speaking, I think he has a chance" to play this season. That doesn't sound great for his chances of being a contributor. Once he does get back, though, he sounds like a find. Clinkscale again:

On what McBurrows showed before his injury:

He showed that he’s physical. He’s super quick and fast. Now he’s showing that he knows the game more and the defense. So that’s gonna gain more trust. The biggest thing with freshmen is not always their skill set, it’s do they know what they’re doing out there? And there’s a lot of factors to that , a lot of moving parts. And I know that he knows what he’s doing.

McBurrows isn't the biggest guy in the world but posted a verified 11.01 100 meter dash as a high school sophomore and drew a lot of praise for his agility and physicality in his recruiting profile. He could be the heir apparent to Sainristil in the slot.

the other Green [Patrick Barron]

Almost nobody else has drawn a mention. JALEN PERRY [recruiting profile] is a ghost. GERMAN GREEN [recruiting profile] has never really been a factor. The other Green brother did make a couple nice plays in the spring game, at least:

This one is against walk-on WR fave-rave Peyton O'Leary:

If they get down here German might be the guy who gets the nod.

Two freshmen from Tennessee round out the numbers here. KODY JONES [recruiting profile] is more touted; MYLES POLLARD [recruiting profile] may have more upside since he's long, lanky, and agile. Judging from program chatter both are headed for redshirts.