Hello, fan of an NFL team. MGoBlog excruciatingly scouts every Michigan play, and scores them to inform our coverage. Since mi atleta es su atleta now, here we share what we're sharing. Ross wasn't drafted, but for the right team he could be a UDFA who sticks, so I'm writing him up as well.

Quickly: Two-time captain, smallish, heady but not instinctual modern LB who excels at blitzing, and has major coverage issues to clean up.

Draft Projection: Undrafted free agent. I've seen guys like him go in the 4th so I don't really know, but there are a lot of linebackers with Ross's measurements and much better college production.

NFL Comp: Jaylon Smith. Note here that this is an "if he works out" comparison because Ross isn't a 1st round talent. He has similar size and traits as Smith, who thrived in the Cowboys' simple defense before getting lost in their newer more complicated one. Ross has a long way to go to be a good coverage linebacker but the ability is there, and acceleration is off the charts once he knows where he's going.

What's his story? Younger brother of a similar player who played before his time, Ross was supposed to be a perfect fit for Don Brown's system, and the less explosion-y heir to Devin Bush Jr. Ross looked like a find in 2018, to the point that we were stumping for the redshirt freshman to take the starting job from Devin Gil, Bush's heady high school teammate. Things went sour in 2019; Ross was pulled in Michigan's third game vs Wisconsin, reinserted, then injured for the year (he played sparingly in the bowl game but kept his redshirt). The 2020 takeoff point was…not. System changes resulted in Ross having to make more decisions, and he routinely made wrong ones trying to make up for the DTs' issues. They simplified things for him again against Rutgers; we didn't chart the broken PSU game but it wasn't pretty either.

While MGoBlog fretted about 2021, the program was talking about Ross, a captain for the second time, as an All-Big Ten shoe-in. True they didn't have any other linebackers with experience, but they were also going to a new system that puts more reading on linebackers. Ross had a great Washington game as the Huskies made his reads easy, but the rest of the season alternated between good enough and yikes, with the difference usually coming down to how much play-action Ross was seeing.

Positives: Leader, communicator, adored by coaches and teammates, high chalkboard IQ, extra coach on the field. Freakish blitzer thanks to outstanding acceleration. Can be a very effective piece in a system defense that takes advantage of his abilities. Might have a lot of upside hidden by constant scheme changes and having to play MLB versus WLB. Whenever you're ready to give up on him he makes a game-shifting play. Ignore the 4.7 forty: game speed is better than average and fluidly changes direction.

Negatives: Honestly, wasn't a good college linebacker, despite tons of experience. Not instinctual; needs a system to thrive. Smallness makes him dead if he's caught reading and eats a block.  Flat-out bad in coverage: Routinely sucks up on play-action, no feel for zone coverage or where he's supposed to be. Game-shifting plays often came after a string of the kind that put the game in a shiftable spot in the first place. Too often pokes his nose in the wrong gap while trying to be aggressive.

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What others say: That if you're going to be 6'0"/227 you'd better be Nakobe Dean. Ross barely makes the draft board for The Athletic, coming in at #37 among linebackers:

The coaches rave about his leadership and competitive play style, using his smaller frame to give blockers the slip and stand up ball carriers in the hole. He struggles to sink-and-redirect in the open field, which leads to missed tackles and lapses in coverage. Overall, Ross has the initial quickness and play anticipation to stay ahead of blocks, but his coverage limitations and below-average size and length will be tough to overcome.

Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network is the most positive:

Positives: Underrated linebacker with a complete game. Instinctive, quickly reads plays, and fires to the action. Displays tremendous range on the field and goes sideline to sideline. Plays with a violent attitude and possesses a terrific closing burst. Can be a devastating hitter and drives his shoulders through opponents.

Easily changes direction, quickly gets out in lateral pursuit, and uses his hands to protect himself. Remains disciplined with coverage assignments, is very effective in zone coverage, and redirects to make the tackle in space.

Negatives: Lacks size, doesn’t stack well against the run, and gets caught up in the trash. Does not always take proper angles.

Analysis: While Ross lacks classic size, he’s an impact linebacker who violently defends the run while holding his own in coverage. Significantly underrated in my opinion, he has starting potential on the inside of a 3-4 alignment. And if properly coached, Ross will be a very productive professional

Our Scheme/Best Scheme: Let's do this in reverse because our side is a whole thing. Put him in a dedicated Cover 1 system, which in 2021 were the Cardinals, Bengals, Raiders, Dolphins, or Titans (I'm admittedly not up on all the coordinator movements this offseason so that's based on Brett Kollmann videos and this year-old article by PFF).

Heh. Ross was recruited for Don Brown's man coverage/bring five system that kept its linebackers clean and their assignments simple so they could attack with aggression. Ross fit best as the WLB in that system, relating to the running back, replacing on the edge, and blitzing, with simple coverage rules. Things got more complicated in 2019 as the defensive tackles broke down and Ross was moved to MLB, and more complicated again when the fronts were shifting to compensate for the DT issues and Ross thought he was responsible for breakdowns. His greatest challenge was last year, when he really was responsible for eight things plus getting everyone else in position. Michigan even played around with 6-1 fronts that trusted Ross to fix all the leaks; the fact that he couldn't do that cost them the MSU game. He also had to cover different zones as Michigan used more Cover 3 for the first time in his career. That zone (the "hole") is similar in different schemes, but Ross struggled with the subtle differences—in Cover 2 you're flanked on midrange throws; in Cover 3 you are more susceptible to high-low stretches as your flankers are moving towards the flats—and never developed a feel for it.

2021 Grading

The following numbers are based on my 2021 charting in Upon Further Review. One point is roughly equivalent to an action that affected the play by 5 yards, i.e. zero points are awarded for simply filling an assignment. Certain scores require context, e.g. defensive linemen are expected to score 2 to 1 to the positive because of their greater opportunities to make plays, and rarely get negative individual grades when pass-rushing, since those are handed out through a team metric. Team defense charting.

BY PLAY TYPE:

Versus Play Type:	+	-	Total
Inside Zone	25	27	-2
Power	30	23	+7
Stretch	11	8	+3
Other Run	20	7	+13
Screens	10	6	+4
Pass Deep	13	-14	-1
Pass Short	23	-22	+1
PA Pass	5	12	-7

"Pass short" includes a lot of near sacks where Ross was yanked backwards. The volume on all of these is much higher than it was for the other players. It was also the least surprising: the longer you let a run play develop, the better Ross was at figuring out what was happening and shutting it down (Power, "Other Run," etc.). In the passing game he was high-event, wracking up positives in blitzes and losing them on drop-backs. Play-action ruined him unless he was blitzing.

BY GAME:

2018 Opponent	Pos	+	-	Total	Snaps	Notes
Notre Dame	WLB	7.5	5	+2.5	n/a	Liked him a bit better though.
WMU	WLB	6	1.5	+4.5	n/a	Three thumps.
SMU	WLB	4	3	+1	n/a	Less boring, discussion below.
Nebraska	WLB	6.5	2	+4.5	n/a	Nice blitzin'
Northwestern	WLB	5	0	+5	n/a	Let's just go with him.
Maryland	WLB	1.5	3	-1.5	n/a	Lost a couple times.
Wisconsin	WLB	3	0.5	+2.5	n/a	Mostly +0.5 cleanups. Right place.
Michigan State	WLB	3	1	+2	n/a	Sideline to sideline on an edge pitch.
Penn State	WLB	1	2	-1	n/a
Rutgers	WLB	3	0	+3	n/a	Pass breakup was walloping, could have had another.
Indiana	WLB	10.5	0	+10.5	n/a	50% of WLB snaps. Make the decision.
2019 Opponent	Pos	+	-	Total	Snaps	Notes
MTSU	MLB	6.5	3	+3.5	56	Hiccups early but recovered.
Army	MLB	6	4.5	+1.5	33	Reasonably useful in a half.
Wisconsin	MLB	4	8	-4	20	Pulled before half.
Rutgers	n/a	0	0	0		DNP
Iowa	n/a	0	0	0		DNP
Illinois	n/a	0	0	0		DNP
Penn State	n/a	0	0	0		DNP
Notre Dame	n/a	0	0	0		DNP
2020 Opponent	Pos	+	-	Total	Snaps	Notes
Minnesota	MLB	9	6	+3	70	Late INT pushed him above zero.
Michigan State	MLB	5	9.5	-4.5	86	Spent a lot of time not running to ball, inexplicable coverage stop
Indiana	MLB	0.5	6	-5.5	81	Lots of vacated zones.
Wisconsin	MLB	3	10.5	-7.5	70	Doesn't know what he's doing.
Rutgers	MLB	19	6.5	+13.5	98	Major bounceback with two +3 plays.
2021 Opponent	Pos	+	-	Total	Snaps	Notes
Western Michigan	MLB	12.5	12	+0.5	51	Tough job isn't enough to excuse Mouton play.
Washington	MLB	17.5	6	+11.5	66	Like him better when he's aggressive like this.
Northern Illinois	MLB	6.5	8	-1.5	32	Hutch might deserve two of the minuses. Got tentative again.
Rutgers	MLB	6	8.5	-2.5	24	Presence felt, absence also felt.
Wisconsin	MLB	8	4.5	+3.5	49	Ol' Pounces likes to pounce.
Nebraska	MLB	10	19	-9	64	Sixty minutes of linebacker hell.
Northwestern	MLB	12	2.5	+9.5	40	Mr. Fix-It in this game.
Michigan State	MLB	11.5	13	-1.5	76	Tells grandkids life is easy if you haven't been the 1 in a 6-1.
Indiana	MLB	11	6.5	+4.5	58	Great early, seemed to lose interest with the rest of us.
Penn State	MLB	8	10.5	-2.5	86	PSU's gameplan was linebacker hell.
Maryland	MLB	10.5	8	+2.5	55	One great play, still too much Mouton stuff in coverage.
Ohio State	MLB	13	4	+9	60	This is how we're going to remember him now.
Iowa	MLB	9	10	-1	54	Never going to be good in coverage, still makes plays.
Georgia	MLB	10	14	-4	65	Jonas Moutan-esque career.

The nickname Ol' Pounces didn't stick but the back-and-forth here shows you why it's so hard to summarize Ross's career. Out of necessity, Michigan made his life hard, and Ross responded with spectacular plays and spectacular whiffs. The final scores hovered around zero, but the volume of scoring events was high—like 20 per game. It didn't do any favors for his draft stock or fan interactions, but it certainly explains the mountains of appreciation he gets from his coaches.

Video of All Varieties: (Collection)

Spectacular blitzer: Great acceleration and gets skinny (but not a good finisher):

Sideline-to-sideline speed (not Devin Bush speed) and body control:

Not instinctual but heady—reads offense's intentions, uses acceleration to beat blocks:

(Note: Michigan experimented with him in a 5-1 until MSU broke it)

(replay)

Play-action sucker/does not get depth (need to coach this out of him):

Complicated fits were too much for him:

Summary and Projection: Ross is irony personified. He's a future football coach who needs a system and a lot of coaching to make it in the NFL. He's a smaller, faster, fluid athlete whose biggest hole in his game is coverage. The only thing about him that fits is he's an elite blitzer because of elite acceleration.

There's a very good case to be made that Ross's college film isn't his fault. Okay, getting wrecked by Wisconsin as a sophomore was on him, but Ross would probably have been a fine, routinely positive player with a lot more coverage confidence if he'd been allowed to remain in his freshman position of WLB. Alas, Michigan's MLBs after Devin Bush were either out-of-control riverboat gambler Cam McGrone, or freshmen themselves. Ross ended up playing MLB next to a true freshman Haitian immigrant who was still learning the game, in a system nothing like what he played in 2020, which was nothing like what he played in 2019, where he played a different position from where he looked really promising in 2018.

So…maybe that's on us, and Ross is secretly the very model of a modern NFL linebacker. Considering how much Macdonald, now the Ravens' DC, loved Ross anyways, you have to figure some connection will want to give Ross a chance to do the same thing long enough to get good at it. Considering Ross is the one doing the asking, however, it's not likely a team will use a draft pick for that.