3 Former Wolverines Standing Out In NFL Camps
Michigan has had quite a few offensive weapons in the Harbaugh era. I think one of the problems was trying to spread the production across to too many players. DPJ should have been the featured wideout, and Evan's should have the main multi-use, all-purpose back.
August 11th, 2021 at 5:44 PM ^
Evans torpedoed himself with his academic problems.
DJP was just grossly under-utilized, partially because our QBs couldn't get the ball to him.
August 11th, 2021 at 5:53 PM ^
Yes with Evans, but they still barely used him last year.
Sigh.
At least we'll always have that score vs FSU.
August 11th, 2021 at 6:33 PM ^
Freshman year he had 600 yards rushing.
Sophomore year he had to play along side JOK and Peters, but still put up 680 yards rushing plus another 157 receiving (and had JOK been able to hit water our of a boat he would have had 200 and a TD against OSU - not bitter).
Junior year he split time with Higdon who ran for 1,000 yards and pulled his hamstring IIRC at one point. Another 150 yards receiving.
2019 was his suspension year when he would have been the lead back, but he still wouldn't have been utilized well given what we've seen from Gattis' not speed in space.
2020 was terrible for everyone.
So in summary, he split time almost his entire career, was never actually used as a receiving weapon as he should have, and then screwed himself the year he was going to be 1A instead of 1B.
August 11th, 2021 at 9:50 PM ^
He still should have been used more in 2020. Charbonnet too.
August 12th, 2021 at 10:21 AM ^
1,000%. Again, that's a screw up by Gattis/whoever the hell decides who is playing RB.
August 12th, 2021 at 8:53 AM ^
Before the academic problems ever appeared, the staff acted as if it was a crime to involve him in the passing game. Completely wasting his best skill was phenomenal.
August 11th, 2021 at 6:02 PM ^
Is it possible to feel good about these players finding success as pros without shitting on the program? If DPJ was the focus of the offense and Nico lights it up for Houston, we’d be bombarded with how Nico should have been the focus. Paye getting good early reviews from camp must mean he was not utilized properly in college.
August 11th, 2021 at 6:07 PM ^
Yet we keep saying one more year...
August 11th, 2021 at 6:10 PM ^
Personally, not when the program is in the state it is in. I want all of these guys to do well, but I can't help but be disappointed that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole while they were on the team.
I do not fault the players.
August 11th, 2021 at 6:10 PM ^
The reality is this coaching staff has let the overall talent level fall. And the more talented recruits are not put in the best positions to utilize their talent. The direction of the football program under Jim has been and is going south.
August 11th, 2021 at 9:11 PM ^
I think the direction has been more parabolic in nature. Unfortunately, it's been trending downwards recently.
August 12th, 2021 at 1:12 AM ^
You know it's possible to have two "Go To" receivers lol. Take the 2008 Arizona Cardinals as an example with Bolden and Fitzgerald.
August 12th, 2021 at 8:56 AM ^
Breaston also had 1000 yards in the 2008 season.
August 12th, 2021 at 10:02 AM ^
So you’re saying all we need to have 2 go-to WRs is a hall of fame QB to throw them the ball and a hall of fame RB to pick up blitzes/receive out of the backfield?
August 11th, 2021 at 6:11 PM ^
Our primary goal on offense is to avoid playing offense. Feature whomever you want, we're getting exactly the production you would expect from a team that runs as few plays as possible every game.
August 11th, 2021 at 6:41 PM ^
This is it right here. Outside of our first two seasons our offense has been a mess with a couple exceptions. The first two seasons it was excellent with a couple exceptions. Ill take the latter please.
August 11th, 2021 at 7:02 PM ^
Almost looks like Jim has no f'ing clue what he wants to do on offense.......except rotate 5 or 6 guys in every other play or replace your QB for one play and ruin any continuity that they rarely get.
August 11th, 2021 at 8:06 PM ^
He definitely wants to kill clock but other than that...
August 11th, 2021 at 9:46 PM ^
The first two seasons
When Jedd Fisch was here!
August 11th, 2021 at 9:49 PM ^
I'd like to see all of Jim's coaching staff hires be the quality of Jedd Fisch.
August 11th, 2021 at 10:55 PM ^
I wish that too.
I think Macdonald/Clinkscale/Weiss are going to be good. And maybe Ryan Osborn.
August 11th, 2021 at 11:15 PM ^
Hope you are right. Time will tell.
August 12th, 2021 at 1:13 AM ^
I grew up in the Chicago area, and this reminds me of my Bears hahaha. We just cross our fingers and hope the defense scores enough points to bring us to the Super Bowl every 30 years.
August 11th, 2021 at 6:29 PM ^
Evans, a rookie out of Michigan, could already be the Bengals’ best pass catcher out of the backfield.
Remember all of those catches out of the backfield from Evan’s while at Michigan? Yeah, me neither.
In Evan’s 42 career games, he had 49 receptions for 479 yards. 9.8 yds per reception.
In 13 games in 2020, Najee Harris had 43 receptions for 425 yds. 9.9 yds per reception.
August 11th, 2021 at 7:08 PM ^
The crazy thing is that almost every fan who had basic football knowledge knew Evans was dynamic due to the fact that you could hand off the ball, throw to him out of the back field, use him in motion, or even line him up in the slot. He was vastly underutilized and it drove me nuts!
August 11th, 2021 at 9:45 PM ^
One thing I do remember about Chris Evans is how great he played against Ohio St.
August 11th, 2021 at 7:19 PM ^
They are finding success on NFL teams. DPJ has Baker Mayfield, a Heisman winner, throwing to him. No offense to Shea, but he isn't Mayfield.
I expect Nico to be very successful as well.
Sigh. Imagine if DPJ were at PSU? I don't see him having as significant an impact at OSU though.
A good QB with a decent line and decent running game. That's all we need.
August 11th, 2021 at 7:49 PM ^
Tyler McLaurin and Michael Thomas said hello
August 11th, 2021 at 8:45 PM ^
*Sigh* All the above. Flashes of brilliance. It seemed we were only a drive away from winning so many games.
August 11th, 2021 at 9:05 PM ^
I hope these guys have long, successful careers.
August 11th, 2021 at 9:43 PM ^
It's very strange how Chris Evans was used so little at Michigan..........
maybe someone somewhere didn't know what they were doing and didn't play him a lot..........
August 12th, 2021 at 12:45 AM ^
I'm happy for those guys TBH
Evans stuck it out at Michigan, kid worked hard to work out his academic issues and get his degree and get back on the team, when he could have just bailed out.
On Saturday, he would work an afternoon shift as a delivery driver and dishwasher at Ahmo's, a local Mediterranean restaurant with a location in downtown Ann Arbor on East Huron Street.
In addition to working at Ahmo's, Evans held two other jobs: He was an assistant carpenter, where he would help lay mud and drywall, and he was the special teams coordinator at Ann Arbor Huron High School.
During the week, he worked his carpenter job in the morning until noon, then work at Ahmo's for "about four hours." After that, he'd make his way over to Huron and coach.
Because Evans didn't know whether he'd be able to return to the team or not, the thought of never playing for Michigan again flashed through his head "once or twice." But he never "thought of going anywhere else."
"Those who stay will be champions," Evans said, "and I just stuck to that.”
I hope all former Michigan players do well, but Evans in particular. Kid deserves to have some success after all the ups and downs he went through
August 12th, 2021 at 3:17 AM ^
Spread just "what" production? Harbough has really had no measurable amount of "offensive" production in 7 years! These poor guys are having to be drafted in much lower rounds to just get an opportunity to play and make money. Why not make them productive in college? Compete? The OP makes a real good case for the ineptness now that is UM football. You guys can still recruit good athletes, but for how long if the same results are currently being obtained? Come on UM, grow some balls and keep swinging for excellence! Your fan base and culture should demand it. Just an old Buckeye that cannot believe what I am watching....
August 12th, 2021 at 7:36 AM ^
Shouldn’t you be happy with what you’re seeing from Michigan? I don’t know about you, but if the shoe was on the other foot and it was OSU that couldn’t stop getting out of its own way and was woefully underutilizing it’s offensive talent, I’d be begging for things to never change with them.
I’d want to see them down in the gutter for the next century.
August 12th, 2021 at 8:57 AM ^
The problem wasn't spreading out the production because there wasn't much production to begin with. Michigan has consistently failed to identify what their strengths are and play up to them or even put the players in position to succeed. Yet year after year we say wait until next year, Jim will get it going next year.
We need to face it, we are a mediocre program that can only beat the teams we are supposed to beat, lose to anyone ranked or when we are on the road against good teams. I wouldn't complain if we occasionally would beat someone we weren't supposed to but we no longer do and occasionally we lose to a team we shouldn't.
August 12th, 2021 at 11:36 AM ^
This is the story. Evans was sixth on the team with only had 9 catches in 2020, but only one player (Bell) had more than 20.
It's not that Michigan was choosing not to use Evans, as much as Michigan didn't have the option because we ran so few plays.
Also the comparison to Najee Harris is just stupid. Najee was Alabama's primary back, an elite talent, and Bama moved the ball and ran a lot more plays than Michigan. Evans was arguably never the best back on Michigan's roster throughout his entire career.
August 12th, 2021 at 9:03 AM ^
Nordin has also been standing out for the Patriots. From The Athletic:
"Undrafted rookie Quinn Nordin has dazzled over the past week. He was a lights-out 10 of 10 Friday night, including 57- and 55-yarders over the final two possessions of the game simulation. Nordin only made 72.4 percent of his field goals in four years at Michigan, but he noted the difference in coaching in New England, where he’s been instructed to measure out his kicking steps down to the inch. With that attention to detail, the accuracy has slowly started to catch up to his raw power."
August 12th, 2021 at 10:00 AM ^
I'm going to draft Chris Evans as a flier in fantasy football. Pass catching backs can have a lot of value if they get even a ok amount of playing time
August 12th, 2021 at 11:37 AM ^
If you're wasting a draft pick on Chris Evans I would love to have you in my league.
August 12th, 2021 at 3:52 PM ^
Evans and DPJ could’ve been drafted in the first two rounds as well had they been utilized correctly smh