If you need reminding, Needham (MA) St. Sebastian's Country Day tight end Louis Hansen was Michigan's fifth commitment in the 2021 class, way back before the class swelled to seven. He committed [checks notes] at lunchtime yesterday. Time is but a construct these days.

While Massachusetts prospects often fly under the radar, Hansen holds several top-tier offers, and he'd been considering post-shutdown visits to Michigan State and Notre Dame before deciding instead to commit to the Wolverines.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals	ESPN	247	247 Comp
4*, 5.9, #4 TE, #2 MA, #66 Ovr	3* TE	3*, 88, #13 TE, #4 MA	4*, 0.9269, #8 TE, #2 MA, #187 Ovr

Rivals is easily the highest on Hansen, ranking him as the #4 tight end in the country and not far outside their top 50 recruits overall. 247 has him as a high three-star; he's three spots in the position rankings away from a four-star. ESPN has no scouting on him and tossed a cursory unranked three-star rating his way.

Hansen has nice size; 247 lists him at an exacting 6'4.5", 222 pounds, while Rivals has him at 6'5", 225. He's already got the size of a flex tight end and the frame to add the requisite muscle to play with his hand in the dirt.

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]

SCOUTING

As you'd expect for a Massachusetts prospect, there's not a ton of scouting out there on Hansen, though we've thankfully gotten a couple evaluations since his commitment.

Before that, a lot of what was written on him came from Penn State's 247 site after he camped there last July. Sean Fitz wrote that he just missed out on the overall top five after "making several strong grabs on the day." The other tight end to camp was 2020 Syracuse signee Steven Mahar; despite being younger, Hansen outperformed him and every other TE to attend one of PSU's six camps that month, according to Fitz:

Case-in-point, the tight end group at the White Out Camp consisted of just Louis Hansen and Steven Mahar. Both had strong days, but Hansen looked to be the better prospect, showcasing solid size and strong hands to go with good testing numbers. Hansen should end up a four-star prospect in the next cycle.

Hansen got a short blurb from Mike Farrell when he rose from #114 to #65 overall in their December rankings update:

Tall and athletic tight ends are key in the passing game these days and Hansen is a man among boys in New England.

Adam Friedman, also of Rivals, expanded on why they're so high on Hansen after his commitment:

Hansen brings a lot to the table as a flex tight end but he also is physical enough and strong enough to be an end line tight end as well. Expect Michigan to use him in a variety of ways but, most importantly, he'll be a great red zone threat and should create mismatches in the middle of the field with linebackers and safeties.

247's Brian Dohn took care of their free evaluation on Hansen's profile, projecting him as a future late-round pick:

Excellent frame with length. Plays receiver and lines up wide and in slot. Great body type for tight end. Will be able to carry 240 pounds easily. Tracks ball and high points it. Uses length and size well. Sets up routes well. Has to work on getting out of breaks with more explosion. Will have to learn how to be inline tight end. Needs to sink hips when he blocks. Adding upper body strength is a must. Has to get off line of scrimmage more quickly at snap. Multi-year starter at Top 20 program. Day 3 NFL draft potential.

Dohn offered a much longer breakdown for Wolverine247 and focused on something that came up on Hansen's film—he usually went up against cornerbacks in his high school film, so he's going to have to show he can operate against bigger defenders in coverage when the competition jumps up dramatically in college:

Hansen has to work on being quicker off the line of scrimmage and getting into his routes more quickly. He is quicker as an inline tight end getting off the ball then when he is lined up in the slot or wide. He needs to to continue to work on getting separation out of breaks. ...

Hansen works hard and should be a 245-250 pound tight end a year into the program. His development as an inline tight end could pay big dividends for the Wolverines but he has to show an ability to get open against linebackers with elite talent.

There's a lot of praise in there for Hansen's ability to utilize his size, track the football, and get his feet down; I just wanted to touch on the areas for improvement, too.

OFFERS

Hansen holds offers from Georgia, Florida, Iowa, LSU, Maryland, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin, among several others. Notre Dame was in pursuit as well but hadn't extended an offer before his commitment.

HIGH SCHOOL

Hansen is the second four-star prospect out of St. Sebastian's, joining 2014 Boston College signee LB Connor Strachan. LB Blake Gallagher, a 2017 Northwestern signee, is the only other player from the school to get even three stars, and he's also the only other Power Five player in the Rivals database (2002-present).

STATS

MaxPrep's stats were woefully incomplete, though that didn't stop them from naming Hansen as the best football player in Massachusetts last week.

FAKE 40 TIME

None listed. 247's page does show a 10.0-inch hand measurement from January 2019, which would put him in the middle of the pack of 2019 NFL combine participants at tight end when he was a sophomore in high school. If that grows much before he gets to campus we may have to pass along the "Ol' Skillet Hands" nickname once bestowed upon Ian Bunting.

VIDEO

Junior highlights:

Sophomore highlights and single-game reels can be found on his Hudl page.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Hansen should get a shot to see the field early in his career. Nick Eubanks will have graduated before he gets to campus and the transfer of Mustapha Muhammad leaves only Erick All, Luke Schoonmaker, incoming freshman Matthew Hibner, and perhaps positional nomad Ben VanSumeren as competition. All is the only one to see even rotational snaps at the college level and there's definitely room for a bigger-bodied TE to carve out a role.

Hansen should have the flexibility to be a, er, flex TE while also lining up in-line when needed. He's a promising pickup at a position of need.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Given the numbers mentioned above, Michigan may want to add an additional tight end to the class, though Hansen's flexibility alleviates that need somewhat. The class is now up to seven commits and ranks 13th nationally in the 247 Composite. Full commitment posts for K/P Tommy Doman Jr. and LB Casey Phinney, who both dropped since Hansen's pledge, will run next week.

Here's the class as it currently stands: