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.

Series: RB Hassan Haskins, OL Andrew Stueber, DT Chris Hinton, DT Donovan Jeter, DE Aidan Hutchinson, DE David Ojabo, LB Josh Ross, S Daxton Hill, S Brad Hawkins, CB Vincent Gray.

Quickly: Long-armed build-a-bear with bad pad level.

Draft Projection: Undrafted free agent (signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers).

NFL Comp: Foley Fatukasi. A little too tall and a little too thin DT who doesn't generate a lot of stats, but remains useful because his long arms make him impossible for linemen to stay attached to him long.

What's his story? As with cornerback, DT is a pretty straightforward position in recruiting—the 300-pound guys with long arms who can move are good at it—and therefore hard to get if you're not going to recruit like a Georgia. Everybody else has to either live with a guy who lacks a crucial element of defensive tackling, or build their own out of an end or wide-shouldered linebacker.

Donovan Jeter came in a DE with a frame to hang a tackle on, the 4th ranked in his class of five(!) DT-like objects. But 5-star Aubrey Solomon, 4-star James Hudson (after converting to offense), and 4-star Deron Irving-Bey were washed out and gone in a few years. As the position fell into weakness over 2018-'20, the failure of the 2017 class to produce even one starter was ever-present. It wasn't helping that every spring the program was set to convince us anew that Donovan Jeter was going to work out.

Jeter was by no small margin *THE* clubhouse leader for spring practice hype in 2019, followed by a season when he was unplayable and/or injured (Michigan started recently converted walk-on OL Jess Speight against Alabama in the Citrus Bowl), and then another spring of all the hype, and a season when he was kinda-sorta usable, if that's what you call Michigan trying to run a 3-3-5 with 280-pound Carlo Kemp at nose rather than lean on Jeter for too many plays. There was one fumble return TD in the opener, then reality. In 2021 the hype was self-awarely muted. He had also settled into a backup role behind the 5-star and 4-star recruited in 2019, in a defense that used odd (like a 3-4) fronts as often as not, and had a new generation of backups starting to look worthy of the field.

In this environment, weirdly, Jeter did well. Sometimes he was downright good. Charting suggested the home-grown, long-armed senior was something of an acid test for offensive line coaching. He never did grow into Don Brown's dream of a 4-3 three-tech who kept the DE's explosion. But he made for a decent 3-4 DE, one Michigan tried to get back for a COVID shirt this year before Jeter decided to move on for good.

Positives: The arms. Jeter is very hard to stay attached to, and keeps a good base when engaged, so unless you're under him he's really not going anywhere. Surprising speed, though not with much control, if he does get free as a pass-rusher, and unlike with many of the DTs immediately preceding him, that did happen. The Steelers are also getting a hometown kid; Jeter is from Beaver Falls, just outside the Pittsburgh metro area.

Negatives: Plays high, and that means good OL are able to get under him and move him off his spot to dangerous effect. Not remotely explosive—if Jeter does make it into the backfield it's through a tear in the line that most NFL QBs should be able to dodge or render moot with a quick throw. Middling athleticism for college. Never a starter.

--------------------------

What others say: It's hard to find takes out there for a backup DT who wasn't certain to be in the draft until the last minute. The Athletic put Jeter 44th among the "best of the rest" in range of Nebraska's Ben Stille, PSU's Derrick Tangelo, and Auburn's Tony Fair, but those guys didn't get writeups. Steelers Depot had a pretty thorough report, with clips, after Jeter signed:

Overall, Jeter has good size and length and has played from the 0 technique to the 5 technique as a rotational defensive lineman on the college level. His go to move is to shimmy, punch and get his hand up as a pass rusher but has shown a chop/rip. Against the run, he is best as a two-gap defender using his hand placement and play strength to stand up blocker and make plays within his gaps.

Areas to improve include his up field burst, hand usage and pass rush plan when getting after the passer. His mental processing needs to quicken when diagnosing from run to pass and he must keep his eye on the ball at the mesh point. He also needs to shed blocks faster and is not a good fit for a one gap scheme.

That site was quite a find—imagine if we had a film review of a 2022 walk-on up already—and has me shaking my fist all over again at the ACL injury that tore apart Devin Bush's career.

All my other usual suspects were mum. PFF's grading was way different from mine—they had him better in 2020 than in 2021, and awful against Ohio State for some reason.

I can't explain it, and they declined to.

Our Scheme/Best Scheme: Michigan brought in Jeter to be one of those 260-lb DEs they turn into a DT and hope he doesn't lose more than half a step in the process. He made the transition smoothly enough—he wasn't that far to begin with—but didn't have much more than his natural length and steadily increasing strength going for him. I thought he was most effective as Michigan's 3rd DT in their 5-2 packages.

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.

2021 GRADING BY PLAY TYPE:

Versus Play Type:	+	-	Total	Comment
Inside Zone	14.5	11	+3.5	Beat doubles, not singles.
Power	8	9	-1	Thought this would be worse.
Stretch	6	5	+1	Comboed/cut, but owns when he stays up.
Other Run	4	4	-	Gets dodged on scrambles, motor makes it up.
Screens	1	0	+1	Not usually the DT charged with peeling off.
Pass Rushing	15	4	+11.5	Not much considering teammates, not nothin'.

We call that serviceable. Given the play at DT the few years prior—including that from Jeter—we were happy to take it.

CAREER CHARTING:

2019 Opponent	+	-	T	Snaps	Notes
MTSU	0	0	-	0	DNP
Army	0	0	-	6	DNP
Wisconsin	0	7.5	-7.5	49	Tough debut.
Rutgers	0	0	-	7	DNC
Iowa	0	0	-	0	DNP
Illinois	0	1	-1	8	Got hit on 2PT conversion
Penn State	0	0	-	0	DNP
Notre Dame	0	0	-	6	DNC
Maryland	0	0	-	0	DNP
Michigan State	0	0	-	0	DNC
2020 Opponent	+	-	T	Snaps	Notes
Minnesota	2.5	2.5	-	30	I'll take it?
Michigan State	3.5	3	+0.5	27	Second game hovering around zero.
Indiana	3.5	3	+0.5	36	About par for him this year
Wisconsin	0.5	2	-1.5	46	Better than last year.
Rutgers	7	0	+7	58	Consistent Ws on ground, no impact as rusher
2021 Opponent	+	-	T	Snaps	Notes
Western Michigan	5	4	+1	21	Good against single-blocking, bad vs doubles.
Washington	5	2	+1	16	That's more like it.
Northern Illinois	0.5	0.5	-	15	Backup now.
Rutgers	2.5	6	-3.5	22	Strong enough, quick enough, enough with the standing up.
Wisconsin	7	1	+6	14	A bat, a two-gap, and a new shoulder technique for doubles.
Nebraska	0.5	6	-5.5	16	Jeter doubles were the only consistent ground yards.
Northwestern	0	0	-	15	DNC
Michigan State	5	0	+5	17	Ideal matchup: badly coached guys with short arms.
Indiana	1	1	-	18	In there plenty, plenty quiet.
Penn State	7.5	1	+6.5	23	Acid test for how well-coached your OL is. PSUs...
Maryland	2.5	6	-3.5	34	Doubles moved him this time.
Ohio State	9	2	+7	30	You tried to stretch Donovan Jeter, how did that work out for you?
Iowa	3	2	+1	20	Quiet day until the end.
Georgia	4	2.5	+1.5	26	Held up well until a few plays late.

MSU, PSU, and most of all Ohio State are the Big Ten programs that tend to skimp the most on actually coaching offensive linemen, relying on talent and the forbearance of Big Ten officials who call holding half as often as any other Power 5 conference. When those guys tried to lunge and grab, Jeter largely blew them off. Iowa, a successor state of Hayden Fry's lineman factory, had Jeter shut down until they gave up the ghost late. Rutgers, Maryland, and Nebraska have short linemen who burrow into your knees, and that kind put Jeter in a cornballer.

Like many Wolverines, Jeter saved his best performance for Ohio State. That has some extrapolation to the pros, because OSU ran a lot of stretch when Jeter was on the field, apparently believing he wouldn't be able to dance with their 5-stars.

Dude was playing like this was his last chance, and seemed to find something that his coaches were telling us he had every April. Leave it to the Steelers to believe.

Video of All Varieties: (Collection)

Long arms let him choose when to disengage, big hands choose what to grab next:

If you cut me down (on a zone stretch)…

I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine:

Don't try to bash me fool:

Stop standing up! Pad level has been an ongoing issue:

Not the most athletic of athletes:

Pass rush move is "I'm going through you."

Good lane discipline, surprising (frightening) speed as a rusher/stunter:

Summary and Projection: You've heard of versatile DTs that 3-4 teams supposedly gobble up to play anywhere from 5-tech to nose. You've also probably heard of quick-step dedicated 3-techs whose job it is to blast through a guard and control the all-important frontside B gap. Jeter is neither of those things, as much as we tried to make him one. He's a 3-4 backside DT, too lean and long to be a nose for more than a few adjustment shifts, and too sluggish on his first step to be the kind of problem you want a 4-3 three-tech or any kind of five-tech to be.

I tend to think long-armed DTs are underrated in the pros, because so many offenses run zone. They also have converted tackles playing guard as often as not--he squat 6'2"/350 guards you see all over college barely exist at the next level, and because of it you see a lot taller DTs able to stick around without getting doubled under all the time.

Pass rush is a bonus, but Jeter is still end-y enough that you can loop him sometimes if your WDE/OLB likes to pass rush an interior lane on occasion. Put him on a pure 3-4 defense like the Steelers' and you've got yourself a good depth piece who could probably survive several weeks when the starter goes down. Jeter doesn't have the expensive skills that make for top draft picks, but compared to former 5-star Chris Hinton, I think the path to sticking in the NFL is easier for Donovan, because Jeter does have the attributes that an NFL DT *must* have to get by. He's a smart pickup, and since he's local to Pittsburgh, one that you can expect to stick around on the practice team when he's not needed with the big league squad.