edge

Previously: Podcast 15.0A, 15.0B, 15.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Interior OL. Offensive Tackle.

EDGE: BETWEEN TWO AND SIX

To the surprise of only Jim Harbaugh, Michigan did not, in fact, just replace the greatest defensive end pairing in school history. While team sacks (37) in 2022 marginally increased from 2021 (34), Jesse Minter’s zone blitzes, contributions from the back seven, and atrocious competition (CSU and Indiana gave up 7 sacks each) had far more to do with that than the edges. Michigan used a rotation of six guys and four starters with disparate skillsets who played between 200 and 500 snaps for new DL coach Mike Elston. Mike Morris was a Guy until his ankle got crumpled in the last quarter before the Illinois-OSU-B10-CFP gauntlet; everybody else was definitively Not Hutchinson or Ojabo.

Morris was one of only two Michigan players with more than four sacks last season and got drafted. The other was 4+ sack man was late transfer Eyabi Okie, who was optioned to AAA Charlotte in the offseason. The guy who stepped on Morris's ankle was another playing time transfer. The other half of last year's edges will be joined by an undersized Looney Toon from the portal, age up a year, and probably comprise a four-man rotation whose performance falls somewhere between last year's six and the two from before them.

Depending whom you ask Michigan has between zero and five distinct positions at edge. For the sake of preview formatting we're going to separate them into "OPEN" (aka SAM Edge aka Weakside), which includes pass-rushier side of their 4-down fronts and the LB/DE hybrid role in their 3-down fronts, and "HEAVY" (aka Anchor, aka SDE, aka Closed), which is the guy usually lining up over the TE's side. Don't get too hung up on the differences; they talk about more positions so they can name more starters, but in practice they might play two Open edges or two Heavies, or two opens and a heavy for a passing down, or what have you.

OPEN EDGE: I HAVE TO TRUST YOU

RATING: 3.

15 yards for attempt to meme. [Bryan Fuller]

Ask Michigan who's their best defensive end and they'll unanimously tell you it's JAYLEN HARRELL [recruiting profile]. He led all Michigan edges in snaps by over a hundred last year. Talk from the program this offseason has been boringly positive team leader stuff with a side of "he's rounding out his game." Jim Harbaugh says he's "really becoming a complete player" after characterizing him as a run-stopper. Jesse Minter, who has Rod Moore, Kris Jenkins, Will Johnson, and two 6th year seniors on his roster, called Harrell the "most consistent" player on it.

…how he plays down after down, play after play," Minter said. "Versus the run and the pass. Very technical. I was actually meeting with him earlier today, he is one of the most self-made players in our program. He was a MIKE linebacker in high school. Moved him to the edge and the work ethic, the way he trains, the way he goes about his business, the way he studies other players, off the charts. Unbelievable. He became a force for us last year. It doesn't always show up in stats but his consistency, his ability to set the edge, his ability to be really disciplined in moments like that."

Draft people think Harrell's a 6th rounder and about the 13th edge defender. Dane Brugler has Harrell his sixth-best draft-eligible underclassman, behind four five-stars and one spot ahead of another. This may be the biggest lie of the offseason, because in almost no sense of the word is Harrell an "underclassman." He sat out 2020 but has been a platoon starter since 2021, even getting more snaps than Ojabo against Georgia.

[After THE JUMP: Clearly the charting is wrong.]

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

EDGE: RAT-A-TAT-TAT

Michigan won the Big Ten last year for a lot of reasons. First and foremost amongst them was the greatest defensive end pairing in school history. Aidan Hutchinson went #2 overall and David Ojabo would have been a first round pick if he hadn't ruptured his Achilles in workouts. Hutchinson smashed Mo Hurst's all-time UFR scoring record by putting up a +39.5(!!!) against Ohio State, a take that PFF echoed. Hutchinson's 15 pressures in that game is a PFF-era record.

Neither of those guys is around anymore. Instead Michigan has one guy who played pretty well as rotational piece but projects as more of a DE/DT hybrid, two guys who have played a significant amount of unremarkable football, and then a pile of question marks in various shapes. But there's good news!

Jim Harbaugh says Michigan's edge pressure is "almost as good or as good" as last year, when the Wolverines had Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo.

"Much improvement on the inside" of the defensive line, he adds.

— Alejandro Zúñiga (@ByAZuniga) August 8, 2022

Jim Harbaugh has set a new mark for offseason balderdash. In the long history of people saying probably false things about their football teams, this stands alone atop a mountain of minor mendacity. So we've got that going for us.

Michigan has one guy who's probably tracking towards being picked in the NFL draft, a couple of upperclassmen who provide the weakside end a high floor (and a low ceiling) and then just piles and piles of lottery tickets.

ANCHOR/SOLB: WORM

RATING: 4

HELLO YOU ARE NOW FLAT [Patrick Barron]

Redshirt junior MIKE MORRIS has the athletic background—his father was a four-year starter for FSU at guard and possessed a wicked flat-top—and on-campus trajectory to believe that he's going to step into the starting lineup without much difficulty. In many years the last word in the previous sentence would have been "dropoff." This year we're figuring out how big of one.

Realistically, it's going to be pretty big. Morris flashed talent in a fair number of reserve snaps a year ago but is pushing 290. If he was any sort of edge rusher at his weight the offseason hype for him would be titanic; as it is he projects as a pocket pusher who can attack half a man and make opposing QBs uncomfortable. He's not going to rip around the outside like a Scottish werewolf.