Your First Harbaugh Depth Chart
Via a Utah beat writer. I put it in a table. Returning starters are bolded.
Offense | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Position | First | Second | Third | ||||||||||||||||
QB | Jake Rudock OR Shane Morris | Alex Malzone OR Wilton Speight | |||||||||||||||||
RB | De'Veon Smith | Derrick Green OR Ty Isaac | Karan Higdon OR Ross Taylor-Douglas | ||||||||||||||||
FB | Joe Kerridge | Sione Houma OR Henry Poggi | |||||||||||||||||
TE | Jake Butt | Khalid Hill OR AJ Williams | Ian Bunting | ||||||||||||||||
WR | Amara Darboh OR Drake Harris | Mo Ways | |||||||||||||||||
WR | Jehu Chesson OR Grant Perry | Brian Cole | |||||||||||||||||
LT | Mason Cole | Logan Tuley-Tillman | |||||||||||||||||
LG | Ben Braden | David Dawson | |||||||||||||||||
C | Graham Glasgow | Patrick Kugler | Ben Pliska | ||||||||||||||||
RG | Kyle Kalis | Juwan Bushell-Beatty | |||||||||||||||||
RT | Eric Magnuson | Blake Bars | |||||||||||||||||
Defense | |||||||||||||||||||
Position | First | Second | Third | ||||||||||||||||
DE | Willie Henry | Taco Charlton | |||||||||||||||||
NT | Ryan Glasgow | Maurice Hurst | |||||||||||||||||
DT | Chris Wormley OR Matt Godin | ||||||||||||||||||
BUCK | Mario Ojemudia | Royce Jenkins-Stone | Lawrence Marshall | ||||||||||||||||
ILB | Desmond Morgan | Ben Gedeon | Mike McCray | ||||||||||||||||
ILB | Joe Bolden | James Ross | |||||||||||||||||
OLB | James Ross | Allen Gant | |||||||||||||||||
CB | Jourdan Lewis | Jeremy Clark | |||||||||||||||||
CB | Channing Stribling | Brandon Watson | |||||||||||||||||
FS | Jarrod Wilson | Delano Hill | |||||||||||||||||
SS | Jabrill Peppers | Dymonte Thomas OR Wayne Lyons | |||||||||||||||||
Special Teams | |||||||||||||||||||
Position | First | Second | Third | ||||||||||||||||
K | Kenny Allen OR Kyle Seychel | ||||||||||||||||||
P | Kenny Allen OR Blake O'Neill | ||||||||||||||||||
LS | Scott Sypniewski | Andrew Robinson | |||||||||||||||||
H | Blake O'Neill OR Jake Rudock | ||||||||||||||||||
KO | Kenny Allen OR Kyle Seychel | ||||||||||||||||||
KR | Jehu Chesson OR Jabrill Peppers | Grant Perry | |||||||||||||||||
PR | Jehu Chesson OR Jabrill Peppers | Grant Perry |
Quick react
Uh, what? Part one. Willie Henry, strongside end, with Wormley back at DT. On the one hand, Henry has a lot of grrr arrgh pass rush upside. On the other, I thought he was better suited on the interior than Wormley for the reasons I posted today.
Uh, what? Part two. Channing Stribling is listed as the starter opposite Jourdan Lewis. This is odd for a number of reasons. One: Stribling didn't get a call last year even when Gary Nova was going off on Blake Countess. Two: we have heard nothing about him in about a year. Three: they moved Jeremy Clark to corner, and the assumption was that maybe that was not so much a good sign for Stribling.
If this is real, and all depth charts have to be looked at somewhat skeptically, I'm actually rather happy. Stribling looked about as good as Lewis as a freshman before evaporating.
Okay dot gif. The OR at QB. On the other hand, Smith had enough of the starting RB job that they didn't give him one at one of the most OR-tastic spots on the roster.
Poggi at FB. Weird. 266, reputed to be an inline blocking TE. Expected Hill and Poggi to be flipped. Good that Hill's done enough this fall to catch Harbaugh's eye.
No Drake Johnson. Still recovering from injury.
Grant Perry realness check. Good sign for his jitter and reliability that he's an option on returns.
The sweetest or. OR Drake Harris. I want to believe.
Ross an ILB backup and OLB starter. An indication that he will get snaps in the nickel.
August 31st, 2015 at 5:43 PM ^
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August 31st, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^
But you all know depth charts are near and dear to my heart. I was on ALL frickin day waiting on this release. And of course they put it out when I finally try to be productive with my day...
Now that this is out, a "few" thoughts of course...
QB: Jake Rudock is the starter, Harbaugh just has no incentive to say it publically.
*That said, I've heard that there are talks to have packages for Morris to use his speed...a little Kaepernick to Rudock's Alex Smith. Only problem is Morris isn't Kaepernick and it would be "situational at best, and likely as a runner."
RB: Not surprising, people have reported Smith for weeks now. The shocker to me is that there is no "OR"...that says a lot about Smith, IMO. Good for him. Always over looked by the two 5* guys.
FB: Poggi is playing H-Back, think Aaron Shea. I wonder if he's just here because there is no H-Back...similar to not having SLOT as a position.
TE: Not surprise here to me...I've heard conflicting reports on Bunting, but I personally wasn't buying it. The big thing here is Butt. He's the first receiving option by all accounts. I expect him to have a MONSTER year. Record breaking type year.
WR: No SLOT listed to no shocker...but what the F happened with Dukes, Jones, and those guys?? Jeez.
OL: This has been the line for the past 3-4 weeks. Love no "ORs" and these guys have cohesion as units. That said, everything points to Dawson being the first guy off the bench with Bars coming on strong as of late.
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DL: Call me confused as well on the Henry/Wormley deal, but like I said...maybe Henry is Alan Branch 2.0?
LB: Love the depth and experience...we have four REALLY good LBs. I expect to see them all flying around with no dropoff.
CB: This makes sense...and if Stribling beat out Lyons, Clark and Watson...that may be saying something. However, I still wish like hell we had Countess. He and Mone make this defense SCARY good. Good to see Lewis listed after skipping the scrimmage.
FS: Wilson over Hill with no "OR"...some were calling Hill the 2nd best player on the defense (never bought that), but he's not chopped liver. Interesting that there's no OR and Wilson flat out won the starting job.
SS: :-)
...okay, I'm done. What's for dinner tonight?
August 31st, 2015 at 8:18 PM ^
September 1st, 2015 at 11:25 AM ^
His playing time has been really sporadic.
That said, I like Hill's upside as well, although I like him in the box as a SS, not at FS.
August 31st, 2015 at 8:38 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 8:49 PM ^
September 1st, 2015 at 6:03 AM ^
After review again...where's Wyatt Shallman?
September 1st, 2015 at 8:34 AM ^
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September 1st, 2015 at 10:54 AM ^
+2 Informative
August 31st, 2015 at 5:44 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 6:18 PM ^
Harbaugh said their might be an "OR" or two. There are 16: four offense/defense starters and every special teams position except snapper.
— Matthew Piper (@matthew_piper) August 31, 2015
August 31st, 2015 at 5:46 PM ^
Pretty good. Lyons switched to safety. I really like the safety depth and the back end of the D is about as solid as its been in many, many years.
August 31st, 2015 at 5:49 PM ^
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August 31st, 2015 at 6:49 PM ^
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August 31st, 2015 at 5:49 PM ^
Camp Rumorz for a while were that Strib and Clark were both playing really well and battling for the other corner spot. If our 2nd and 3rd corners are both 6'1"+ and beat out a solid, if unspectacular senior from Stanford...it'll make Mo Hurst's coach say yay.
August 31st, 2015 at 5:50 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 6:02 PM ^
Think he was injured at the students-only practice. They said he had his arm in a sling...
August 31st, 2015 at 5:51 PM ^
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August 31st, 2015 at 5:52 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 5:52 PM ^
Sigh.
(It's a happy, contented sigh.)
August 31st, 2015 at 6:05 PM ^
Until next year.
August 31st, 2015 at 6:11 PM ^
Sigh.
(It's a wistful, sad sigh).
August 31st, 2015 at 5:52 PM ^
Hoping he surpasses him at some point...the addition of a 6'7" pass-catcher adds much more value than a blocking tight end who is only sort of good at blocking in multiple TE sets
August 31st, 2015 at 7:11 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 5:54 PM ^
Hm. AJ Williams over Bunting?
Maybe Bunting is the #2 WR-TE and the #2 slot is your blocky TE
August 31st, 2015 at 8:48 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 5:53 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 5:55 PM ^
. . . Depth Charts
August 31st, 2015 at 5:55 PM ^
Least helpful ST depth chart ever
August 31st, 2015 at 5:58 PM ^
Though it's interesting to not see Jourdan Lewis...he had gotten mentioned as a returner candidate in a few places.
August 31st, 2015 at 6:59 PM ^
the seeming lack of equivalent depth (talent or experience) at CB as compared with Jehu and WR, particularly if Jourdan wasn't head and shoulders one of the top 2 options for returns.
Peppers = Peppers and rules do not apply
August 31st, 2015 at 6:03 PM ^
At least there is clear separation at long snapper.
August 31st, 2015 at 6:10 PM ^
But if there was an OR at Long Snapper...that would actually be really scary
August 31st, 2015 at 7:05 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 6:08 PM ^
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August 31st, 2015 at 5:56 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 6:57 PM ^
Drake Johnson should've ended it. He was clearly the best RB last season and didn't get serious burn time until the coaches churned through everyone in front of him.
If he was merely a late season bloomer I'd be like OK, but it took a broken bone to discover him. Hoke and Jackson had no idea what they were doing.
August 31st, 2015 at 7:25 PM ^
C'mon guys, it's not like there's a list of other backs who didn't get playing time at Michigan, transferred, had success, and then went on to the NFL.
Oh, wait...
August 31st, 2015 at 7:48 PM ^
You seem to be forgetting 2013. Before Johnson got hurt in the first game, he was expected to get a significant number of carries that season. So many people on this board were up in arms that the coaches didn't know what they were doing, playing a three star over DERRICK GREEN(!).
I think he got lost in the shuffle at the beginning of the year, last year, because he was working his way back from injury? No one really knows because of the resistance to talk about injuries...but I think your post is a lot of revisionist history on what the last staff thought of Drake Johnson.
August 31st, 2015 at 8:52 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 9:24 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 5:57 PM ^
I wonder if Harbaugh sees his blocky/catchy guys' listed positions as a purely arbitrary figure. Guys are gonna block, and they're gonna catch passes, whether from three yards off the line or wherever.
August 31st, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^
I think you're correct about the blocky/catchy guys. I also think the same thing might be happening on defense on the defensive line. Based on everything we've heard (Willie Henry playing End and Tackle, Mo Hurst playing End and Tackle, Chris Wormley playing End and Tackle), it seems that Durkin's defense, like Mattison's 4-3 Under, doesn't make much of a distinction at all between 5-tech and 3-tech. I think Durkin's ideal defensive line is three 300-pound guys and then one 260-pound edge rusher. We know who those big guys are. Wormley, Henry, and Glasgow. The order that they are in is almost beside the point.
I don't think the traditional Defensive End/Defensive Tackle dichotomy is meaningful at all here. The 5-tech (also called the SDE) is a 300-pound guy taking on double teams and the 3-tech (one of the DT's) is basically the same. I assume that all the big guys on defense (save maybe Glasgow) will essentially play both.
August 31st, 2015 at 5:58 PM ^
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August 31st, 2015 at 5:58 PM ^
The Willie Henry thing caught me off guard along with Channing Stribling.
Wayne Lyons? Where are you?
August 31st, 2015 at 6:11 PM ^
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August 31st, 2015 at 5:59 PM ^
Those special teams tho...
Poor Baxter having to work a miracle trying to fix those special teams.
Makes me nervous considering how close of a game Utah will be.
Field position will be huge, and let's hope it doesn't come down to a make/miss field goal.
August 31st, 2015 at 8:41 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 10:30 PM ^
August 31st, 2015 at 5:59 PM ^
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