2022 U-M football fan survey (Part 2): Your thoughts on Cade vs. JJ, players to watch in 2022 and more
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Late last month, I sent out the 2022 U-M football fan survey to newsletter subscribers. Your response was overwhelming in the best way possible, and rather than have the results of that survey go up in a massive 20,000 word novel, I decided to break this up into a three-newsletter project. One that looks at responses about the coaching staff, one that looks at responses about player personnel and one that looks at expectations for the season ahead and where Michigan stands as a program. The coaching results/breakdown already dropped — here’s a link to that if you missed it the first time around. Today’s newsletter focuses on all things Michigan players, and covers the seven questions you answered about that topic — and yes, that includes questions about the QB battle, a discourse I’m largely trying to avoid on Twitter this offseason.
Let’s get to it:
Question 1: Which players do you consider to be the most valuable players on the current roster?
Everyone was instructed to select the 10 players they’d choose as the 10 most valuable members of the roster — in no particular order. Here’s how the top 25 ended up shaking out based on your votes (there were 10-15 additional players who also received votes, but I decided to cut it off at the top 25 for the sake of bandwidth):
1. RB Blake Corum (85.2%)
2. RB Donovan Edwards (77.4%)
3. QB JJ McCarthy (77.1%)
4. QB Cade McNamara (73.5%)
5. WR Ronnie Bell (65.9%)
6. DL Mazi Smith (63.1%)
7. TE Erick All (60.1%)
8. LB Junior Colson (54.2%)
9. OL Zak Zinter (50.8%)
10. OL Olu Oluwatimi (48%)
11. K Jake Moody (46.1%)
12. DB DJ Turner (42.2%)
13. DL Mike Morris (30.4%)
14. WR Andrel Anthony (25.4%)
15. DB Will Johnson (24%)
16. OL Ryan Hayes (22.3%)
17. DB Rod Moore (20.7%)
18. DB/WR Mike Sainristil (16.8%)
19. OL Trevor Keegan (15.9%)
20. P Brad Robbins (13.7%)
21. WR AJ Henning (10.3%)
22. WR Cornelius Johnson (8.7%)
t-23. DL Kris Jenkins (8.4%)
t-23. DL Taylor Upshaw (8.4%)
25. LB Nikhai Hill-Green (7.3%)
My thoughts: Since this question covers the most ground, let’s tackle it in takeaway format:
Offense leads the way: It’s pretty telling at the top. All five of the top players on the list are offensive players. Expand it to the top 10 and you’re looking at 80% of the players being from the offense. It shouldn’t strike anyone as a surprise, given what the defense lost this offseason, but it should drive the message home even deeper if it hasn’t sunk in yet: the 2022 team’s identity will be different from the 2021 team’s. Aidan Hutchinsons, David Ojabos and Daxton Hills don’t grow on trees, and it’s going to take a little bit of time and development to get people to adequately step in and replace that production.
Two QBs in the top 4: If fans of pretty much any other college football program in the country did this same exercise, I can’t imagine too many (if any?) programs would have this same result: two QBs in the top 4 in terms of overall value. We’ll talk more about QBs later in this newsletter as I examine your choices for which QB you expect to play the most snaps this season and which QB you want to play the most snaps this season.
High hopes for Will Johnson: Everyone I’ve spoken to about Johnson as both a person and an athlete makes me feel like he’s up for the task, but it’s certainly a bit of a “setting him up to fail”-type situation to have Johnson be ranked in the top 15 without playing a snap of football beyond the high school level. The uniqueness of his placement on this list is only amplified by the fact that he’s the only freshman to make this list. Welcome to Ann Arbor, kid.
Where are the offensive linemen? While there was no shortage of offensive talent at the top of this list, there was a shortage of representation from the offensive trenches. And that’s weird timing, given that you could argue the heart and soul of last year’s team was its offensive line — just ask our friends in Columbus. None of the top 8 players were members of the offensive line, despite the fact that Michigan returns the majority of its starters from its best-in-the-nation OL last year, plus the Wolverines added a Rimington Award finalist this offseason through the portal (Olu Oluwatimi).
A few players higher than expected: Mazi Smith seems a little high at No. 6. If we’re ranking the most important players, he’d definitely be up that high — and maybe even higher. But if we’re talking proven talent/value/production, he’s still heavier in the “potential” category for me than he is in the “proven” category (Smith was second behind Chris Hinton in DT snaps last season). Maybe that’s a little unfair to him and more a product of him playing a position that doesn’t generate a lot of statistics. But I’d have a hard time making him my No. 1 draft pick on the defense if my task was to select the most valuable player on that side of the ball. I’d have him just above someone like Mike Morris — another DL I expect a lot from this fall, but hasn’t exactly proven it on the field yet. If I’m being honest, the next choices for “ranked too high” would probably have to be the QBs. I understand the reasoning for both being ranked high — Cade McNamara just became the first Michigan QB to lead the team to a Big Ten title since Chad Henne, and J.J. McCarthy is one of the highest-rated players to sign with Michigan out of high school in program history — but for both to be in the top 5 with pretty glaring reasons for why that may be premature (McNamara’s lack of eye-popping stats as a starter and his “game manager” reputation and McCarthy’s lack of on-field experience to show his potential will match his production) seems a bit much.
A few players lower than expected: I’m glad to see Jake Moody got the respect he deserved (No. 11 on the list, appearing on 46% of ballots), but Brad Robbins is just as valuable of a member of this team and he only appeared on 13% of the ballots, coming in at No. 20 on the list. He was underrated last season and it appears that will be the case again heading into this fall. Cornelius Johnson probably takes the cake for the most criminally underrated on this list, though. Michigan’s leader in receptions and receiving yards last season (and co-leader in receiving touchdowns) was the fifth WR on this list, and the sixth pass-catcher. I agree that Ronnie Bell should be higher and I understand the argument for Erick All, too. But placing Andrel Anthony, AJ Henning and Mike Sainristil all over Johnson is a disservice to the production Johnson gave last season and the ability he has to do the same thing again this fall. It is a great sign of the depth this WR room has this fall, though, especially since newcomer Darrius Clemons didn’t even crack the list (more on him in the next question).
My selections: For what it’s worth, these were my 10 (in no particular order) — Corum-Edwards-Bell-McNamara-McCarthy-All-Zinter-Colson-Turner-Smith
(my next five would have been Oluwatimi-Morris-Moody-Robbins-Johnson). But woof, that’s a tough exercise to do right there. Much harder than last year, which I guess is a good problem to have in terms of program depth.
Question 2: Which incoming freshmen are you most excited about this fall?
Everyone was instructed to select the five freshmen they’re most excited about for this fall — in no particular order. Here’s how the 22-person class ended up ranking from top to bottom based on this criteria: