That’s true. Armstrong, Lunt, and Leidner being mediocre hurt the conference’s QB depth. But, between the low quality of what’s returning and the unknown of the new faces, would you bet against Speight to again be a top 1/3 B1G QB? The only hangup, for me, is the entirely new receiving corps.
You’re probably right, that he was better than one would think. It’s hard to get passed the 3 TOs that resulted in a pick-six, lost fumble on the OSU goal-line, and pick that turned into a OSU TD 3 plays later (that’s essentially -21 points in 3 plays). The pick-six was hardly his fault, though. And he clearly wasn’t physically capable of throwing it deep, due to injury.
WRs lack experience but certainly more explosive/athletic in my view. Crawford is already a good blocker
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Hard to argue that with DPJ, and Wheatley/Asiasi getting more reps. But I think we had the best receiving corps in the conference, even with an under-performing Chesson, so regression is to be expected–even if it’s not certain. More catches for Evans/Isaac could also help the transition.
I expect DPJ to lead the team in receiving yards.
Absolutely not, I agree with you there. Last year he was and this year if he starts he will be again. However, I think it’s important to remember just how bad the Big Ten quarterbacks are. That’s why I think Michigan is in a better place than many others do for next year. We’re one of the only teams that knows for sure they’ll be getting something good out of the most important position. Of course it doesn’t help that one of the other teams, Penn State, is in our division (I know many would say Barrett too, but if I were an OSU fan I’d be very concerned with him based on the season as a whole and especially the last 3 games, in which he was awful).
Magnus/Thunder here, speaking up for myself in regard to Bredeson. I say he was a C+ player in the Big Ten because Michigan had a decent OL. It wasn’t as bad as some suggest. If you look at some of the advanced stats for the OL, for example, Michigan was #7 in the Big Ten in Adjusted Line Yards. Michigan was #5 in Adjusted Sack Rate. Bredeson got movement at times and didn’t get bullied physically. He had a very bad game against Florida State, and maybe that sticks in people’s minds due to the recency effect. But Kyle Kalis really struggled against Ohio State and Iowa. Mason Cole really struggled with big nose tackles against Colorado and Wisconsin. The whole OL got destroyed by FSU. Every player had his ups and downs.
Personally, I think Kalis was the weak link on the unit if we’re going by the last third of the season. He struggled in pass pro and didn’t get movement at the LOS. I don’t know if he got injured or worn down or what, but he went downhill.
This is a league that included some crappy teams (Purdue, Rutgers, etc.) and some good ones (Penn State, Ohio State). Michigan was roughly in the middle. When Bredeson knew whom to block - which was most of the time - he did fairly well. When he didn’t, he really struggled.
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Keeping with this, here’s his QBR over the last three seasons:
2014: 83.0
2015: 68.7
2016: 56.2
That is quite a worrisome trend for them.
Exactly, either Speight, or a Peters who was capable of beating Speight, will be a real luxury. As 2015 Sparty can attest, a great QB can cover up all kinds of deficiencies. I’m so afraid that Wilson is going to fix Barrett; Urban just has a knack for finding the perfect patches for each new season’s holes.
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Thanks for the input and stopping by.
Wilson is more of an OL guy, although he’s had some brief stints as QB coach. I’m interested to see how the Wilson/Barrett combo works. Wilson’s OU and IU offenses really thrived when they had a very accurate passer. That is not Barrett.
Not to mention the loss of Samuels as a threat. I’m feeling more comfortable by the day for The Game, whereas prior to this season I thought it was a guaranteed loss based on all of our departures.
2014 Barrett was accurate, and the worst-case scenario for the rest of B1G; just hoping Wilson doesn’t help him rediscover that form. Im with MattD though, losing their secondary and Samuels is like losing 2/4 of their roster strengths (keeping most of the D-line and Barrett’s legs are serious tools)
+/- is exactly what it seems like as a heading system from watching film as a journalist.
0 is basically doing your job. For OL pull or trap or get to a spot and wall off a defender.
+1 is blowing a guy up at the point of attack.
+2 is get a destructive chip, then destroy a 2nd level defender.
-1 go the wrong way or pushed back into the play
-2 guy shows blitz in your gap, you go somewhere else and he turns devin gardner into a shell of himself.
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Thought everyone would get a kick out of this
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Here’s what Brian said about Ben Bredeson in his first look at 2017: “Flat out bad most of the year”
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Exactly lol. And that coming from the man that actually performed the UFR grading, so he’s obviously in the best position to convert UFR grading to laymen terms for non-football experts.
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Pumped for this kid but wow does he need to hit the gym
Having a QB with a bit of speed will be nice. There are times where it looks like Speight has a lane to run for a decent gain and gets tackled 4 yards short of the first down.
While Speight certainly isn’t fast, his ability to elude defenders in small spaces is absolutely elite in my opinion.
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