Oklahoma transfer Taylor Tatum is reportedly moving to safety<\/a> to begin his career in Ann Arbor.<\/p>\nStarters: Andrew Marsh, Jaime Ffrench, JJ Buchanan<\/p>\n
Depth: Channing Goodwin, Salesi Moa, Jamar Browder, Travis Johnson, Kendrick Bell, I\u2019Marion Stewart, Jaylen Pile, C.J. Charleston, Jacob Washington<\/p>\n
If you want to talk about positional upgrades, look no further than wide receiver, as the room now has about eight guys that could realistically get plenty of snaps in 2026.<\/p>\n
Andrew Marsh is undoubtedly at the top of the depth chart after putting up one of the best true freshman seasons we\u2019ve seen from a Michigan receiver in years with 41 catches for 651 yards and four touchdowns. Right behind him is Texas transfer Jaime Ffrench, who redshirted last year but still boasts plenty of talent that should be put to good use in Beck\u2019s scheme.<\/p>\n
JJ Buchanan is a bit of an interesting case, as Utah listed him as a tight end but he lined up in the slot more often than not. At the end of the day, it doesn\u2019t really matter what he\u2019s listed as as long as he\u2019s catching passes like he was brought in to do.<\/p>\n
A bit further down the depth chart, Michigan has a handful of players that could make an impact and see the field plenty. Channing Goodwin and Jamar Browder are both holdovers from last years\u2019s team \u2014 Goodwin was the more productive of the two with 148 yards, but the 6-foot-5 Browder could take a step forward in his second year in college. Kendrick Bell is in a similar boat, as he could make a leap with the new coaching staff.<\/p>\n
In addition to the returnees, Michigan brings in three freshmen, and two of them could see the field quickly. Two-way player Salesi Moa transferred in after being briefly enrolled at Utah and was one of the higher rated recruits in the country. He has the skills to make an impact as a pass-catcher right away, but we\u2019ll have to see how the coaching staff wants to utilize him first. Travis Johnson could similarly see immediate playing time.<\/p>\n
Depth: Hogan Hansen, Deakon Tonielli, Jalen Hoffman, Eli Owens<\/p>\n
Zack Marshall may be in line to take over as Michigan\u2019s starting tight end in 2026. He unexpectedly broke out as a junior last season, catching 16 passes for 199 yards. However, Hogan Hansen shouldn\u2019t be too far behind him in the pecking order. He was expected to take a leap in 2025, but injuries kept him off the field for most of the season. If he\u2019s fully healthy through the spring and performs well, he could claim the top spot.<\/p>\n
Deakon Tonielli and Jalen Hoffman are both entering their senior seasons, but neither have proven much from a pass-catching standpoint. Tonielli had just eight receptions for 72 yards in 2025, while Hoffman operated more as depth behind Max Bredeson at H-back; he did have 148 yards in the spring game though, suggesting there could be some more receiving potential to be unlocked.<\/p>\n
Regardless of how you want to stack the depth chart here, Michigan should rotate all these players into the lineup a good amount throughout the year.<\/p>\n
Starters: Blake Frazier (LT), Evan Link (LG), Jake Guarnera (C), Nathan Efobi (RG), Andrew Sprague (RT)<\/p>\n
Interior depth: Brady Norton, Houston Ka\u2019aha\u2019aina-Torres, Lawrence Hattar, Luke Hamilton, Adrian Hamilton<\/p>\n
Tackle depth: Andrew Babalola, Avery Gach, Marky Walbridge<\/p>\n
Much like wide receiver and tight end, there are plenty of ways Michigan could combine the offensive line and still make it work. However, the best combination to start the spring will feature several returning starters. Blake Frazier and Andrew Sprague should be the tackles, while Evan Link moves to guard. Jake Guarnera should take over at center, while Nathan Efobi gets another shot at right guard.<\/p>\n
Behind the starters, there are several good depth pieces that could push for starting roles. Chief among them is redshirt freshman Andrew Babalola, who could have been a starter last year if he didn\u2019t suffer a knee injury during fall camp. Additionally, Brady Norton got some starting experience at guard last year, but seemed to be overwhelmed at times; perhaps another year of strength and conditioning training at the FBS level has done him some good and he\u2019ll be more apt to push Efobi for the starting right guard job.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, several newcomers and young players will also look to take steps forward. Houston Ka\u2019aha\u2019aina-Torres comes in after redshirting at Nebraska last year, Avery Gach is a player that many are expecting to take a step forward this offseason, and college veteran Lawrence Hattar returns after transferring in last year.<\/p>\n
One caveat to the offensive line\u2019s depth chart is the absence of prized four-star recruit Malakai Lee, who was originally set to enroll early but will now wait until the summer to join the team. He has a college-ready frame at 6-foot-7 and 350 pounds, and could compete for a tackle spot in the two-deep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the transfer portal window closed, high school recruiting all but wrapped up and the dust fully settled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,580,52438,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-706608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-michigan-football","10":"tag-michigan-football-analysis","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115962104086227255","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}