Michigan Football: 5 reasons to buy Wolverines as top-5 team in 2019

Michigan has talent and experience on both lines

While the Wolverines certainly have some key pieces leaving on the defensive line in Rashan Gary and Chase Winovich, two names that should be called fairly soon on draft day, there are some nice pieces on both sides of the ball.

The offensive line under the direction of Ed Warriner made huge strides in 2018, doing much better in both run blocking and pass protection. And the good news is that four of those five starters return and the fifth starter, which could be Andrew Stueber, who started the last few games of last season too. On top of that, the class of 2019 recruits has four 4-star offensive linemen.

That should afford Shea Patterson plenty of protection while opening some nice holes for the running game. On the other side of the ball though, Michigan also has some nice building blocks. Josh Uche and Kwity Paye combined for nine sacks and 13 TFL last season. Winovich and Gary combined for 8.5 sacks. Just saying.

Carlo Kemp and Michael Dwumfour were also solid players and give Michigan two starters at defensive tackle, with freshmen Hinton and Smith, as well as Donovan Jeter pushing for playing time. The Wolverines may add a grad transfer too but all in all, they are solid in both trenches.