Michigan Football: Offensive line looks like major strength in 2019

The offensive line has been a work in progress under head coach Jim Harbaugh. But now, it looks like it will be a strength of Michigan football in 2019.

It’s been interesting to see how many pundits are picking Michigan football to win the Big Ten championship and advance to the College Football Playoff.

Throughout the last few weeks and with Big Ten Media Days coming last Thursday and Friday, it’s the ideal time for prognostications and whether it’s local beat writers or Bruce Feldman, a national college football reporter, lots of people are picking the Wolverines.

Maybe one of the most overlooked reasons why so many are high on Michigan football is the offensive line.

The Wolverines return four guys — Jon Runyan Jr., Cesar Ruiz, Michael Onwenu and Ben Bredeson — who each earned some kind of All-Big Ten honors last season and Tuesday, all four players made the Outland Trophy watch list.

The Outland goes the best offensive lineman in college football and the Wolverines are one of two just two teams, with Oregon being the other, to get four nominees on the offensive front.

If there was a guy that could realistically win the award, my guess might be Ruiz, who in my eyes, has always had the most NFL potential of this group, even though Onwenu, Bredeson and Runyan could all have futures in the league too. Runyan was the only one to earn First-Team All-Big Ten.

Ruiz was the top-ranked center in his class back in 2017 and offers unique size for the position at 6-foot-4, 320 pounds. He also very agile for a man his size and after a tremendous campaign in 2018, he should be an absolute force this season.

While many have focused on the talent of quarterback Shea Patterson or that of wideouts Donovan Peoples-Jones and Nico Collins, you can make a case that the experience and depth along the offensive line are among the offense’s top assets.

If Jalen Mayfield is able to beat out Andrew Stueber for the right tackle job, the offensive line will be even more talented. Stueber is solid and will do a commendable job if he is the starter, but the future is Mayfield. He’s more talented, more athletic and if he continues what he did in the spring, he will have a good chance to start.

The offense under Josh Gattis is a spread system, but the running game is still important and the offensive line will be key in making that effective. The pass protection will also need to improve with Michigan likely keeping fewer guys in the box for protection purposes.

Yet, when you really look at this offensive line and I mean the starters, the depth and the young talent, there is no question this could be the best front five in the Big Ten. It has that look right now in the preseason anyway.

And if Michigan football can live up to that and dominate in the trenches offensively, as it did for most of last season, it should have a great chance to finally beat Ohio State and maybe, just maybe, end the 15-year drought without a Big Ten title.