Michigan Football will miss Cesar Ruiz more than Peoples-Jones

Michigan football lost two talented players who declared for the NFL draft this week, but replacing Cesar Ruiz will be harder than Donovan Peoples-Jones.

There was always the chance that Michigan football was going to lose some key pieces on offense to the NFL draft and over the last couple of days, it was confirmed that both Cesar Ruiz and Donovan Peoples-Jones will enter the NFL draft.

Each player posted the news on their Twitter accounts and the truth is, neither exit is really surprising. Ruiz, who was the No. 1 center in the 2017 class, has been starting for three years now and clearly has the talent to be a top-50 pick and a starter for the next decade.

To me, Ruiz is a plug and play guy and he will also be much harder to replace than Donovan Peoples-Jones, who is extremely talented, but never live up to the hype of being the top-ranked wideout in the 2017 recruiting class. He did have one epic play against Michigan State that will live on forever though.

It’s true that Peoples-Jones was hampered by poor quarterback play, especially during his freshman season, but even with Shea Patterson, he never had more than 612 yards in a season.

He caught 22 passes for 227 yards as a freshman, then 47 for 613 as a sophomore, followed up by 34 receptions for 438 yards this past season in 11 games. He also caught 14 touchdowns, all of them coming in 2018 and 2019.

I get that Patterson wasn’t a perfect quarterback either, however, Peoples-Jones also had issues with drops and not getting open. He’s a bigger guy at 6-foot-2 and his route running is going to need some work.

Yet, he has shown flashes of being able to do things after the catch and has shown promise on jump balls too. Having an elite deep-ball passer in the NFL would make a big difference too.

As far as Michigan football is concerned though, the loss of Peoples-Jones may not sting as much as some might think. It will depend largely on what Nico Collins decides to do, but if he’s back, the Wolverines won’t skip a beat.

Ronnie Bell was already the leading receiver this past season and he returns along with Giles Jackson, Mike Sainristil and Cornelius Johnson, not to mention incoming freshmen A.J. Henning, Roman Wilson and Eamonn Dennis.

Without Peoples-Jones, Michigan will miss a big target in the red zone and going down the field, yet Collins can certainly fill that role, with help from speedsters like Johnson and Wilson. Jackson also shown a penchant for making big plays this season.

Furthermore, Josh Gattis‘ system fits the quick guys better, the one that can take five-yard passes and turn them into 20 or 30-yard gains. You still need those guys that can win 50/50 balls, so hopefully, Collins does return, but Michigan should be just fine without DPJ.

At center, it’s another issue. Zach Carpenter is a guy many believe will step into that role and while he’s capable of potentially being a solid starter, it’s hard to see him being as good as Ruiz, who was probably underappreciated by fans as most centers are.

Ruiz was a force in the running game and out of the starters Michigan will lose on the offensive line, he’s going to be the toughest to replace. In fact, he might be the toughest guy to replace on the entire team.