Michigan Football: Post-spring breakdown of scary deep WR room

Now that the NFL draft is over, we resume our position-by-position look at Michigan football’s roster, and here’s our breakdown of the wide receivers. 

Last year, Michigan football had the best rushing offense in the Big Ten. The passing offense ended up being pretty effective too and at 228 yards per game, ranked seventh in the Big Ten.

While the rushing offense should be among the Big Ten leaders once again in 2022. The pass offense should take a step forward. Michigan football will still be a run-first offense, but with tons of talent back at wide receiver, and both QBs also in place, the wideouts should shine in 2022.

Earlier we broke down the quarterbacks and running backs in our post-spring breakdown of the roster. We got a little sidetracked with the draft and all the portal stuff on the hoops side, but we dive back in here with a wide receiver group that’s as good as Michigan has had in over a decade.

Breaking down Michigan’s talented WR room

The first name usually mentioned is Andrel Anthony and for good reason. The rising sophomore is poised to have a breakout campaign in 2022.

But let’s not forget about Cornelius Johnson, who led Michigan in receptions (40) and yards last season (627). His diving catch against Ohio State was the stuff of legend and was also a turning point.

Johnson also caught the first touchdown pass against Wisconsin and in my opinion, he will be playing in the NFL someday. He’s 6-foot-3 and he can run in the 4.4 range.

In our post-spring depth chart, we are still projecting Ronnie Bell as the starter in the slot, because once he’s healthy, I don’t see how Michigan keeps him off the field.

Even when U-M had Donovan Peoples-Jones and Nico Collins, Bell was often the guy targeted on third downs and was stellar in 2019 and 2020. He looked well on his way to an even bigger season in 2021, before suffering a season-ending injury on a punt return.

With Bell back, Michigan’s top three should be Johnson, Anthony, and Ronnie. But don’t sell the others short. Roman Wilson is a starting-caliber player and he’ll get plenty of chances next season, plus there has already been tons of talk about how A.J. Henning will have a bigger role.

Then, you add in the talented trio of early-enrolled freshman receivers Darrius Clemons, Amorion Walker, and Tyler Morris, and it’s not hyperbolic to say the Wolverines are loaded.

And that’s not even mentioning Mike Sainristil who was the fourth-leading receiver last year with 21 receptions for 305 yards and a touchdown. He’ll be playing both ways according to the coaching staff and he was outstanding at cornerback in the spring game.

So Michigan can go nine deep at wide receiver –easily and that doesn’t even mention other talented dudes that can play like Christian Dixon or Eamonn Dennis.

Co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss said the wide receiver position was like a rich-people problem because the Wolverines have so much talent and only one football.

Weiss will need to get creative to get these guys touches and frankly, the staff did a great job of that last year, so I’m not concerned.

I also have no doubt that these receivers will make a huge impact this fall and it’s my view that outside of OSU, Michigan has more pass-catching talent than any team in the Big Ten.