Could Michigan Football add more OL through transfer portal?

Michigan football landed a commitment from transfer offensive lineman LaDarius Henderson this week. Despite that addition, the Wolverines could certainly poke around a few more names and may not be done adding. 

Despite top high school target Spencer Fano committing to Utah on Tuesday, it had to have been a good day for Michigan co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Sherrone Moore, as the Wolverines landed a commitment from Arizona State graduate transfer LaDarius Henderson. 

With Michigan Football likely set to lose at least two, probably three starters from its 2022 starting offensive line, landing instant impact pieces like Henderson makes sense.

With left tackle Ryan Hayes set to enter the NFL Draft by all accounts, Henderson could compete with Karsen Barnhart and/or Jeffrey Persi for that position, or potentially kick inside to guard if Zak Zinter or Trevor Keegan depart.

However, Michigan football does not appear to be done hitting the portal just yet, especially not at the offensive line, where two other targets stick out: Stanford offensive tackle Myles Hinton and Alabama offensive lineman Tommy Brockermeyer.

Both were heavily pursued by the Wolverines in their respective high school recruitments, and Myles Hinton’s brother, Chris, played for the Wolverines up through last season.

Brockermeyer is a former five-star recruit out of Fort Worth, Texas. Ranked as the #6 overall prospect on the 247Sports Composite, Brockermeyer chose Alabama over a host of options, including Michigan. However, his career has not shaped up so far to be the five-star expectations as he redshirted the 2021 season in Tuscaloosa and then only played special teams snaps this past fall, and dealt with injuries a bit as well.

However, Michigan appears to still be interested, with co-OC/OL coach Sherrone Moore recently following him on Twitter. Given that Brockermeyer still has several seasons of eligibility left, Moore would still have an opportunity to develop him at Michigan, something the Wolverines have done extremely well since Moore’s promotion.

And as for Myles Hinton, he is a bit more established, having started games across multiple seasons for the Cardinal program, which is in a bit of a state of disarray, coming off back-to-back 3-9 seasons. Head coach David Shaw, Jim Harbaugh’s heir in Palo Alto, resigned, and while the Cardinal continues to conduct its coaching search, it has seen a large exodus of current players hitting the portal, with the count in double-digits already.

Obviously, the interest here is dependent on Michigan’s scholarship numbers and ultimate need, but with Oluwatimi certainly gone, and Hayes and at least one starting guard departing, the Wolverines could certainly find additional help out of the portal, and the versatility of LaDarius Henderson would allow it to still be quite plausible that Michigan could add both Henderson and another plug-and-play starter like Hinton.

For example, should the Wolverines lose four of their five starters, with the aforementioned two and then both LG Trevor Keegan and RG Zak Zinter declaring for the NFL ranks, a 2023 new-look offensive line could certainly feature both LaDarius Henderson and Myles Hinton, with reserves like Karsen Barnhart, Giovanni El-Hadi, and Jeffrey Persi battling the incoming transfers for starting roles at multiple spots. Either way, the Wolverines will have some options, and could still pursue a handful of additional offensive linemen in the Transfer Portal.