Michigan Football: What we learned about the tight ends this spring

We continue our position-by-positon look at Michigan football post-spring ball and next up is tight end, where the Wolverines are loaded once again. 

Michigan football loves to use its tight ends, not only as pass-catchers but as key factors in the running game.

The Wolverines don’t really have true fullbacks on the roster and with the power spread that Michigan football has basically been running the past two seasons, that position doesn’t make much sense.

What’s dangerous is having tight ends that can block, split out wide, play in-line, as an H-back, and essentially, do it all.

Michigan football had multiple guys like that last season and by the looks of things, the Wolverines do this year too.

In my opinion, Colston Loveland has the potential to be a future first-round pick. That’s how impressed I was by him at the end of last season.

Loveland looked really good this spring too but he wasn’t the only one and here’s what we learned about tight end. Here are the links for quarterback, running back, and receiver too. 

What we learned about Michigan football tight ends this spring

The Wolverines lost some tight ends from 2022, notably, Luke Schoonmaker who is working his way up NFL draft boards. Frankly, I’d be shocked if he wasn’t off the board in the second round of the draft. He’s that good and he’s tested really well.

Erick All also transferred to Iowa; Louis Hansen transferred out as well and Joel Honingford expended his eligibility. That leaves a big void in the tight-end room for sure.

The good news is that Loveland and others are more than ready to fill it. Michigan football smartly added former Indiana tight end AJ Barner from the transfer portal. He started 10 games for the Hoosiers last season, with 28 receptions for 199 yards.

Barner was impressive during the spring game and the tandem of him and Loveland is a really good one. Both guys can block, move around, and are versatile. They are each going to be threats in the red zone too.

However, if fans were worried about the depth of the tight end position, they had to like what they saw from Matthew Hibner, especially during the spring game.

Barner caught three passes for 30 yards and a touchdown, while Loveland hauled in a 14-yard reception. Yet, Hibner had two receptions for 62 yards, including a 52-yard reception.

Hibner has been forgotten about a little, but with the way Michigan football uses its tight end, he’s going to see a lot of playing time this season and as far as the room in general, we learned this spring that it’s still one of the strengths of the team heading into 2023.