Michigan Wolverines news: A new crystal ball in 2024, another to NFL, and more

In our latest Michigan Wolverines news roundup, a new crystal ball for Michigan football in the 2024 class, another player signs with the NFL and more. 

The NFL draft was a great time for the Michigan football program and its fans as the Michigan Wolverines had nine players drafted over the three days.

Michigan football even had a punter and kicker drafted, which means Jim Harbaugh has had a player drafted into the NFL at each position.

As far as recruiting, sending guys to the NFL with regularity certainly helps and now, the Michigan Wolverines are really checking all the boxes. Harbaugh has sent 32 more players to the NFL draft over the last seven years than Michigan football did in the seven years prior.

Beyond that, Michigan football is winning Big Ten championships and reaching the playoff. The Wolverines are becoming a destination program and that’s showing up on the recruiting trail.

Michigan football has the No. 1 ranked recruiting class right now in 2024 and another player was projected to join it on Sunday and that’s four-star EDGE Jacob Smith.

Smith is ranked 226h overall according to the On3 Industry rankings and EJ Holland of The Wolverine put in a new prediction for the Michigan Wolverines. His brother Jerod Smith just committed, so this seemed like it was only a matter of time.

Another Michigan Wolverines player signs rookie free agent deal

Another Michigan football player signed with an NFL team as a rookie on Sunday, as Joel Honingford, a tight end, will continue his playing career with the Arizona Cardinals.

Honigford is 6-foot-6, 260 pounds, and was a former offensive tackle. He was converted to a tight end and he was really effective for the Wolverines in that blocking role.

Honingford is going to turn into a pass catcher. However, this guy will do whatever it takes to win. He’s also a pretty solid athlete — moving from tackle to tight end and not skipping a beat — and it wouldn’t shock me if he made a 53-man roster at some point.

Special teams are key and tight ends/h-backs are the new fullback. Blocking and tackling still matter and in terms of run blocking, Honingford is one of the best in this draft class at tight end.

We’ll see what that means for his future, but it’s good to see him get his shot, which makes it 11 Michigan football players total heading to the NFL.

More Michigan Wolverines news

• The Michigan Wolverines won another Big Ten championship in women’s tennis over the weekend, making it back-to-back league titles for U-M. Making things even better was the fact that the fifth-ranked Wolverines beat 10th-ranked Ohio State to clinch the championship. Their NCAA tournament selection will come on Monday night.
• It was a rough weekend for the Michigan Wolverines on the diamond as both the baseball and softball teams were winless. The baseball team dropped two games to Oklahoma State by the scores of 8-5 and 5-3. The Wolverines were swept in softball by Indiana.