Another concern for Michigan football defense is melting away

There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the Michigan football defense heading into the 2024 season.

The Wolverines lost some key starters from last season's national championship team. There's no doubt about that. Mike Sainristil, Kris Jenkins, Rod Moore (injury), Josh Wallace, Junior Colson, Jaylen Harrell, Michael Barrett and Braiden McGregor are some of the departures.

Michigan football lost both of its starting linebackers. The good news is that Ernest Hausmann, who was the third linebacker a season ago, will step in as a starter along with Jaishawn Barham who was honorable mention All-Big Ten the past two seasons with Maryland.

Barham has been turning heads since spring ball and not much dropoff is expected even though he's part of replacing two NFL draft picks.

Barnham and Hausmann will be as good as any tandem in the Big Ten. I don't see there being any dropoff. However, when Hausmann was the No. 3, there was some concern about the depth and it's hard to get through a season with just two linebackers.

Jimmy Rolder is taking a step forward for Michigan football

That's where Jimmy Rolder comes in. The former four-star recruit played well in his first season but was hurt for most of last season and played in just six games.

There was a concern if he would be ready to take on the No. 3 role and now, according to a new report from Chris Balas that says he's been "making plays all over", that no longer feels like a concern.

At 6-foot-2, 240 pounds, the former blue-chip prospect played in just five games last season after playing in 14 in 2022 as a freshman. Now that Rolder is 100 percent, we can expect his production to take a jump.

It was a big question heading into fall camp and so far, it seems like we have an answer in the affirmative.