Michigan OT Jalen Mayfield opts back in to the 2020 football season

Michigan Wolverines offensive tackle Jalen Mayfield — who recently declared for the 2021 NFL Draft — has decided to opt back in to the 2020 football season with the campaign officially back on in the Big Ten. Rivals’ The Wolverine was the first to report that Mayfield would be opting back in.

Mayfield had sought representation from an agent after he declared for the draft, but he was never compensated. Michigan also has wide receiver Nico Collins and defensive back Ambry Thomas as players that declared for the draft, though it remains to be seen if they will be brought back or not.

Mayfield, who pencils back in at right tackle, started every game for the Wolverines last season as a redshirt freshman and is expected to do the same in 2020. When he declared, there was no fall season and the potential of a spring season was up in the air, so he joined some of the other Big Ten prospects that had opted out and declared — including Purdue wide receiver Rondale Moore, Minnesota wide receiver Rashod Bateman and Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons. There is talk that Moore and Bateman could be among the Big Ten athletes that try to opt back in.

Here’s what we had to say about Mayfield as one of Michigan’s potential 2021 draftees earlier this year:

The average fan does not talk a whole heck of a lot about Mayfield, which for an offensive lineman is generally speaking is good thing. Mayfield is athletic with a long reach and scouts will no doubt be watching how he progresses in 2020 as a possible early entrant. He should be a factor at either left or right tackle and another offseason of training could make him a valuable prospect — maybe even a first rounder in 2021.

Mayfield was a four-star prospect and the No. 216 overall player in the class of 2018 out of Catholic Central HS in Grand Rapids, Michigan.