Six Michigan players named to PFF’s top-100 prospects for 2024 NFL Draft

The Michigan Wolverines just had nine players drafted in the 2023 NFL Draft, and just days later we have folks making predictions about how next year will look.

Pro Football Focus dropped their top-100 prospects for the 2024 NFL Draft and six members of the maize and blue made the cut.

At the top of the list comes running back Blake Corum at No. 24 overall, making him the top running back on PFF’s board. He would have been among the top of the rankings in 2023 had he come out as well, with many expecting him to be one of the best backs in the draft. Several saw him as a mid-to-late second-round pick but with a repeat Heisman-hopeful season and a weaker class, he could rise to the first round, as PFF suggests.

Next up is right guard Zak Zinter. PFF lists him at No. 51 after being a part of consecutive Joe Moore Award-winning offensive lines. His positional versatility is going to have scouts raving. He’s one of the best run-blockers in the country and could see himself drafted rather high come 2024.

There is no question quarterback J.J. McCarthy has really high expectations coming into the 2023 season. If he shows improvement on his deep ball, he could be ranked even higher than the No. 58 overall prospect that PFF currently ranks him as. That’s the sixth-best quarterback in the class behind guys like Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and Oregon’s Bo Nix. McCarthy has a lot of room to grow here, and there is not a doubt in mind he can do things on the football field that some of the guys above him cannot. If there is any player on this list who can have an astronomical rise, it’s the man under center in Ann Arbor this season.

A second Michigan running back makes the cut inside the top-75 players in the class with Donovan Edwards at No. 62 overall. If Edwards wasn’t splitting a backfield with Corum, there is no doubt he would be much higher. He’s the best catch-passer at the position in the class and he’s not going to have a lot of miles on him. I think he could go much higher than what the consensus suggests (similar to Jahmyr Gibbs this season).

Center Drake Nugent transferred from Stanford and has received immediate attention from the national media. He’s got some big shoes to fill from Olu Oluwatimi leaving for the NFL. I doubt he is going to be considered a better prospect than the guy that came before him who was drafted in the fifth round of the 2023 Draft, but we will see if he lives up to the No. 72 overall ranking PFF gives him.

To round out the Wolverines is linebacker Junior Colson. He’s a two-time All-Big Ten selection, has been a starter since his true freshman season and is probably the best linebacker prospect to come from Michigan since Devin Bush. Colson was the No. 95 player in the 2021 recruiting class, and he is now No. 96 on PFF’s Big Board.

While six seems like a rather large number of Wolverines in the top-100, Ohio State leads the way with 12 and Georgia has seven of its own. USC and Texas have six to tie for third place among college programs with Michigan. Those five schools make up over one-third of the top-100 prospects, per PFF. That also may be why Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan and USC are four of the top five betting favorites for the 2024 National Championship.