Every Tuesday until the season begins TMBR will be counting down the "22 in '22 Wolverines to Watch". These are the twenty-two players with the best chance to make an impact ranked by their potential impact.

THE LIST: #22 DB Will Johnson | #21 OL Zak Zinter | #20 DL Kris Jenkins | #19 DB/WR Mike Sainristil | #18 WR Darrius Clemons | #17 EDGE Jaylen Harrell | #16 WR AJ Henning | #15 DE Taylor Upshaw | #14 TE Erick All | #13 DB Rod Moore

Rod Moore was the 25th player ranked out of Ohio in the 2021 class, a 3-star mostly pursued by MAC schools. Once Michigan came after Moore he was pretty locked into the Wolverines, pushing off later pursuits from the likes of Notre Dame.

One thing Michigan has done well under Jim Harbaugh is finding 5-star work ethic in 3-star rated players. Moore was a ball hawk in high school and showed incredible field awareness, perfect for a free safety. However, he was called undersized, "can he add the weight?" Plenty of non-tangible ways to doubt the obvious talent. The numbers didn't lie, despite a shortened senior season due to the pandemic, Moore had 5 interceptions in two seasons with 6 pass breakups. He also had over 150 tackles and forced 4 fumbles. Pretty solid numbers for a guy called "undersized".

The same work ethic and talent that attracted Michigan to Moore also got him on the field early as a freshman, breaking into the two-deep ahead of upperclassmen and higher-rated recruits. He played in 11 games and started 4, often filling the Dax Hill safety/nickel role. He was a tackling machine in 2021 with 32, including a career-high 9 in the win over Ohio State.

Moore was recruited before the change on defense was made, but it was a perfect fit for him. With Moore's football IQ and ability to read a developing play, he is perfect at free safety. His tackling ability helps keep a lid on the defense and allows him to impact the run game. He is also good enough in coverage that he can adjust to the nickel position so the defense can keep its multiple personnel on the field.

Moore was unable to compete fully in spring practice or the Maize and Blue Spring Game due to rehab from an injury. He is expected to be fully back for all fall practice activities.

On the depth chart, behind Moore is Makari Paige. A junior who Moore jumped last season when Dax Hill was injured. Zeke Berry is an incoming freshman who is certainly talented enough to see the field this fall and is the future at that position.

In Moore's absence, Mike Sainristil played on the defensive side of the ball and excelled at the nickel position. Initially called an experiment, the coaching staff has made it clear they expect Sainristil to be a contributor to the defense. An interesting comment came from Harbaugh recently regarding Sainristil when he was praising the three-way player and he said, "Now he's going to get some competition from Rod Moore who wasn't at spring."

I didn't know what to make of the quote because I thought Sainristil would be more of a true nickel, while Moore would be the FS hybrid we saw with Dax. I don't want to make any conclusions on this until fall camp begins and we see how the players are used. Minter has consistently called his defense Year 2 as a continuation from what we saw in 2021 and a big part of that scheme is the FS versatility and three safety looks.

I don't think the comment means Sainristil can take Moore's job. If anything, Sainristil will prove both players need to be on the field. After the question of "who replaces Hutch and Ojabo?" the next biggest one is "who replaced Dax Hill?". That player in 2022 is Rod Moore. Hill's ability to impact all levels of the defense was crucial to its success and Moore has the versatility to have that type of impact. So while everyone is worried about replacing the pass rush, new DC Jesse Minter believes the pass protection will facilitate the pass rush. That makes a guy like Rod Moore very important to the defensive scheme in 2022.

So far Moore has done nothing but exceed expectations, so I expect that trend to continue with Moore making a huge impact on Michigan's secondary.

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