With the Big Ten scheduled to resume football on Oct. 24, I am resuming my preview series where I rank who will be the best 10 players in the Big Ten at each position in 2020. As of Aug. 5, I had analyzed eight position groups, and only the linebackers, cornerbacks and safeties remained. I am tackling the linebackers today and will cover the secondary the following two weeks.

June 17th: Quarterbacks

June 24th: Running Backs

July 1st: Wide Receivers

July 8th: Tight Ends

July 15th: Offensive Tackles

July 22nd: Interior Offensive Linemen

July 29th: Defensive Tackles

August 5th: Defensive Ends

September 30th: Linebackers

October 7th: Cornerbacks

October 14th: Safeties

To clarify, I am not ranking the best linebackers based on last year. Rather, I am projecting which players will stand out in 2020, taking into consideration the depth charts and schemes. Also, players who have opted out (and have not opted back in yet) will be excluded from this list.

This last point is important because Penn State’s Micah Parsons, who undoubtedly would be the Big Ten’s best linebacker this season, has opted out and is “thinking about [opting back in].” But Parsons has not opted back in yet. This means that the competition to be the Big Ten’s top linebacker this season is up for grabs, and two Wolverines should be right in the thick of it.

On that note, let’s unveil who will be the top 10 linebackers in the Big Ten in 2020.