This is the next installment of my preview series where I rank who will be the best 10 players in the Big Ten at each position in 2020 (presuming there is a season of course). Last week, I began tackling the defensive side of the ball with the defensive tackles. Now, we move to defensive ends.
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
August 12th: Linebackers
August 19th: Cornerbacks
August 26th: Safeties
To be clear, I am not ranking the best defensive ends based on last year. Rather, I am projecting which players will stand out in 2020, taking into consideration their depth charts and schemes.
Whereas the Big Ten does not return much experienced talent in the middle of its defensive lines this season, the Big Ten does on the ends. Yes, the conference may have lost its seven best graded defensive ends from last season according to Pro Football Focus (PFF). However, among qualified returning defensive ends, the league still returns three of the 20 who had the best PFF grades in FBS, and no other Power 5 conference has more. The Big Ten should be very skilled and deep at this position yet again, and the Wolverines have two candidates for the very top spot on this list.
On that note, let’s unveil who will be the top 10 defensive ends in the Big Ten in 2020.