PFF lists multiple Wolverines as top players in CFB

Pro Football Focus, an analytical football analysis company, released several top-25 lists for multiple positions for the upcoming college football season.

Michigan players found their names on a variety of the many preseason lists PFF released this summer.

Senior tight end Erick All is the sixth-best tight end in the country heading into the fall, according to PFF.

All was most remembered for his game-winning 47-yard touchdown at Penn State to keep the Wolverines in the race for the Big Ten East title, which they eventually won.

The Ohio native registered 437 yards on 38 catches and two touchdowns in 2021.

PFF chose All, along with Georgia's Arik Gilbert, as the two biggest sleepers at the position.

"After an underwhelming first two years on campus, All is starting to finally develop into the player Michigan was expecting. The 2019 four-star recruit earned a 75.4 receiving grade last year, more than 30 grading points higher than his 2020 mark.

The 6-foot-4, 245-pound tight end looks to impose his will in the running game, recording five big-time run-blocks en route to a 76.4 run-block grade this past season. The latter ranked eighth among Power Five tight ends with at least 200 such snaps."

Three other Big Ten tight ends made the list, but All ranked the highest.

10. Sam LaPorta, Iowa

17. Payne Durham, Purdue

20. Brevyn Spann-Ford, Minnesota

Michigan's top wideout from two seasons ago is back after missing all but one game in 2021 due to an ACL tear on a punt return in the home opener.

Despite playing only one game, Bell had arguably the best catch of the season, though it didn't count (and we still don't know why).

Bell is back in 2022, and PFF thinks the table is set for the former hooper turned future NFL wideout to have a monstrous return.

Ranked No. 19 overall on the list of college football's best wide receivers, Bell, along with Maryland's Dontay Demus, Jr., are listed as the "biggest projections" among those on the list.

"Like Demus, Bell is also coming off a major knee injury. He missed nearly the entire 2021 season after going down in Week 1. When healthy in his four years at Michigan, the 6-foot, 192-pound receiver has been a productive after-the-catch threat, breaking 22 tackles and averaging 9.7 yards after the catch from 81 receptions."

Six other Big Ten wideouts made the list:

1. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ohio State ("The Top Dog")

13. Parker Washington, Penn State

14. Dontay Demus, Jr., Maryland ("Biggest Projections")

16. Rakim Jarrett, Maryland

18. Mitchell Tinsley, Penn State ("Biggest Sleeper")

20. Jayden Reed, Michigan State

Michigan's offensive line unit won the Joe Moore Award last season as the nation's best o-line group.

The scary thing is that they might be better in 2022, largely due to the transfer of Virginia center Olu Oluwatimi, who comes to Ann Arbor following a 2021 campaign in Charlottesville, where he was a Rimington Award finalist as one of the nation's three-best centers.

According to PFF, Olu is the No. 5 interior offensive linemen, which includes centers and guards.

He is the third-highest ranked center on the list, behind Notre Dame's Jarrett Patterson and Minnesota's John Michael Schmitz.

Five other interior linemen from the Big Ten made the list:

4. C Schmitz, Minnesota

6. C Luke Wypler, Ohio State

16. G Matthew Jones, Ohio State

17. C Joe Tippman, Wisconsin

19. G JD Duplain, Michigan State

Michigan left tackle Ryan Hayes took an enormous leap last year alongside right tackle Andrew Stueber, who is now in the league.

Hayes is likely next to make himself a professional lineman, along with Oluwatimi, in the 2023 NFL Draft.

"The expectation — the thing that he's working for — is to put a real exclamation point on that with a fabulous senior year. And, hopefully, one of the best offensive tackles in the Big Ten and the country," Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said earlier this offseason.

Through six games last season, Hayes played more snaps than anyone on the roster. PFF expects his ascension to continue this fall.

Three other Big Ten tackles made the list, ranking all three in the top five.

1. Peter Skoronski, Northwestern

2. Dawand Jones, Ohio State

5. Paris Johnson, Jr., Ohio State

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