The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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SEPTEMBER 2017 THE WOLVERINE 17 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS TheMMQB.com is SportsIllustrated.com's NFL-focused website run by longtime reporter Peter King. In late May, a group of 12 NFL experts gathered to conduct an all-time NFL Draft with any current or former player eligible to be selected. Three hundred players were drafted, with five of them hailing from U-M. The teams were revealed in mid-July, with quarterback Tom Brady unsurprisingly being the first former Wol- verine to hear his name called. It was, however, at least mildly shocking that he wasn't the first quarterback off the board — that honor went to Baltimore Colts Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas — and that Brady nearly fell out of the top 10. "Brady, as it turned out, lasted until the ninth pick, which was one of the upsets of the draft," King — who made the choice — wrote in his analy- sis of the exercise. After noting that he originally targeted legendary left tackle Anthony Muñoz, who was tabbed with the fifth pick, with his first choice, King explained that he "happily settled for Brady, whom [King] felt established himself as the greatest quarterback of all time with his record 25-point comeback in his record fifth Super Bowl victory last February." Here's a look at the Wolverines that represented U-M in the event, all five were taken in the top half of the draft: Pro Football Focus also conducted a fantasy draft of its own this summer that had some maize-and-blue flavor. It included only current players and had different stipula- tions — if the NFL started over today, who would each general manager want to start his team with? Both current professional and college players were eligible for what they termed "The Foundation Draft." Brady was affected by his age — the 18-year veteran turned 40 on Aug. 3 — and dropped to 11th overall. Not surprisingly, all 10 players selected before him were quar- terbacks much younger than the legendary leader. "If you said you could have a player at his current level of play forever, Brady likely would have gone first off the board in this draft. … His remaining career almost has to be shorter than all of those above him on this list, but it could have the highest ceiling in that time," the website noted. Analyst Gordon McGuinness justified his pick of Brady by noting: "I'll take the best guy who could help me win a ring in year one. … Brady was our highest-graded QB in the NFL last year. It goes beyond that, though — we've been grading since 2006 and in that span no QB has ever had a better season than Brady did in 2016." Despite the quarterback-heavy top of the draft, another former Wolverine snuck in at the end of the 32-pick exer- cise. Edge rusher Brandon Graham, who is 29 years old, was tabbed with the 31st selection by analyst Ryan Smith, who noted that a pass rusher is the second-most impor- tant position on the field after a quarterback and even if Graham's sack totals aren't huge, he's clearly affecting quarterbacks at a high rate. "Graham flies under the radar among the NFL's top defenders, because he has only totaled 33 sacks across his seven seasons, with no more than seven in a given year," the website noted. "But Graham is a more complete pack- age than a sack machine — he pressured quarterbacks 83 times in the regular season, the second-highest total in the league. If he can up his sack numbers even a little, he'll start to be discussed among the league's elite." — Ryan Tice Five-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady was the top former Wolverine selected in TheMMQB.com's all-time NFL Draft, coming off the board with the ninth pick of the first round. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS/DAVID SILVERMAN Wolverines Selected In Hypothetical Drafts Of The NFL's Best Of All Time And Today MICHIGAN'S SELECTIONS IN THEMMQB.COM'S ALL-TIME NFL DRAFT Pos.* Name (Years at U-M) Rd. Overall Pick NFL Teams (Years) QB Tom Brady (1996-99) 1 9 New England Patriots (2000-current) DE Len Ford (1945-47) 5 60 Los Angeles Dons (1948-49), Cleveland Browns (1950-57), Green Bay Packers (1958) OG Tom Mack (1962-65) 8 90 Los Angeles Rams (1966-78) CB Charles Woodson (1995-97) 9 102 Oakland Raiders (1998-2005, 2013-15), Green Bay Packers (2006-12) OT Dan Dierdorf (1967-70) 12 133 St. Louis Cardinals (1971-83) * Position indicates where the drafting general manager would have played each player