Michigan football sets another NFL Combine record

Michigan football set an NFL Combine record with 18 participants in the 2024 edition but it wasn’t the only record set by Team 144. According to the NFL Network, the six Michigan football offensive line in attendance at the NFL Combine is also a record.

As Karsen Barnhart goes through a drill, the NFL Network broadcast reveals that Michigan having six offensive linemen at the combine is a record by a school. https://t.co/5P2rruFPeV

— TheWolverine.com (@TheWolverineOn3) March 3, 2024

Michigan football sets combine record with six O-line invites

Karsen Barnhart, LaDarius Henderson, Trente Jones, Trevor Keegan, Drake Nugent, and Zak Zinter were each invited to the NFL combine and there’s a good chance that all six are drafted into the National Football League. At the very least, they will get rookie free-agent contracts. Zinter and Keegan are two guys who could start day one, as long as Zinter is healthy and he said he would be this week, at least when football season starts.

Nugent was solid at the center position this season and Trente Jones also has a bright future. He faced some NFL pass rushers down the stretch playing tackle and more than held his own. He’s also an elite run blocker and you could do much worse than Trente Jones as your swing tackle. He could even be a starting guard. Barnhart is also a guy who’ll be better playing guard than tackle and filled in well for Zinter too. Barnhart isn’t Zinter but he’s damn good. At guard, he’s another guy who could be a steal for an NFL franchise.

Michigan football offensive line draws high praise

This isn’t the first time that the Michigan football offensive line has been brought up in a positive light this week. Daniel Jeremiah, a draft expert for NFL Network, reported that an NFL O-line coach around the league said that the Wolverines prospects are “two years ahead” of other prospects in terms of their “knowledge, understanding, and maturity.”

An offensive line coach in the NFL said “the Michigan guys are like 2 years ahead of everybody in terms of their knowledge, understanding, and maturity.”
pic.twitter.com/Bke39XJngZ

— Wolverine Chronicle (@WolverineChron) March 2, 2024

That’s quite an endorsement of Sherrone Moore. It also tells you something about the way Michigan has been able to develop those guys. With Moore taking over as head coach and Grant Newsome as his hand-picked replacement, there is zero reason to believe the play of the offensive line is going to drop off at all.

And if Michigan football can continue to be elite in the trenches, it will go a long to sustaining the recent run of success the Wolverines have had, which just so happened to coincide with Moore taking over as the offensive line coach for Ed Warinner. That was one of Jim Harbaugh’s best moves as head coach and it’s a big reason why the Wolverines are the defending national champions of college football.

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