Michigan 2023 season preview: Edge

Fall camp is underway for the Michigan football team, and the Wolverines are gearing up for their most anticipated season in decades. With returning starters, an incoming transfer class with starter-caliber players and former top-flight recruits another year older waiting in the wings, Michigan is the No. 2 team in the country, and aims to build off of its two consecutive College Football Playoff appearances.

To get fans ready for the coming season, we’re taking a look at what to watch this season at each position group. We look at each position’s biggest strength, biggest question mark, a defining stat to watch, a position battle to watch, an X-factor player, make a bold prediction and break down the depth chart for the position group.

quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, offensive line and defensive line positions. Below, we look at the edge room.

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Biggest strength: Upside. This could probably be said to some degree about this position group every year at Michigan. But to the Wolverines' credit, it usually comes true. Even after losing three of their top four edge players in total snaps from last season (Mike Morris to the NFL, Eyabi Okie and Taylor Upshaw to the transfer portal), Michigan has four proven edge rushers, all of whom have tremendous upside.

Between Jaylen Harrell, Braiden McGregor and Derrick Moore, Michigan has 911 snaps, 54 tackles, 51 pressures and 7.5 sacks from last season coming back. In the Wolverines’ final three games last fall, the trio actually all played more snaps than Okie, Upshaw and Morris, earning valuable experience for the coming season. Moore and McGregor were former top-150 recruits, while Harrell already has 16 starts in his career, and has shown both consistency and room for be even better in those starts.