The 2016 NFL Draft was the year of the Buckeye, and 2017 might be the year of the Wolverine.
With a senior-heavy team loaded with pro potential, Michigan's latest injection of talent into the NFL is shaping up to be awfully heavy. In fact, NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said NFL scouts have identified up to two dozen Wolverines who could find themselves in an NFL training camp next summer.
"Scouts that went through there said they wrote up 24 players from Michigan that could be on a training camp roster next year," Jeremiah said on Saturday during the East-West Shrine Game broadcast on NFL Network.
Of course, an appearance on a training-camp roster means neither that a player will be drafted, nor that he will ultimately make the team. But to have 24 worthy of a chance to try speaks to the quality of players coach Jim Harbaugh had under his watch in 2016. Harbaugh himself has said he can see 10 or more Michigan players getting a draft call. Earlier this week, OL Erik Magnuson said he thinks Michigan can top Ohio State's total of 12 draftees from last year.
Versatile defender Jabrill Peppers is the only Michigan player entering the 2017 draft as an underclassman, a stark contrast to Ohio State's loss of nine underclassmen last year. Instead, the NFL will draw the vast majority of Wolverines from a senior class that includes DEs Chris Wormley and Taco Charlton, WRs Jehu Chesson and Amara Darboh, CB Jourdan Lewis, TE Jake Butt, RB De'Veon Smith, Magnuson and others.
It sounds like plenty of Michigan seniors who aren't on the draft radar are considered, at least, to be worthy of a look as an undrafted free agent.
As a growing number of schools are publishing graphics touting their NFL presence for recruiting purposes, it looks like Michigan will have a fine chance to do the same in the coming months.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
