Now that it is off-season (bleh) it's time to discuss 2017 and each posters team chances.
For Michigan, we will be probably more talented, but it is all completely unproven talent. A step back will happen almost assuredly, but 9 wins will still be the expectation. Having an experienced QB will be huge for us with the experience we lose at our offensive skill positions, but we have some elite WR talent on the roster. I liked how Bunting performed in the Orange Bowl in the absence of Butt, but it's still too early to tell.
Receiving corps will be extremely talented but unproven.
TE:
Ian Bunting: looked good against FSU, has potential to be another Jake Butt, but that remains to be seen
Devin Asiasi: I think he is going to have a huge year. Very talented big bodied TE, saw some looks this year, including a TD against PSU. He is probably the best TE we have had in years in terms of raw talent.
TJ Wheatley: Son of Michigan great(and current RB coach) Tyrone Wheatley. The kid is huge, was some talk of moving him to OT, but he has some receiving talent as well. Received very limited looks this year, but looked good in them(also had a TD)
WR:
Grant Perry: Has the potential to be a star, elite speed, has looked fantastic at times, but it is unknown how he will respond to being the top WR.
Drake Harris: been pretty disappointing so far, but he is still young, don't really know much about how he will perform, former highly rated recruit that we stole from Sparty.
Donovan Peoples-Jones: this kid has so much talent, could be the next huge star but is completely unproven as he will be a true Freshman this year.
Our oline is completely new almost so it is nearly impossible to gage how good they will be.
RB:
We lose Devion, but I see Kareem Walker stepping into his place nicely(RS Freshman, had some academic issues this year), the rest will be the same, but I think Evans has the best potential of them all, kid has some unreal speed.
Defense is gonna be worse, no doubt about it. We lose our entire dline(with the exception of Rashan Gary), and they will all be drafted, so that will be hard to replace. Greg Mattison is probably the most overqualified Dline coach in football though, so I still expect the line to be good.
LB:
Once again, the weak spot of our defense. (Likely) losing Jabrill is gonna be a huge blow(look at what Cool did to us without him), but McCray is coming back and the coaches rave about Devin Bush Jr, who played ST this year, and looked good in that limited role. The rest of our LB corp is a huge unknown though we have some talent.
CB:
Losing Jourdan Lewis and Channing Stribling is gonna hurt a lot, but hopefully Jeremy Clark gets his medical RS, to help there. We will have 2 young corners that were highly rated in David Long and Lavert Hill. Will be completely unproven though so this is a mystery.
S:
Dymonte Thomas was decent, but it's also hard to gage how his departure will affect the S spot.