Michigan Football Chatter: Thoughts On Dax Hill, Joe Milton, Nico Collins

What our insiders like about Michigan's QB room, plus thoughts on the offensive line, Nico Collins and Daxton Hill.

Everyone is trying to grasp the Joe Milton hype, and after years of hype for previous quarterbacks like John O'Korn, Brandon Peters and Shea Patterson, it's understandable for fans to be skeptical. 

Our insiders refuse to get involved in the "he's our version of Justin Fields" talk but there are factors that excite them about Milton, the quarterbacks, and the potential of this year's offense, including: 

• The QB Room - in one insider's opinion, there's no prima donnas and no hurt feelings among the quarterbacks about the pecking order. "This is a group that is hungry and eager to prove themselves. Cade McNamara is constantly doubted, and even someone like Joe Milton was always supposed to be hanging around until Dylan McCaffrey left. 

"These guys are determined and have great attitudes. Their work ethics are outstanding and Joe has approached every day like if he didn't bring his best, he could lose his standing. That hasn't always been the case with our quarterbacks. There's been a little too much entitlement in our QB room before." 

• Milton can do everything Josh Gattis' offense needs from its QB - The Wolverines were hamstrung in 2019 because Patterson lacked both arm strength and, more importantly, trust/timing with his wide receivers ("he was always waiting for his receivers to come open instead of throwing them open downfield"), and his reluctancy to keep the ball on the read-option. 

"A quarterback has to be a difference-maker in today's game, make a defense pay when they're in one-on-one situations down the field and on the read-option, otherwise you're just leaving yards on the table. Shea, after Week 1 when he took that big hit, was never comfortable again taking that 50-50 risk. If it wasn't an obvious keep, he wouldn't."

One source said that Patterson was afraid to take another big hit that would leave an impact beyond the season, fearing he wouldn't be at 100 percent for the Senior Bowl and draft workouts. Others have argued the coaches, even subliminally, planted the idea in Patterson's head he shouldn't take chances when they didn't feel 100% confident about the rest of the QB room. 

Fast-forward to 2020 and those concerns shouldn't be an issue with Milton. 

"He feels he's indestructible, which, you don't want him taking unnecessary hits, but you love that fearlessness. Obviously, you don't want a situation like with Dylan, where he's exposing himself to dangerous hits, but Joe and Dylan are different body types and they have different mindsets on running. Dylan comes from that McCaffrey family and sort of championed himself as a running back. Joe understands he's a quarterback and he has to live to fight another day."

• The one silver lining of McCaffrey leaving too is that everyone in the locker room knows who to rally behind - Cliques tend to develop over time, but multiple sources have shared there were too many divided factions behind different quarterbacks in the past, particularly, 2017 and 2019. 

"When Wilton went down a few years back we were in trouble because none of our other quarterbacks had the respect of the locker room. Last year, there was a McCaffrey camp and there was a Milton camp, in addition to guys that were on Team Shea. There is some of that every year, guys have their favorites, but it was a little more divided last year than you would have expected," a 2019 Wolverine said. 

There is a lot to like about this year's Michigan offense, including speed and playmaking ability at both wide receiver and tight end, experienced rushers, and the potential of Milton. The whole thing is, as always, dependent on the offensive line and this year's cohort is one of the biggest wildcards for a position group in a decade. 

What insiders like about it: there's no redshirt freshman (projected to start) experiencing his first game action when U-M travels to Minnesota Oct. 24. Senior center Andrew Vastardis is a walk-on "in name only" and is every bit as capable as any of the Glasgow brothers were when their opportunities arose. In redshirt sophomore tackle Jalen Mayfield and redshirt junior guard Andrew Stueber, the right side of the line could be really good really quickly. 

And, coach Ed Warinner is, arguably, the best OL coach in the game. This year's OL should be exponentially better every week. 

What they don't like: Vastardis making his first career start at center on the road against a team projected to compete for the West Division title. The good news is that there are no fans in the crowd and piped-in crowd noise is not supposed to occur pre-snap according to Big Ten sources. They also don't like that there are no early-season contests to form cohesion. 

"Anyway you slice it, you have five guys that have never played together before and at least two [Vastardis and projected left guard Chuck Filiaga] that have never started before. Stueber is also in a new position [from right tackle] so there are a lot of pieces to this puzzle and, undoubtedly, there are going to be some communication issues. If that leads to a sack in the red zone that forces a field goal or deep in your own territory that flips the field position, those issues are magnified."

True, but Michigan was set to open on the road at Washington so this was always its fate up front.  

While Ambry Thomas is gone-gone, the hope remains (among some) that Nico Collins will return to Michigan to play the 2020 season. Collins remains in school and so at least that hurdle could easily be cleared. Obviously the sooner he would opt back in, the better, to get reps with the quarterbacks and be on the same page in the huddle, and the longer he waits, the bigger the hurdle it will become. 

"Guys seem to be a lot more forgiving of individual pursuits these days than when I played, but is Michigan about 'the team, the team, the team' anymore or not?" said one former standout. "I'd have a hard time welcoming someone back with open arms, especially because you've had guys busting their hump at his position to prove themselves and what, they'd just get relegated if he returns? That's exactly the type of stuff that can fracture a locker room."

Of course, this is all likely moot as there has been very little scuttlebutt that Collins will return, and leaving would probably be a mistake because Collins could really benefit from a productive season in which he shows he can be a legit No. 1. 

"He's getting some bad advice," a former Wolverine-turned agent believes. "His agent has assured Nico that a dynamic NFL Combine, like DJ Metcalf had a few years back, will propel him into first/second-round territory, but Nico is not quite the athlete DJ is. And teams are going to scrutinize his numbers. Nico is going to have to throw his quarterback and his coach under the bus to justify why he didn't produce more in his junior season." 

We don't have a lot of information today about the defense (look for something to come later in the week) but the talk of sophomore Daxton Hill moving from safety to cornerback has died down considerably in the past few days. Sure, defensive coordinator Don Brown noted last week that Hill might be the best cover guy in the conference but any use of him at cornerback will be "situational" according to sources we spoke to. 

There are not a lot of instances where it's imperative to have a lockdown corner in today's game, though opening at Minnesota could be one because of likely first-round WR Rashod Bateman. 

"He's the only old-school true No. 1 receiver that we play. The other guy would be Rondale Moore from Purdue, but we don't play them. So you might see Dax get a few more looks opposite Bateman in Week 1, but other than that, maybe some time here and there in the red zone or if Don Brown accurately predicts a WR screen is coming and wants Dax out there to blow it up, but he's too versatile and valuable as a do-it-all safety to put on an island snap after snap."