Michigan landed a commitment from four-star edge defender Lugard Edokpayi out of Bishop McNamara High School in District Heights, Maryland. 247Sports has Edokpayi listed at 6-foot-6, 230 pounds with a consensus grade of .9099. Edokpayi is the sixth-highest-rated commit in the 2024 class.
Edokpayi is a very high-ceiling prospect. He is incredibly long with a rumored 84-inch wingspan and has the frame to carry a ton of healthy weight once in college. Michigan happens to boast one of the best strength coaches in the country in Ben Herbert, so Edokpayi’s physical ceiling will likely be realized.
As a player, Edokpayi is still a blank sheet. There are flashes of excellence where he shows the ability to use his length to out-athlete offensive tackles, but those will need to be rounded into consistent and technically sound gameplay. Michigan’s staff has the opportunity to mold him into essentially whatever they would like. He will probably grow to occupy the same role as Braiden McGregor assuming he can add the weight to do so.
Edokpayi’s highlights show that he is not afraid to try out pass-rush moves. He had success with swim moves, spin moves, and swipes. A lot of pass rushers with his stature would rely solely on bull rushes and leverage, but Edokpay is willing to try stuff out. Is it the most fluid? No. But that’s secondary to a raw prospect like him getting at least a taste of implementing pass-rush moves in a game situation.
So how can Edokpayi turn his potential into talent? The first step is ironically his first step. There’s a lot of wasted movement in Edokpayi’s arc to the quarterback, and it starts at the line of scrimmage. He needs to focus on shooting off the line of scrimmage and getting upfield before he stands up and exposes his chest to the offensive line. Players with his rare length that can develop an elite get-off are often highly sought-after prospects and taken in the first round of the NFL draft.
Next, he will need to fix his anchor in the run game. Even his highlights show that his base is pretty moveable and he mostly relies on his athleticism to recover and get back in the play. Learning how to get violent with his hands to set the edge and collapse against the run is crucial for success in the Big Ten.
Edokpayi is a huge land. Though he may not contribute instantly like Derrick Moore, he and fellow 2024 commit Devon Baxter have the potential to be game wreckers in Ann Arbor. Michigan has a proven history of edge development, and these two should be no different.