This offseason, the Michigan Wolverines had to replace all five starters on the offensive line from last season's national championship squad. 

So far? The results are…a mixed bag. 

It was always obvious that there would be a drop-off from last year's team. Replacing every starter rarely leads to better play, but this dramatic difference in ability is a massive cause for concern for Michigan. 

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It was a bit of a surprise to see Evan Link's name pop up so fast in the offseason as a potential starter at right tackle. His fast track to being named the starter had many fans optimistic about just how good he could be.

He's been anything but that. 

Link allowed a whopping 10(!!) pressures against Texas this past weekend, giving him 12 on the season. His 12 pressures are the most allowed by any offensive lineman in the FBS, and he is one of two offensive linemen in the country with a 0.0 pass-block grade from PFF. That's simply unacceptable at a program like Michigan. 

He's also just not a gifted run-blocker either. He executes his assignments but really fails to drive defenders off the ball and open up lanes. 

If you squint and filter out the bad plays, you can see what Link might eventually be, but he's far from that at this stage. I'm ok with letting him start early and take his lumps to grow from here, but it's getting dangerously close to unplayable territory. It might be time for Andrew Gentry to fill in there if Link's play doesn't improve. 

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Center isn't quite as disastrous, but the play there isn't up to standard either. Dominick Giudice, a former edge rusher, has played most of the snaps there, with Greg Crippen playing a handful of snaps against Fresno State. I'm not sure either of them are good options there though.

Giudice has zero pop to his play, which is pretty problematic for a team that likes to run between the tackles as often as Michigan does. Much like Link, Giudice will go through the motions of making his assignments, but he doesn't offer much to open up lanes. 

While his play hasn't been quite as disastrous as Link's has been, it's equally as impactful. It's his first few games at center ever, so there should be some slack, but it's astounding to me Michigan doesn't have any better options here.

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Left tackle, left guard, and right guard have some drop-off (although Hinton is arguably their best athlete on the OL the last two seasons), but it's not nearly as worrisome as the center and right tackle spots. 

The far bigger issue across the board is that they simply aren't as physical as last year's team. This team fails to deliver significant blows up front and struggles to move defenders in the run game. That's one of the main issues regarding this Wolverines' offense: They just don't get push in the run game. 

It's too early to call for anyone to be benched, but it's getting closer and closer at this rate. Michigan needs a solution pronto if they want to be competitive in 2024.