Explaining Donovan Peoples-Jones' Slide
Donovan Peoples-Jones came to Ann Arbor as the top wide receiver in the country in the 2017 class according to 247Sports.com, but he didn’t put up the production many Wolverines’ fans expected. In his three years in Ann Arbor, Peoples-Jones never led Michigan in receiving yards, and his numbers pale in comparison to Tee Higgins and Jerry Jeudy, who were the second and third best wideout prospects in the 2017 class according to 247Sports.com.
While Peoples-Jones finished his Michigan career with 103 receptions, 1,327 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns, Higgins finished his Clemson career with 135 receptions, 2,448 receiving yards and 28 touchdowns and Jeudy finished his Alabama career with 159 receptions, 2,742 receiving yards and 26 touchdowns.
“Let’s just call it what it is,” said Devin Gardner, a former Wolverine QB and now radio analyst on WTKA. “On film, we saw at the quarterback position we were not hitting guys who were running open, guys were getting too deep so the quarterback was not strong enough to hit them or maybe the quarterback was just waiting too long to throw.
“Not to mention when you talk about how your coordinator’s hands are tied because you don’t quite trust what is going on from your quarterback play. We even looked back at a game when it happened to me. He can’t call plays because the plays he knows I can perform and do just aren’t working today, and it’s due to me.
"That happened a lot last year, so how can you catch balls? How can you get the production you are supposed to get when the ball is not coming out on time, the ball is not coming out at all, or maybe not to the right guy in the right spot.
"So, it makes it increasingly difficult, but any person who watches football can see when Donovan touches that football, he is electric. He’s good after the catch and makes tough catches.”
Gardner also believes that even if the numbers don’t show it, as Peoples-Jones had fewer catches, receiving yards and touchdowns his junior season than he had his sophomore year, the 6-2 wideout improved each year he was a Wolverine.
“We talked a lot about how [his sophomore year] he missed some catches that we thought were catches, but the referee called them incomplete,” Gardner said. “He came back the next year and made sure he got two feet in not just one on the sideline catches every time.
“I think a guy like Urban Meyer, who dissects film seriously, saw that not only was Donovan immensely talented from the start, but he improved every single year regardless of the quarterback play."
Partly due to his college production, Peoples-Jones fell to the sixth-round of the NFL Draft, while Jeudy was selected in the first round and Higgins was selected with the first pick of the second round. Still, with the talent Peoples-Jones has, not many people expected him to fall to the 187th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
“It’s unbelievable,” Gardner said. “Urban Meyer came out and said ‘You just got a first-round pick in the sixth round.’”
Despite the disappointments of the draft, Gardner believes Peoples-Jones ending up with the Browns was a good landing spot for him.
“He went to a good situation where obviously the quarterback play needs to be better, but you have Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry, those two guys in the same room with Donovan, who is already talented, that's a great situation to be in,” Gardner said. “His attitude will rub off on them, as well as theirs on him.
"I think it will be a great match. I’m excited for him to play very well and get that big contract and go get everything they owe him. They are going to owe him a lot because they got him so cheap in the sixth round for the talent that he has.”
