The first round of the NFL draft will come and go Thursday night, and in all likelihood, it will do so without the name of a player from Michigan being called.
And as for the following six rounds of the annual selection show, those should be light on Wolverines as well.
Three Michigan alums are projected to be taken in this weekend's draft, and that number could even shrink to two, should the off-the-field issues of Frank Clark scare teams away from drafting the former star defensive end. CBSSports.com slots wide receiver/tight end Devin Funchess to be selected in the second or third round, while linebacker Jake Ryan should land in the fourth or fifth round.
For a program that's been responsible for some of the biggest stars in NFL history and has routinely helped fill professional football rosters, its lackluster presence at the draft this year might seem like an outlier. But lately it's been par for the course in Ann Arbor, as Michigan hasn't had more than three players selected in a single draft since 2008, a span that's only included two first-round picks in Brandon Graham in 2010 and Taylor Lewan in 2014.
But with Jim Harbaugh's arrival, the Wolverines' draft drought should be coming to an end soon.
Michigan's roster may not be loaded with pro-caliber talent at the moment—only linebacker James Ross III and Blake Countess standout as surefire picks in the 2016 picks—but unlike Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke, Harbaugh has a history of consistently developing NFL players. In fact, there actually might not be a college coach in the country better at doing so than the Wolverines' new head man.
While Urban Meyer has spent his entire coaching career in the college ranks and with all due respect to Nick Saban's two-season stint as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, no coach in the college ranks has a better track record of developing NFL players both before and after they enter the league.
At Stanford, Harbaugh proved his ability to prepare players for the pros, helping send the likes of Andrew Luck, Richard Sherman, David DeCastro, Toby Gerhart, Jonathan Martin and CobyFleener to the NFL. As opposed to places like Ohio State and Alabama where 5-star prospects flock to like sheep, Harbaugh had to do more developing with the Cardinal, with Sherman, Martin, Gerhart, DeCastro, and Fleener all arriving on campus as 3-star prospects, before going on to enjoy productive pro careers.
Once in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, Harbaugh also demonstrated that he could get the most out of his players, turning around the careers of guys like Alex Smith, Alex Boone and Donte Whitner, in addition to turning Colin Kaepernick into a star quarterback. In Harbaugh's four years with the 49ers, the team had 27 players named to the initial Pro Bowl teams.
As evidenced by his records with Stanford and San Francisco—the Cardinal improved in each of Harbaugh's four seasons with the team and the 49ers made three consecutive NFC title games after missing the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons—the former Michigan quarterback is a master of the turnaround. So with a Wolverines team that saw its record decline in each of Hoke's four seasons, what will he be capable of?
It starts with talent, and unlike when Harbaugh arrived at Stanford in 2007, there's plenty of it to be found in Ann Arbor.
While they may not currently be on early watch lists for the 2016 draft, there's a lot to like about current Wolverines Kyle Kalis, Joe Bolden, Chris Wormley, Jarrod Wilson, Derrick Green, Jourdan Lewis, Taco Charlton, Jake Butt, De'Veon Smith, Delano Hill and Ty Isaac. Perhaps more accurately, there's a lot of untapped potential in all of those players, who are all eligible to enter the 2016 draft.
And given Harbaugh's track record with quarterbacks, who's to say he won't turn Shane Morris or Jake Rudock into a pro prospect, especially in a draft that appears to lack quality signal-callers? Michigan's new head coach won't be able to salvage the football careers of all of the underachievers currently sitting on his roster, but his history shows that if there's talent there, he's going to find a way to put it on display.
Which is why it's too early to put stock in lists for next year's draft, as one year under Harbaugh could be enough for a number of players to transform from relative unknowns or former busts into a pro prospects. And beyond that, it should only get easier for him to rekindle the NFL's pipeline from Ann Arbor, as he continues to recruit his preferred players to Michigan, while developing the likes of former 5-star prospect Jabrill Peppers.
A Michigan Man may not walk the stage of the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago Thursday night, but it won't be long before the days of six to eight Wolverines being selected per draft return to Ann Arbor. Thanks to Tom Brady, Michigan has managed to maintain its presence at the next level, but sooner rather than later, it will need to do a better job of helping aid the four-time Super Bowl winner.
And just like he was last December, Jim Harbaugh is the man for the job.
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.
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