The Ringer’s Todd McShay on Michigan QB Bryce Underwood’s Pivotal Offseason

The tools were never the question with Bryce Underwood. Todd McShay made that clear on the show. "He's such a gifted athlete," the Ringer analyst said of the Michigan quarterback. The question is whether the second-year passer can turn one offseason of work into the kind of leap that separates raw talent from real production.

McShay grouped Underwood with a small class of physically striking young quarterbacks, the ones who look different the moment they walk out of the tunnel. He mentioned Malik Washington, the talented Maryland freshman listed at 6-foot-3 and change, 235 pounds, and noted that when people talked about that group, Underwood's name came up in the same breath.

But McShay did not soften the assessment of where Underwood actually is as a thrower. "Where he was as a passer last year does not cut it," he said. He offered plenty of grace for a first-year freshman navigating his circumstances and his program, and he was quick to add that the burden does not fall on the quarterback alone. It is on everyone in the building to channel his development. Still, McShay was honest that watching the tape last season could be frustrating.

That is where his comparison to Marcel Reed became the whole point. McShay had seen the same missed throws and missed opportunities from the Texas A&M quarterback, then watched him at the Manning Passing Academy and came away stunned by the difference. Reed looked thicker, looked the part, got the ball out quicker, threw with more accuracy. "This young man has been grinding," McShay said, and it showed.

He is hoping to see the same story from Underwood this fall. "It's amazing what one offseason of reset, refine, and repeat can do for a quarterback," McShay said, before grounding the expectation in reality. These are 18- and 19-year-old kids. There is a lot of hope, he said, but also a lot of work still to be done.

The conversation closed on the coaching around Underwood, and a question of whether he had the proper guidance in year one. McShay noted one more wrinkle worth tracking in Ann Arbor: CJ's brother, Tommy, is on the depth chart there too. Whether there is anything to that competition is one more thread to watch as Michigan's offseason unfolds.