2024 Michigan Football Wide Receiver Review

It was a rough season for the wide receivers in Ann Arbor, to say the least. Here is our review of the receiver room for the Michigan Football team in 2024:

The Michigan Wolverines have been known for their run-first offense over the years, and 2024 was no different. After the National Championship, the Wolverines had to say goodbye to their top two pass catchers in Roman Wilson and Cornelius Johnson, who both were drafted by NFL teams.

Instead of hitting the transfer portal for starters like Michigan did at other positions, head coach Sherrone Moore brought in just one depth piece from the portal and trusted his homegrown talent at wide receiver. Unfortunately, that plan did not fully work and Michigan struggled to get the ball in the hands of its receivers all season long.

Here is our 2024 season review for the wide receivers.

WR Tyler Morris

There were a lot of questions surrounding the skill of the Wolverines’ receivers heading into 2024, but the one guy that everyone felt like they could trust was Tyler Morris. He saw a huge uptick in snaps in 2023, bringing in 13 catches for 197 yards and a touchdown. When Wilson and Johnson declared for the NFL Draft , it was widely expected Morris would ditch his slot-only role and would develop into a true Z-receiver.

Morris definitely improved in 2024, but not by as much as fans expected. He didn’t catch more than three passes through the first nine games of the season until he had seven catches for 64 yards against Northwestern in late November. Nonetheless, he nearly doubled his catches from the year before, 23, and produced 248 yards and two touchdowns to still be the No. 1 receiver.

Morris entered the transfer portal and has since committed to Indiana for next season.

WR Fred Moore

Moore was part of the freshmen trio in 2023 that was supposed to be the future of the Michigan receiving corps, but only Morgan saw meaningful snaps under Jim Harbaugh. After appearing in 13 games and catching four passes for 32 yards, Moore was in a position to see increased snaps in 2024. However, it was a disappointing season for him. Outside of Arkansas State in Week 3, Moore failed to make more than two catches in every other game during the regular season.

However, he shone bright against Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl where he caught three passes for 37 yards and his first career touchdown.

Moore finished the season with 11 catches for 128 yards and a touchdown.

Semaj Morgan

A season ago, Morgan was making headlines as an up-and-coming freshman. During Michigan’s title run, Morgan caught 22 passes for 204 yards and two touchdowns, with four carries for 67 yards and two touchdowns. He also returned 12 kicks for 186 yards and three punts for 101 yards.

With all the accolades that came with the 2023 season, Morgan was expected to receive the majority of the receiving targets among the wide receivers in 2024. And while that was the case, his production was down from the previous season.

Morgan had a solid start to the year, especially against the Texas Longhorns, catching five passes for 45 yards and a touchdown. However, he didn’t have more than three catches over the next three games, and in two of those games, he averaged less than two yards per catch. Against Illinois, he saw an uptick in targets once again, bringing in four grabs for 28 yards, but he did not average more than eight yards per catch the rest of the season.

While his catches increased in 2024, his yards were way down, resulting in a disappointing season overall.

Peyton O’Leary, Kendrick Bell

While there were limited opportunities for everyone in the receiver room, former walk-on Peyton O’Leary and sophomore Kendrick Bell took advantage of their snaps. O’Leary was just one of six players to finish with more than 100 receiving yards (while catching one less pass than Moore), and Bell caught seven passes for 70 yards in his limited role.

Notably, both these guys had big plays in The Game, with O’Leary converting a third-and-long while Bell threw a pass to Morris that resulted in a pass interference late in the game. Had it not been for their contributions, who knows how the game would have ended?

With many pieces changing in 2025, expect these two to continue to play a role.

Future Outlook

With Morris at Indiana and the rest back in Ann Arbor, it is unclear who will start and sit in 2025. Michigan did go to the transfer portal and brought in Donaven McCulley from Indiana — who had 834 yards and eight touchdowns with the Hoosiers during his career — as well as former UMass wide receiver Anthony Simpson, so there are new faces to add to the fold.

It is very hard to tell what the production will look like in 2025, but everyone will need to develop and get better entering the 2025 season in order to have a more balanced offense and be competitive in the Big Ten.