Mike Sainristil scouting report: Exploring the Michigan CB's strengths and weaknesses

A top-1000 national recruit at wide receiver initially, Mike Sainristil only caught 37 passes for 539 yards and five touchdowns throughout his first three years with the Wolverines. In 2022, he made the transition to defensive back and filled the stat sheet pretty well already – 58 tackles, 6.5 for loss, two sacks, one interception and seven pass break-ups.

However, it was this past season that he broke out on a national scale for the national champs, as a second-team All-Big Ten selection, with 44 total stops, four for loss, two forced fumbles, six passes broken up and intercepted each, of which he returned two for touchdowns – including the dagger in title game against Washington.

Details: 5-foot-9, 185 pounds; RS SR.

Breaking down Mike Sainristil's scouting report

Mike Sainristil: 2024 CFP National Championship - Michigan v Washington

Man-coverage:

• Versatile matchup piece, who has experience covering all three spots in trips as well as guys in-line
• Frequently was flexed out wide for certain matchups with receivers and looked comfortable with that extra space
• Confident click-and-close ability in off-man assignments
• Recognizes any tilt or drift in the route stem and will put his hands on guys in order to feel the break coming and not losing phase
• Does a great job of fighting the hands and denying stack position to receivers trying tom take him vertical, such as on wheel routes
• You like Mike Sainristil’s easy movement skills to shuffle along and then attach to guys on crossers off motion, especially when asked to pick them up on switch calls as they are hidden behind stacks/bunches
• Finished one 100th of a second below the seven-second mark in the three-cone drill and one over on the short shuttle, which are the high-end benchmarks you want corners to hit, along with running a 4.47 and having a really fluid on-field workout at the combine

Zone-coverage:

• Displays great awareness depending on the stem of slot receivers, where his eyes should progress and where space within zone coverages will open up
• Instinctive and excellent understanding for spacing as an overhang, flat or hook defender
• Aware of how to adjust his depth or width depending on the passing concept
• Was asked to bail out into the deep half a few times every game, where he made sure to stay over the top of routes
• When asked to line up at outside corner, Sainristril takes away the space of receivers in cover-two and pushes them onto the white line at times
• Slows his feet and is a highly reliable tackler in the open field
• Rapidly shoots upfield when the ball is completed in front of him and lays down some jarring hits on guys in the flats or off crossers
• Nearly had a pick-six at the end of the National Championship game

Run defense & tackling:

• Plays with extension through blocks and consistently sets the tone at contact with (slot) receivers
• Shows great fight and flexibility to navigate around blockers and make his way to the ball
• Legitimately can be an outside linebacker basically against heavy personnel and stick running backs in the C- or D-gap
• Was lined up on the edge against multi-tight-end sets at times and showcased great speed to run plays down from behind when left unblocked on the backside
• Absolute killer in the screen game, who will blow plays up in a hurry if you give him a lane to shoot through
• Consistently finds ways to bring the guy with the ball to the ground, whether he can square up, lasso or twists them down
• Times up his blitzes very well, without tipping off quarterbacks and then has wiggle to get around guys in his path. Recorded 11 pressures across 38 pass-rush snaps last season

Weaknesses:

• Too often surrenders contain and peaks inside of blocks, presenting opportunities for ball-carriers to get out to the sideline
• Can get a little greedy with wanting to drive down on routes to where it enables quarterbacks to test him with throws over his head as a zone-defender
• There are sone moments where he should match guys late in the play-clock rather than sticking with his landmarks
• Savvy route-runners can hit Mike Sainristil with some trigger steps to get Sainristil off balance and create separation

Mike Sainristil's 2024 NFL Draft projection

Mike Sainristil: NFL Combine

In terms of true nickel, I don’t think there’s anybody who fills that spot better from Day 1 than Mike Sainristil, other than maybe Alabama’s Terrion Arnold and Iowa’s Cooper DeJean.

Mike Sainristil can man up different body-types on the inside, he’s an exceptional smart player in zone, he can be a legit +1 in the box when he’s brought in based on the formation and the man lays the wood on guys who have 30 pounds or more on him.

There’s some aggressiveness in his game that needs to be toned down, funneling the ball inside the run game and not biting up on routes in space, but there’s not a ton to criticize about his tape last season.

At 5-9 with arms just short of 31 inches and somewhat capped long speed, I believe he’s a much better fit in the slot, thanks to his tremendous agility as well.

That’ll probably make him a late second-round pick, considering Brian Branch fell to the middle of round two a year ago, but he’s a plug-and-play starter in an NFL that uses five or more DBs on over 70% of snaps and with Sainristil, you don’t need a specific “big nickel” package vs. teams that like to run heavier sets or just run the ball at a high rate.

Grade: Late second round