Michigan's Donovan Edwards reveals he played majority of 2022 season injured

Michigan running back Donovan Edwards played with a partially-torn patellar tendon in his right knee for most of the 2022 season, according to a report from ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren. Edwards had offseason surgery to repair the injury, he said.

The injury, Edwards said, came in Michigan’s Week 2 game against Hawaii. Edwards ran down the left sideline on a go route, contorting his body in the air to snag the pass inside the five yard line.

As he came down backwards, his right knee got twisted slightly as his foot briefly planted on the ground. It would be hard to notice without actively looking for it, and Edwards stayed in the game to end the drive with a touchdown run.

“I always thought it’s OK, tendinitis, it’s a little achy,” Edwards said. “I found out against Hawaii, I made that catch right at the goal line, put my knee back and it just didn’t feel right. I found out it was partially torn and after that just continue to work around it.”

Despite the injury, Edwards played in 11 games for Michigan for the Wolverines in 2022. He carried the ball 140 times for 991 yards and seven touchdowns. He also had 18 receptions for 200 yards and two more touchdowns.

Edwards missed two games during the 2022 season, against Rutgers and Illinois. The Illinois game was incidentally the game where Blake Corum suffered a knee injury that required him to get surgery. Against Nebraska, Edwards hurt his right hand. He played in the Ohio State game with a cast on and a pair of screws in his hand.

But since the season ended, he had an additional surgery to mend the patellar tendon in February.

“I’m up to par now, running, cutting, doing all that good stuff. So, like that recovery wasn’t going to take long, about four months to get full speed, three months for me to feel good,” Edwards said.

Getting Edwards right is key for Michigan, but depth gives the Wolverines time

The Wolverines have been a run-first team under Harbaugh and that’s not likely to change in 2023, though it does seem the intention is to let junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy cut it loose a little bit more.

However, few teams have a better 1-2 running back punch than Blake Corum and Edwards. Corum could’ve been a Heisman finalist last season if not for a Week 12 injury against Illinois and Edwards has shown a penchant for ripping off big runs himself. He’s also a plus receiver out of the back field and split out, giving Michigan a mismatch against linebackers.

“And between Donovan and Blake, I’ll settle on the exact number but it’s going to be maybe nine or 10, each. You don’t want to wear them out, either,” Harbaugh said.