Chris Hinton dishes on Jim Harbaugh, his skill-set ahead of NFL Draft
Michigan football defensive tackle Chris Hinton caught some off guard by declaring for the 2022 NFL Draft, but he is firmly in the class and hoping for his next shot. With the draft process entering its final stages, Hinton spoke to Justin Melo of The Draft Network to discuss his journey and what he brings.
“I’m a selfless player,” Hinton said in an interview posted Monday morning. “I want to win at the end of the day. Whatever the team needs me to do to win, I’m going to do that to the best of my abilities. That’s what I needed to do in order for our defense to reach the heights we reached. All of the guys that played inside with me, guys like Donovan Jeter, we really needed to be selfless. We needed to be dogs. We took on that responsibility and ran with it.”
Hinton, who is considered a late-round prospect or potential undrafted free agent, sees himself as one of the steals of the class.
[I’m] is going to be a monster on the defensive line. I’m going to stuff the run at a high level. As a pass rusher, I’m going to win with quickness against slower guards, and I’m going to win with strength against weaker guards. I can win in multiple ways as a pass rusher. I’m going to be extremely disruptive in the run game while also impacting the pocket.”
How Hinton affected Michigan’s defensive success
Speaking of Michigan’s pass rushers, Hinton helped do some of the dirty work that made Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo successful. Those guys were credited for a total of 25 sacks, but pass rush win-rate can often come down to how the unit performs.
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Hinton saw Michigan put egos aside to get the job done.
“I felt like we were a very selfless group this past season,” he said. “We tried to help out our EDGE defenders, but those guys are great players at the end of the day. They didn’t need much help. Aidan and Ojabo are going to get after the quarterback. We did what we could to help them out. We stuffed the run up the middle and we collapsed the pocket in the passing game [and] saw all of that pay off on Saturdays. Seeing our team have that success, it made me happier than any individual success ever could. It’s a team game at the end of the day.”
On Jim Harbaugh
Players that make the leap from Michigan to the NFL often get asked about head coach Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh nearly made his own jump back to the pros this offseason with a courtship with the Minnesota Vikings.
Hinton addressed what his former head coach did for the locker room and his playing career.
“Everybody is so curious about what coach Harbaugh is really like,” Hinton said. “I have nothing but great things to say about coach Harbaugh.
“He’s always going to push you to be your best. He loves football. He’s all about football, but he really cares about his players on a personal level. He wanted us to be our best both on and off the field. Us players, we felt that genuine love from him. We felt that warmth from him. We all responded really well to coach Harbaugh [and] we played really hard for him. Everybody loves coach Harbaugh.”
