Michigan center Drake Nugent declares for 2024 NFL Draft
Michigan Wolverines football offensive lineman Drake Nugent has one more year of eligibility, but he announced today that he’s declared for the 2024 NFL Draft. Nugent spent one season playing center at U-M following four years at Stanford.
The 6-foot-2, 301-pounder was a first-team All-Big Ten selection by both the coaches and media, playing on a Joe Moore Award semifinalist offensive line. He was a finalist for the Rimington Award, handed out to the nation’s top center, and was the Wolverines’ offensive player of the week on five different occasions.
Nugent started in all 15 games for Michigan in 2023, just one of three offensive linemen to do so, joining left guard Trevor Keegan and tackle/guard Karsen Barnhart. He helped the Wolverines post a perfect 15-0 record and win the national championship. They won the Big Ten for the third straight season.
The Lone Tree (Colo.) Highlands Ranch product’s 78.0 overall Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade ranked ninth among FBS centers with at least 200 snaps. According to the analytics site, he gave up just 9 pressures and 1 sack on 386 pass-blocking snaps.
Prior to Michigan, Nugent was a standout in the middle of the Stanford offensive line, but he chose the Wolverines to be developed and win games. The Cardinal won 14 games in his four seasons in Palo Alto — less than the Wolverines’ 15 victories during the 2023 campaign.
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“I didn’t really have many crazy expectations coming in other than, like, I know we’re going to win some football games,” Nugent recently said of his Michigan experience. “But outside of that, it’s exceeded a lot of expectations. You know, just like the families that have treated me so well throughout the whole year, the state, the alumni and stuff that we have been able to talk to. It’s been great.”
Nugent was tabbed as All-Pac-12 honorable mention in both 2021 and 2022. He appeared in 27 games with 24 starts at center and was voted a team captain as a senior in 2022. He played a combined three games in 2019-20 before solidifying himself as a starter in 2021.
Nugent missed most of his senior high school season with an injury. The Michigan lineman was a three-star recruit and the No. 1,015 player in the 2019 class.
