When Bryce Underwood stepped onto the field for Michigan’s spring game, the question hanging over Ann Arbor wasn’t whether he’d start, but about whether he’d last. The former No. 1 recruit in the nation, unfortunately, showcased an underwhelming performance. For a program that just hired Utah’s Kyle Whittingham to fix its offense, the sight looked familiar to one man who watched Whittingham build winners for a decade: Hall of Fame safety Eric Weddle.

“Mark my words… Don’t be surprised if the backup is playing early because that Underwood kid, you know, I don’t think he could throw or play quarterback right now,” Weddle said during an appearance on the Utah-based Zero 2 Sixty podcast.

The 14-year NFL veteran boldly predicted that backup quarterback Tommy Carr could realistically take over the starting job early in the 2026 season due to Underwood’s spring passing struggles. Bryce Underwood had a tough outing at the Michigan Maize and Blue annual game. The freshman completed just 3 of 9 passes for 22 yards, while Tommy Carr impressed with 143 passing yards and 59 rushing yards. Many of the 35,000 fans in attendance noticed the difference.

Weddle complained that too many modern quarterbacks are just great athletes who don’t actually know how to play the position from inside the pocket. He argued that if you can’t read a defense, time your throws, and master your footwork, all that raw speed and athleticism won’t mean a thing when the real games start.

Underwood clearly caught wind of the growing noise surrounding his future and decided not to let the stark criticism slide for long. He hopped onto his IG handle rather than calling a press conference or sitting down with ESPN and dropped a one-word response on his stories, “Stay,” with a laughing emoji. The Wolverines’ No. 18 signaled to fans that he is locked in, motivated, and ready to prove his doubters wrong on the field.

Truth be told, hearing a former superstar who played directly under your own new head coach say you cannot even throw a football properly on national media at this level is nothing less than a tough public moment. These types of comments need to be made 1-on-1, not on a national podcast.

But then again, if you take his words at face value, it kind of makes sense. Skeptics look at Weddle’s harsh critique and worry that Underwood is falling face-first into the infamous “Hackenberg trap.” This is what football fans call it when a 5-star quarterback gets thrown into early-career chaos and sees once-in-a-decade talent permanently ruined before their own eyes.

To understand why fans are so divided, you have to look at the numbers Underwood put up during his bumpy 2025 freshman campaign. Underwood threw for 2,428 yards, logged 11 passing touchdowns, and threw 9 costly interceptions while completing only about 60.3% of his throws. He also flashed his elite dual-threat speed by rushing for 392 yards and scoring 6 rushing touchdowns.

Thankfully for the Wolverines, Coach Whittingham publicly named Underwood the starter and culture centerpiece of the entire roster for the next two years. He even brought in one of his old staffers, Jason Beck.

Jason Beck’s got his work cut out for him to help Bryce Underwood

From the exact day Whittingham took the job, his number one priority was keeping this young star happy and secure on the depth chart. Before the “Stay” post, fans and media outlets were speculating wildly that Underwood would pack his bags to avoid the Wolverines’ third rebuild in three years.

Whittingham has openly admitted that the Wolverines’ offense will revolve around Underwood. Michigan’s new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Jason Beck, has been working with Underwood this offseason to fix his glaring issues.

He fully backed Underwood’s offseason trips to California to train with elite private quarterback coach Jordan Palmer. One of the main things Beck is hyper-focused on right now is fixing Underwood’s inconsistent footwork and pocket habits. Last year, Underwood had a bad habit of stepping away from the pocket under pressure whenever the pass rush got close.

On top of fixing his passing mechanics, Jason Beck is completely taking the handcuffs off Underwood as a runner. The old coaching staff was terrified of him getting hurt, so they barely let him use his legs. Beck is changing all of that by building designed quarterback runs, option plays, and rollouts directly into the new 2026 playbook. Meanwhile, Whittingham also brought in Koy Detmer as a dedicated quarterbacks coach, a role Michigan lacked last year, and rebuilt the offensive line.

If Bryce checks these two boxes and improves his accuracy, Underwood will have every tool he needs to prove Weddle’s concerns wrong on national television. This season will officially prove whether his one-word “Stay” declaration to his critics was the smartest move of his career, or if the critics were right about the danger ahead.