Top returning players by PFF grade: No. 4 Zion Nelson

Top returning players by PFF grade: No. 5 Cam Harris

Pro Football Focus grades every player on every play in every game.

It creates a great barometer for performance and a grade above 70.0 is considered very good.

There are five returning Miami players who crossed that threshold over the entire 2020 season.

Yesterday we began counting them down with No. 5 Cam Harris.

Today we continue our top 5 returning players countdown -with No. 4:

PFF BY THE NUMBERS: 653 reps, 70.3 overall grade, 61.4 PASS, 78.7 PBLK, 63.8 RBLK

Zion Nelson might be No. 4 on this list and he barely made the cut above the 70 percent grade threshold ... but he's No. 1 on a lot of other preseason lists.

As in a potential first-round draft pick.

Nelson has that size you want in a future NFL bookend left tackle and the athletic ability and strength to go along with it. He's made massive strides both physically, packing on tons of weight since arriving as a string bean freshman, and technique-wise.

The sky really is the limit for him and he could be one of the nation's top left tackles this coming sesaon.

That's an amazing thought considering Nelson didn’t become a full-time starter at left tackle until the sixth game of last season and really struggled his freshman year. Once he got his first start last year he never looked back. Nelson provided good pass protection and also held his own run blocking.

CaneSport’s Take

This is the kind of development UM coaches can point to in order to lure other talent to Miami, pointing out how the strength staff and coaching Nelson up really elevated him from a guy who was lightly recruited out of high school into one of the nation's top linemen.