When the 2019 college football season started, Michigan offensive lineman Cesar Ruiz was considered a fringe first-round selection for the 2020 NFL Draft. After a strong year in Ann Arbor, Ruiz heard his name called on the first night of the draft.

Ruiz was the No. 24 overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft, going to the New Orleans Saints. Though he’s been a member of the squad for only two months, he’s already making a strong impression.

In an interview with NewOrleansSaints.com, offensive line coach Dan Roushar says he’s been very impressed with Ruiz early on.

“I certainly have been impressed with his ability to absorb the information and be able to communicate it back to us,” Roushar said.. “I think he’s got really good recall, from meeting to meeting to meeting. And that’s one of the things that we challenge him with. If this was a normal process, we would probably be on install four at this time and what happens is your emphasis, going from practice one to practice two, is installation one. Then we’ll call that our base offense. Then installation two is a continuation and then you add into your sub and your nickel packages and then third down becomes installation three and so on.

“What happens is you continue to move forward and often times you don’t get the repetition on something that maybe you installed day one, when you were in practice number six and yet you to have to have recall as Sean (Payton) and Drew (Brees) would call that concept. There has to be great recall for him. That’s what he’s appeared to do very, very well as we’ve gone through film and gone back and forth. I’ve been super impressed with that.”

Ruiz was an anchor on Michigan’s offensive line over the last two seasons. He started all 26 games in his final two years with the program, and helped lead the Wolverines to a 19-7 overall record during that span.

Ruiz was one of four Michigan offensive linemen selected in the 2020 NFL Draft.