Top Prospect Showcase from the Pylon 7v7 Tournament

PA’s first premier 7v7 event of 2021 went down in Delaware this past weekend and I was lucky enough to be able to attend said event in person. It was a pleasure to watch Friday night’s 15U action, where young talent showed why the hype is warranted. It was just as fun watching the 18U/Srs.Allowed tourney Saturday night that put a much-needed spotlight on some upperclassmen prospects. Shout out to 412Elite and Playmakers (PA&215) for dominating the competition and taking home trophies at their respective brackets. I did not get the opportunity to cover Philly’s Finest, a PA team who made it all the way to the Finals in the 18U tourney. They’ve got talent as well that I will uncover in later pieces. Take this for what it’s worth, the event didn’t have roster/media guides to make things easy as far as figuring out who’s who on the field. Yet, traits immediately stood out to me that made me ask coaches who the prospect was and where the said prospect was from. Sure enough, many of the prospects who caught my attention are players ranked high among their class on our site! Here is a list of ranked prospects who performed well and the trait that caught my eye.

- 6’2", 190lbs, QB, C/O 2024 Deep Ball Accuracy Timing, release, and decision-making were all other traits I could have easily picked that also stood out. Birch’s deep ball accuracy was too great to not highlight. Birch showed outstanding ability to distinguish whether or not to throw with touch and drop one in the bucket or when to throw line drives to thread balls into tight windows. Doing this on the fly is an advanced trait to have at such a young age, which is just one of the reasons why we have Brad as a top 10 overall prospect in his class. Having a number of great athletes at your disposal is a luxury to have for sure, but a catchable ball thrown where only his man can make a play on it was a consistent sight to see out of Brad. It’s worth mentioning the number of stud defensive backs attempting to make things difficult for Birch, yet the deep ball looked effortless at times.

- 6’1", 160lbs, WR/DB, C/O 2024 Hand-Eye Coordination/Ball Locating Jackson’s performance as a whole, along with his freshman season tape, will most likely deserve a deeper breakdown as our 15th ranked player in the 2024 class actually outplayed that ranking. There wasn’t anything a defensive back at the event could seemingly do to slow down, let alone limit, Pons’ production. Pons’ was able to fight off any DB attempting to press him at the line of scrimmage with a good combination of lateral agility and quick feet. His ability to manipulate leverage and keep DBs off guard while stemming was incredible to watch. He showed good body control all throughout the field. He’s got the stride to separate well when going vertical, which seemed like every snap. His ability to locate the ball and make ridiculous catches was no doubt the best I saw at the entire event. Physicality while the balls in-route doesn’t deter Pons’ concentration or his ability to get to his spot, all the while locating the ball in the air. The collection of all these traits is what made Pons standout. Oh yeah, and a ridiculous one-hand snag at the back of the endzone that you can find on our Twitter page. - 5’8", DB/ATH, C/O 2024 Consistency in Technique It’s great to have studs like Khalil Taylor and Bobby Boyd along your side in the secondary. Not that our 7th overall freshman needs any. We previewed Amare before the event when I spoke highly of his consistent backpedal and he showed nothing to change that. The kid’s technique was consistent play in and play out. The super-smooth footwork was on full display but it was the hips that caught my attention. His ability to transition from backpedal to full sprint was some of the best I saw while covering either bracket. An advanced trait I saw Gee perform was his ability to ease out of his backpedal and vary the speed of said backpedal accordingly. He didn’t do it consistently but I was able to pick up on this from time to time. was 412Elite’s most dependable defensive back despite having loads of talent by his side. Gee wasn’t constantly making or giving up plays, he was steady and reliable nonetheless.

- 6’4", 185lbs, CB/WR, C/O 2022 Closing/Breaking Speed To be honest, the first thing that caught my eye about Raleigh was his awesome size at cornerback. It was almost unfair. out of Neumann & Goretti was an absolute pleasure to watch. His game is easy on the eyes, you don’t need to break down and dissect his game to see why he dominates. He’s a big and strong enough kid to eat up physical wideouts with his own physical play. Not a single play was Collins out-manned by a wideout. His coaches can rely on him in that area. At times, a quicker wideout with a great release can get the drop of Collins initially, given his size, his feet aren’t exactly lightning quick. Where Collins makes up for that is with his elite closing speed. A combination of awareness, efficient footwork that lacks false steps, and a long stride makes for a player who is seemingly always in phase. He closes on the ball so well it left me shaking my head, along with other wideouts who just got their passes defensed. One other thing that stood out to me is Collin’s poise. We often talk about poise out of the quarterback, but a defensive back who can stay poised through a myriad of moves and assignments means just as much. Raleigh was a favorite of mine to watch.

- 5’7", 155lbs, WR, C/O 2022 Explosiveness There isn’t much to say about D’Shaun that hasn’t already been said. The West Chester commit was as advertised. This kid had people missing in the open field in a rough-touch, at times one-hand touch, 7v7 event. He was often seen taking short crossers and slants and turning them into 30+ yard gains, again, at a 7v7 event. This kid is a problem in the open-field and has been so for the majority of his time at Imhotep. It’s hard to find answers for the combination of speed, agility, and acceleration that Seals has. His hands aren’t anything to downplay either. He frequently had guys, who are very talented, grabbing air in the open field, if I was lucky enough to get my eyes on him fast enough. One of, if not the, most explosive player at the event helped his Playmakers squad win the title along with teammate Khavon Walker, who will be featured in a separate piece.