Maryland 2023 Spring Rankings: Defensive Linemen

Prep Redzone breaks down the defensive ends currently in the Maryland Class of 2023 prospect rankings. PRZ Maryland will add more defensive linemen prospects to the list throughout the summer. For now, I’ll break down three of the top defensive linemen on the list. <em>Key: Great, Good, Average, Below Average, Poor</em> <strong>No. 1 [player_tooltip player_id="90642" first="Jason" last="Moore"]/6-6/255/Defensive End/DeMatha</strong> Explode/Point Strength: Good. Doesn’t give up ground at the point of attack. Doesn’t rely on brute force. Needs to work on getting more body-bend. Reactions: Good. Gets off the ball fairly quick. Shed: Good. He quickly disengages from blockers to attack the ball. Lateral Quickness/Change of Direction: Good. Stay on feet: Good. Agile big man. Acceleration: Good. Athletic, gets to the ball-carrier in a hurry. Could get a little quicker with the speed rush. Pursuit: Great. Does a good job of containing. Tackle: Great. He has the power and size to play through blockers edge. Wraps up ballcarriers. In-Line: Great. Beats double-teams. Moore has excellent size with the desired combination of length and power. The key for him will be to keep developing different pass-rush moves and getting quicker off the football for the next level. There won’t be too many, if any, offensive linemen that can come close to blocking him on even a semi-regular basis on the high school level. <strong>No. 2 [player_tooltip player_id="146636" first="David" last="Ojiegbe"]/6-4/240/Defensive End/St. John’s</strong> [caption id="attachment_148772" align="alignleft" width="300"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-148772" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/redzone/uploads/2021/05/david-ojiegbe-crop-628x413-1622068770-300x197.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="197" /> Photo: Player's Twitter Account[/caption] Explode/Point Strength: Great. He overpowers blockers. Reactions: Great. Love his quickness off the football. Shed: Good. Doesn’t stay blocked, fast enough to beat blocks too. Lateral Quickness/Change of Direction: Good. Doesn’t labor when changing directions during pursuit. Stay on feet: Good. Agile. Has good feet. Can move. Acceleration: Great. Once he has his target in sight, all bets are off. Pursuit: Great. He’s relentless as he goes towards the ball carrier. Tackle: Great. Does an outstanding job of containing the edge. Makes plays in the backfield. In-Line: Great. Tough. Takes on blockers on the edge, spills plays inside. Ojiegbe is No. 2 for now. I thought he looked very dominant in his highlights. He can flip around edge or hit second-step slide to win inside if needed. Ojiegbe has good reactive athleticism to finish moving targets. He gets into the neutral zone fairly quickly. Don’t be surprised if he ends up No. 1 by the end of the summer. <strong>No. 3 [player_tooltip player_id="145890" first="Dylan" last="Gooden"]/6-6/200/Defensive End/Good Counsel</strong> Explode/Point Strength: Average. Previously, he played the wide receiver position. He has a lot of time to adjust to the physicality of the position. Reactions: Great. Gooden gets off the ball as fast as anybody listed in this article. Shed: Average. He'll have to work on his strength and power to get rid of blockers faster. Lateral Quickness/Change of Direction: Great. He's got cat-like quickness. Stay on Feet: Great Acceleration: Great Pursuit: Great. Makes plays in the backfield. Tackle: Good. Here is another area where he'll improve in with more practice at the position. In-Line: Average. He's a  on the thin side for his height. I think an offseason of him focusing on getting stronger and bigger should change that in a hurry. It's amazing what a position-change can do for one's recruitment. He's gone from a wide receiver who got little reps to one of the most recruited defensive ends in the Northeast. He's very raw and talented. He can only get better. That's a scary thought for future opponents. <b> </b>