Prep Redzone Next 2027 Football Prospect Watch List
Welcome to our initial football prospect Watch List for the 2027 recruiting cycle. Each prospect is listed with their position, picture (if possible), height and weight (if possible) and state. These are athletes currently in the eighth-grade.
Let us be 100% crystal clear: This is NOT the final list.
We are adding new prospects every day, behind the scenes. The list will be updated three additional times this off-season, with new athletes becoming visible on the Watch List in March, July and August. The final list will be released in mid-August, as these athletes are set to begin their high school careers.
Unlike the high school level, there are no official stats or national database of middle school football players or teams, like MaxPreps does for high school. There is also no obligation to film games or post them to film-sharing platforms, like Hudl. While we stand firmly by our Watch List, it is important to understand that these very early looks can & will change drastically.
We aren’t sleeping on you. We may not have even seen you, yet.
The Hall of Fame misses on NFL greats. GMs in the NFL miss on college prospects. Colleges miss on high school All-American’s. We may miss on the eighth-grade level — it happens. However, we use our years of expertise and judgement on eighth-grade talent we see live and on film. We do our homework by talking to coaches and researching the ability of athletes.
“But I’m ranked on ABC site & I got invited to play in the XYX camp/game. How am I not on your list?“
On the pre-high school level, if you’re willing to pay enough money, you will find someone to call your 2027 prospect an “all-American” or get “invited” to some event. Prior to high school, football as a whole, is not set up well enough to truly find all the top kids. There will always be invites and all-American games, but that does not factor into our decision-making at all. Film and in-person scouting will trump any invites or titles a prospect may receive/earn/buy.
So why does the Prep Redzone Next 2027 Football Prospect list matter?
Just look at the previous results. This list matters because it is the deepest, most-heavily scrutinized and far-and-away most accurate national list you will find anywhere, on the middle school level. National Scouting Director, Al “Pops” Popadines has been evaluating talent on the middle school level since 2010 and has been on the forefront of early-prospect identification. Pops’ list of athletes identified as middle schoolers, includes dozens of athletes that are now in the NFL and several thousand that have gone on to play/are currently playing at the college level. Names like Bryan Bresee of Clemson and Quinn Ewers of Texas, made the list as eighth-graders and both eventually became the No.1 player in their recruiting class.
Talent can be identified early.
Without further adieu, here is the initial Prep Redzone Next 2027 Football Prospect Watch List.
