New York Jets’ 11-on: Friday’s 7v7 Standouts, Part I
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On Friday, July 7 I was lucky enough to take in the final qualifying round for the New York Jets’ 11-On event. This event featured 7on7 competition for the skill players and a lineman competition for the bigs. Across two…
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Continue ReadingOn Friday, July 7 I was lucky enough to take in the final qualifying round for the New York Jets’ 11-On event. This event featured 7on7 competition for the skill players and a lineman competition for the bigs. Across two days and several “pods,” the two platoons competed against their counterparts from other high schools within the region to aggregate a total score for their respective teams. The top scoring teams from each pod would be invited back for the playoffs during the event’s third and final day.
I first took in the lineman competition, having a chance to scout players here and here and therefor I was unable to watch every team during 7on7 pod play. We will take a look at the skill positions and the athletes who stood out inside the Jets’ practice bubble that I was able to watch perform.
Standout Performances: North Plainfield
I did not get much an opportunity to see much of North Plainfield, however there was one player who made incredible play, play-after-play. He is one of the prospects I am most excited to see this season. He is Tyrell King Tyrell King 6'2" | 175 lbs | WR North Plainfield | 2025 NJ . With all the ordained physical gifts, the talented wide receiver showed off much of what he has been blessed with as he competed at the NY Jets facility.
I am not sure if King is perhaps the best kept secret in the Big Central Conference or my personal choice for breakout player of the year for the conference, but King did more of what I have grown accustom to seeing. Simply put, at wide receiver King is an offensive star. From maybe the second play of North Plainfield’s opening drive, the Canucks went up top targeting King deep on a go route. This was a no-brainer automatic touchdown that opened the game’s scoring and fired up the sideline. King hauled in this pass by high pointing the ball so well that the pass was uncontested to the ground. He also runs fast routes with little wasted movement. Later in the evening King made a ridiculous, unbelievable spinning catch on another deep bomb. Like a ballerina, King leaped and high pointed the ball, caught it with his hands, while spinning his body away from the defender to shield their path to the ball. His momentum was taking him towards the sideline and out of bounds, but King had the presence of mind and body control to get both feet down.
Standout Performances: Weequahic
Before getting into individual standout performances by the Weequahic Indians, I felt compelled to share how well coached and disciplined their defense is. Throughout the evening I watched their back-7 register several coverage sacks. Additionally, as a defensive unit they, collectively, rallies to the ball extremely well. I expect their defense to be one of the stingiest in all of Group I.
Playing a lot of centerfield safety for the Indians was the 5’11” 165lb Motley. Motley’s discipline shined to me, as he did a great job of keying in on his reads, burning a hole through them as he played defense. Whether it was Cover 2 or Cover 3, his buy-in allowed him to correctly pass off receivers to fellow defenders who were seeing the same thing, thus eliminating all windows for opposing quarterbacks to throw to. As mentioned before, this mid-season form pass defense led to numerous coverage sacks. Further, Motley reacts appropriately to when the ball is in flight and seemingly explodes to play the ball the moment opposing quarterbacks start their motion. This led to the standout safety making many, what offenses would call, ordinary and “safe” throws into legitimate 5050 balls.
Simmons stood out to me because he was so hard to miss. The standout linebacker represented the orange & brown IP pride well manning the mike linebacker spot. After scouting him, he is listed at approximately 5’10” and 205lbs and this comes as a surprise to me. After watching him perform Simmons played like he was 6’2″ 215lbs. Simmons is an absolute vacuum, as he sucks all the space out of passing lanes. He was rangey and able to get to his drop-spot in only a few steps and efficiently opened up his hips without any loss of speed. Impressively, despite competing in 7on7 Simmons was disciplined enough to still take his run reads first before dropping back into coverage. I am curious to know what Simmons arm span is, as any crossing patterns over the middle were taken away leading to several coverage sacks. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Simmons makes outstanding breaks when the ball is out, totally suffocating any space and killing any hopes of a cutback or easy escape for the ball carrier.