Web Gems: Intriguing Prospects from the Twitter-sphere
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Although I am not the best at Twitter, Tweeting, or X’ing (whatever Elon calls it now a days), more times than I like to admin I will often stop and watch the film of a prospect who posts it. After…
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Continue ReadingAlthough I am not the best at Twitter, Tweeting, or X’ing (whatever Elon calls it now a days), more times than I like to admin I will often stop and watch the film of a prospect who posts it. After getting lost in the depths of Twitter I will find the light, the light brought to me by a prospect that I am impressed with. When these opportunity to find diamonds in the rough come about, I cannot help but want to scout them.
For the first time I will be trying out the Prep Redzone New Jersey Twitter Community Film Room Session where I evaluate and do a write-up on those prospects. Read more about these prospects below!
TO HAVE YOUR FILM EVALUATED FOR OUR NEXT TWITTER COMMUNITY FILM ROOM SESSION, DIRECT MESSAGE ME ON TWITTER @BRENDANSCOUTSNJ.
South V’s #1 overall seed from a year ago is set to return one of their key defenders in the secondary, Darwin Walker Darwin Walker 6’3″ | 190 lbs | DB Cherokee | 2025 NJ . Last year at corner, Walker was credited with 10 PBU, 2 Ints, 49 tackles (21 solo), 2 TFL, and 1 FF. The film shows that he is mostly a country cover 3 corner who is coached to play the skate technique rather than backpedal. A real sure tackler at cornerback, Walker does a good job of keeping his force responsibilities but also has shown to square ball carriers up when more toward the middle. No play is ever dead to Walker, who absolutely hustles and pursues the ball extremely well, as evidenced by several instances of him hawking big plays down. Walker is somewhat of an anomaly to me as far as cornerbacks go. He plays a bit more conservatively than I am used to seeing, which is absolutely fine – especially since he makes it work. It appears that all 6’3″ and nearly 200 pounds of him would rather break plays up by using his wingspan to play a receiver’s hands or his body to dislodge the ball than blanket defenders, working air-tight coverage all over the field. Walker is interesting because although I want to see him improve his break on the ball, he is extremely quick to explode – which is a good indicator of his explosive nature and potential. Something tells me safety may be in the cards for his collegiate future.
Hammonton might be home to one of Jersey’s most dynamic offensive pieces, who happens to also be a relatively well kept secret, in tailback Kenny Smith Kenny Smith 5’11” | 175 lbs | RB Hammonton | 2025 State NJ . Last fall Smith rushed for 254/1473/16, caught 13/156/1, and was credited with 6 (3) tackles and 1 Int on defense. Smith shows patience as a runner, refusing to blow past his pulling linemen in pin & pull scheme plays; however, I am not sure if what I am describing as patience is just that, or is it confidence. Unlike many other prospects, Smith has both a second and third gear to his game that he shifts to when in the open field. When running more zone-based plays Smith’s shifty hips meet his vision, allowing him to work against the grain by cutting off the rear-ends of his linemen climbing to the second level. He has also shown the ability to totally cut back behind the line of scrimmage, although I do not think he prefers to do that. Lastly, he will use the stiff arm when running laterally and win the edge. Without the ball in his hands on offense, we see Smith be the epitome of a team player by forcibly asserting himself as a lead blocker for his teammates. From his safety position Smith does two things exceptionally well: fly and explode. He aggressively fills the ally and can bait a quarterback into a bad throw, relying on his tremendous jump to break and make a play on the ball. Offensively I would encourage Smith to be mindful of switching the ball to his outside arm and emphasizing the 5 points of pressure when toting the rock; whereas defensively he can stand to improve his tackling leverage. By doing so, he will force ball carriers back to the inside where his help is pursuing from.
Brody Deiter Brody Deiter 6’2″ | 165 lbs | WR Rancocas Valley | 2025 NJ comes off as a deceptively sneaky wide receiver who is just good at playing football. Last fall Deiter turned in 43 receptions for 636 yards and 7 touchdowns, while also pitching in with 17 tackles on defense. Deiter gets several opponents to bite on his double moves. I attribute this to how hard he sells his routes and how he never stops moving his feet throughout his breaks. This often leads to busted coverages that leave him wide open, all alone. One for situational football, Deiter is willing to fight and extend for every last yard he needs and has shown that he can make falling, sideline catches. With the ball in his hands, I would surmise to say Deiter is a one move/cut and get-up-the-field-and-get-what-you-can type of player in the YAC space. Something I admired, in one clip a defensive back tried to father Deiter by attempting to out-physical him. In response, we see Rancocas Valley’s top target deliver that physicality right back in that defender’s grill. He is also an active blocker in the run game due to his constant scrapping and also appears to be the team’s punter, getting roughly 45 yards on his kicks. One thing I think that Deiter can benefit from is coming back to the ball when he is targeted on hitches, curls, screens, and comebacks. Given how he is constantly working his feet, I do not think that he will lose much speed, if any, by doing this, and the reward would be more space for him to work with to amass yardage.