The most impressive former Watch List Seniors

I glossed over a few extremely impressive Watch Listers during the early 2024 Update. Over the past month, I've re-watched all the film, and I'm glad I did. These former watch-listers have earned great rankings, and I'm happy to evaluate them all here.    What an offseason it's been for Jevon. After offers from GVSU, SVSU, Davenport, and more, I had to go back into the tape and re-evaluate him. Jevon's highlight tape shows excellent power on the defensive interior. I don't see the dominance that is advertised at these offseason camps, but I do see a man who cannot be moved. Out of his stance, Jevon engages with the opposing lineman and does an excellent job of using his strength to pull rush, push-pull, or other moves to shed the block. In the backfield, he's a solid tackler. I have no doubt that he's done extremely well at all the camps he's been to, and you have to love the size at 6'4" 260. I can't believe Jevon was on the Watch List during the last update, and he gets his due with an excellent ranking.     Sitting right behind Jevon in the rankings is [player_tooltip player_id='247635' first='Norman' last='Adams'] from Oak Park*. While bouncing between a few schools over the years, Norman has always remained a dominant two-way lineman. On offense, he's a good guard that uses his power to stop nearly every D-Lineman in their tracks. Though, his true upside is as a defensive tackle. On the interior, Norman has a phenomenal getoff and quickly gets into the backfield. Most defensive tackles struggle to fire off the ball and quickly shed their block, but Norman is great at that initial explosiveness and first move. When he wins, he WINS and oftentimes tallies a TFL to his stat sheet. On film, I really like Norman's game. He's currently a MAC prospect and I expect that to hold true through this season.     I am incredibly impressed with Jacob's development over the past year. Last year, I added him to the Watch List, as I liked what I saw but thought he needed to clean up his fundamentals while gaining in-game experience. Compared to his sophomore highlights, Jacob cleaned up his footwork while getting more agile and aggressive. He used to make solid blocks without much balance or footwork to speak of. Last year, he actually looks like an offensive lineman with great control, footwork, and hard initial contact. I love seeing someone who can turn his game completely around within a year. Because of his trajectory, Jacob goes from the Watch List to a top 80 player in the class.     We very rarely rank kickers, but I've watched Brayden way too many times not to. I'm honestly surprised that Brayden hasn't earned more offers than he already has- but I'm also not too familiar with the kicker recruiting process. Having watched Brayden at a Davenport camp plus a couple times during State Championship warm-ups, I'm confident that Brayden has what it takes to be a college kicker. Starting with punting- I've watched Brayden pin a ton of balls inside the 20. He has a rare sense of accuracy with his kicks, and is able to put some backspin on the ball and aim very close to the endzone. With kicking, he's near-automatic in warm-ups. He looks to have a smooth, consistent kicking motion, can boot it from 40+ out, and doesn't seem to be affected much from pressure. I've seen him make kicks with me staring right at him, and I've seen him make kicks during the state championship. I'm not sure where Brayden will end up, but I'm very excited to follow his career moving forward.     This past season, Preston was an extremely highly productive two-way player at Grand Ledge. Defensively, Preston played like a linebacker at Safety. I love his aggressiveness and hard-hitting nature on the defensive side. Offensively, Preston was a dynamic athlete playing QB and WR. In both positions, Preston plays with elite effort, play speed, and is downright dominant against lesser defenses. At second glance, Preston is admittedly ranked low during this update. It's my mistake, and he'll almost certainly be ranked higher during the next update.     It's laughable that Kade was on the Watch List prior to this update. Over the last several months, I've been in front of Kade several times and I have a very good sense of his skillet and ceiling. As an edge rusher, he's fundamentally polished. He's quicker than most linemen and uses his hands well enough to get around all non-college prospect linemen. He can be a bit disorganized with his pass rush, though that's where his true strength lies. Kade has higher upside when it comes to being a hybrid outside linebacker, but his skills lacks in that area. A lot of colleges pass him up based on his measurements, though I'm confident that more GLIAC schools will send out offers. He's ranked quite high at #133 based on his recruiting and he's 100% one of the guys I'm higher on than the consensus.     David lands himself at #150 during this update. Although he doesn't have any offers on his Twitter, David has proved his worth this offseason. Down at the Prep Redzone Hoosier State Hustle, David put up a dominant performance. He was twitchy, understood the entire route tree, and came down with several difficult-to-catch balls. David's film shows much of the same. I'm not sure why the recruiting attention isn't there yet, but I'm confident that the offers will eventually come. He's ranked alongside many D2 prospects, and I think he could one day be a good GLIAC target.

I glossed over a few extremely impressive Watch Listers during the early 2024 Update. Over the past month, I've re-watched all the film, and I'm glad I did. These former watch-listers have earned great rankings, and I'm happy to evaluate them all here.