Uncovered Gems: KLAA East Defense #1

Honestly, the KLAA is one of my least-covered of the "big" leagues. I don't know why, but I do tend to favor the OAA and OK when it comes to my coverage. Well, I'm trying to correct that here. Over the next few days, I'll be featuring a couple dozen players from the KLAA East. Here, I'm evaluating defensive players from Dearborn, Belleville, Stevenson, and Churchill.    Adam played good minutes on both sides of the ball this past season, and he has an opportunity to parlay his sophomore season with a much-improved Junior year.   His tape begins with a solid combo block shed, followed by a good TFL on the slow-developing play. The second highlight shows decent power driving back the (JV) offensive tackle, earning another TFL. The tape then goes into a few offensive line highlights, where Adam again shows solid physicality and drive. On both sides of the ball, he needs to improve his footwork and overall play speed. But still, for a JV player, he did pretty well.      Much of Cole's highlights are on the offensive side of the ball, but it is pretty split.   1:05 stood out to me as a great defensive line highlight. Cole fires off the ball quickly, dips through a block, and ends up chasing down the RB for a great backside tackle. Then, at 1:30, Cole executes an excellent down block oping up a huge hole for his RB. Same thing at 3:42. Lastly, at 4:15, Cole sheds a block and ends up getting the QBs ankles.   Good stuff. I especially like Cole's ability to be extremely physical on both sides of the ball. At least on the offensive line, he really needs to work on his footwork, but other than that, I like what I see.      A few great plays from Michael as an outside linebacker.   I'd first like to highlight the plays at 0:44 and 0:51. During both of those plays, Michael does an excellent job of quickly stopping the developing "speed in space" outside toss/screen play. I see a lot of DBs and LBs react slowly to these plays, and even when they react quickly, a lot aren't very physical when against a blocker. Credit to Michael for not only reacting quickly but shedding a block at 0:51.   That's really the story of his tape- a TON of outside run stops. It's quite interesting (in a good way). Most LBs I watch almost only have inside run stops, while struggling to react quickly enough to stop anything outside the tackles. Not Michael. Credit for reacting quickly to those speed-in-space plays, and I hope to see Michael compete sometime this offseason!      A very, very long highlight tape here for Churchill Safety [player_tooltip player_id='1613904' first='Dalvon' last='Wideman'].   I'll keep this one on the shorter side- Dalvon is a solid tackler, but he needs to improve his play speed and physicality in order to take his game to the next level. Too often does Dalvon react slowly to a developing run, then proceeds to wait for the ballcarrier to come to him, resulting in MANY more yards earned from the opposing offense.      A few great flashes from [player_tooltip player_id='1613908' first='Labron' last='Powell'] this past season. Take a look at the play at 0:39- Labron drops back, reacts a little slow to the developing run, but once he diagnoses the play, he attacks the gap and lays a massive hit. At 1:12, the same thing. Inside run play, Labron reacts a little slow, but ends up getting a great hit. Finally, the play at 1:39, where Labron drops back into coverage and tips the pass.   Labron shares a lot of features with other Belleville linebackers. Great physicality, good play speed, and a good motor. Just react a little faster, and he'll be a great Varsity linebacker.

Honestly, the KLAA is one of my least-covered of the "big" leagues. I don't know why, but I do tend to favor the OAA and OK when it comes to my coverage. Well, I'm trying to correct that here. Over the next few days, I'll be featuring a couple dozen players from the KLAA East. Here, I'm evaluating defensive players from Dearborn, Belleville, Stevenson, and Churchill.