Westside QBs Scouting Report

There's some great QB talent coming out of West Michigan! The Westside QBs Media Showcase was the best event I've attended so far this offseason. Tons of great, under-recognized talent. There were a handful of QBs who stood out amongst the rest, and here, I'll cover all 7 of my biggest standouts.   <a href="https://x.com/alex_pallone">Click here to view my Twitter</a> and see some of these guys throw! (Having trouble embedding in-article)    I'm not exaggerating when I say that Peyton was the #1 prospect I wanted to watch this offseason. I mean, <a href="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/17833316/673b9c661216e129528a4bde">Peyton's tape</a> shows phenomenal D1-level athleticism, but I wasn't yet sold on his throwing ability.   After seeing him throw, I'm confident he should be an elite GLIAC prospect who could also earn late offers from MAC programs.   First off, Peyton passes the eye test. I honestly expected him to look smaller, both in terms of muscle and height. Peyton isn't lying with his 6'2" height listed on Hudl. If anything, he's a little taller than 6'2". Plus, he's built like a D1 college-ready dual-threat QB.   Now the most important question. How polished is Peyton as a passer?   Peyton has a strong arm and throws with excellent velocity. Dude can rip it. Though, he isn't super accurate yet. I'd say he threw a strike about 40% of the time. Another 45%, accuracy was a little off but still catchable. Then, 15% of the time, he'd throw a ball completely out of the WRs reach. Another thing worth pointing out is that Peyton's accuracy didn't vary too much by the area of the field he was throwing to. He was equally accurate regardless of the route.   Peyton also came across as outgoing, competitive, and he asked a few smart questions.   Because he's a class of 2026 prospect, D1 offers may be hard to come by, but definitely not impossible if he balls out at a camp. Like I said in the beginning, I think he'll end up being an elite D2 guy.     Grady earned his stripes. For whatever reason, I wasn't sold on Grady for the past year. I just didn't think he had it.   Yesterday, Grady showed me that he has the skill to be a low D2 prospect. For one, Grady was one of the more consistently accurate passers. Like most QBs, Grady did his best when throwing to a stationary target when he himself was also stationary. Like playing catch. The further he had to throw, the less accurate he was.   Grady reminds me of Alex Bueno- a Class of 2023 Quarterback from Rochester who's starting to earn playing time for Michigan Tech.     Going solely off accuracy, Lamar was the best of the bunch. I love the way the ball zips out of Lamar's hand, and most of his passes were right on the money. I watched Lamar throw accurate bullets to pratically every area of the field, all with a conistently quick release. As a passer, Lamar is one of the best in the OK Confernece.   The one big issue is his height. It's the ugly truth, but not many 5'8" QBs get recruited nowadays. That said, Lamar will have an uphill battle this offseason, even if he performs extremely well at camps. Though, I'd say Lamar is the most likely Week 1 starter for Muskegon. If he is the starter, I'd imagine he'll find a lot of success.     Hudson was the surprise of the afternoon. Going into this event, I had no idea who Hudson was.   He's an extremely fun watch. Hudson sports a unconventional sidearm throwing motion and some of his passes were sensational. At his best, Hudson was throwing perfect dimes to fast receivers running slants, posts, outs, corners, etc. At his worst, he'd be way off- which was fairly often. Sometimes, the ball just doesn't come out right and Hudson throws a dud.   With more consistent accuracy, Hudson could be a very intriguing prospect.     I didn't watch Cole a ton, but I watched him enough to know that he's a good passer who should eventually find Varsity success.   I watched a few pretty basic throws from Cole (15-20-yard throws during light drills). Cole was accurate, threw a good spiral, and demonstrated average arm strength compared to what I'd call "good" Varsity QBs. Cole has a capable arm and consistnet enough mechanics to succeed at the Varsity level. The main question now is if Cole can be a smart enough player to truly succeed in the OK Green.     We won't be releasing Class of 2029 Rankings for a while, but I will say, Brody will likely be on the Watch List.   Brody is way ahead of the curve when it comes to this class. Most notably, he makes the most of his current size and arm strength. He's currently pretty small, as are the vast majority of '29 guys. Though, Brody makes up for this with polished mechanics. He's able to push the ball downfield, even if he needs to put a little more into it than the High School Seniors. Plus, I'm extremely impressed with how accurate Brody is, especially downfield. Like I said, Brody needs to put in a lot more effort to push it downfield, but as long as he's able to get it there, it's usually an accurate pass. Can't wait to come back to this evaluation in a few years when Brody is leading the Varisty squad!     Lou is another guy I caught a lot of glimpses of, but didn't watch as much as I wanted to. For one, Lou looks to be telling the truth about his H/W. I've seen a lot of prospects, specifically QBs, lie about H/W- Lou is not one of those guys.   More importantly, Lou is a good passer. He has the arm strength to push the ball downfield. Though, Lou still has some stuff to work on regarding mechanics. As long as Lou keeps on improving, he'll be ok. Just put your head down, commit to learning, commit to working, and good things will come!

There's some great QB talent coming out of West Michigan! The Westside QBs Media Showcase was the best event I've attended so far this offseason. Tons of great, under-recognized talent. There were a handful of QBs who stood out amongst the rest, and here, I'll cover all 7 of my biggest standouts.