704 Junior Bowl Wide Receiver Candidates

The Queen City Senior Bowl honors 80 of the top seniors in the Charlotte Metro Area. Prep Redzone North Carolina takes a look at a hypothetical "704 Junior Bowl" - players that had a strong junior season that would be considered for a selection if such a game existed in the Charlotte Metro Area. In Year 1 of this series, I went ahead and selected who would be on my Junior Bowl team. This year, I am going to give you a list of candidates for consideration, then we'll do a final release of the full team once all position candidates have been released. So, let's take a look at our wide receiver candidates for selection.   **For full transparency, the 704 Junior Bowl will consider players from the following counties: Cleveland, Gaston, Mecklenburg, Iredell, Cabarrus, and Union counties.**    Coming off helping the Chargers win a state championship , Thompson has been one of the hottest recruits in the state with double-digit offers from a number of Division 1 schools. His electric speed and playmaking ability in the biggest situations is all over his highlight tape. Thompson is a legitimate #1 option in the passing game for the Chargers offense, and with a new head coach and new quarterback throwing the ball next season, you can bet he"s going to put up big-time numbers as the go-to guy once again. A strong option for our 704 Junior Bowl team.     Otavio had a tough junior year dealing with injury early on in the season, but his talent is undeniable with what he put on tape in his previous two years. Otavio is still receiving college interest and I expect he'll be back dominating in the slot and putting up good numbers again this upcoming season. He has excellent quickness and runs good routes with great speed in the open field. He should help bring some nice balance within the Panthers offense.     Don't let the size fool you, because Steele is a dynamic threat in a Chargers offense that had a lot of firepower with a ton of talent this past season. This season the Chargers will be breaking in a new quarterback and Steele figures to be a major part of the passing attack as some talented receivers have moved on to play college football. Steele is a threat out of the slot with speed and dynamic route running ability. He's received some early offers, and I think we'll see a lot more of what he can do as a total package in the offense and as a returner on special teams this upcoming season.     Collins continues the trend of smaller receivers physically that can dominate all over the field. In the Golden Lions' spread offense, it is a great system for the strengths that Collins possesses. Excellent speed, strong hands, and precise routes are the ways that he gets open all over the field on a wide variety of patterns in the route tree. He's a tough matchup because bigger corners can't stay with him, and smaller defensive backs don't have his vertical ability - even with his size, Collins has shown he can high point the football at times. The recruiting interest I think will come, but he's a dynamic threat defenses have to account for every snap when playing Shelby.     I'm very high on Sione as a prospect. You saw the light come on for him in the 2nd half of the season last year for the Chargers. Sione had a couple of games where he was just flat out dominant. In those games, Sione had double-digit catches and triple digit yardage totals. The film on those games was impressive to watch - at all three levels, Sione was making plays. That is the definition of an all-around wide receiver. I've seen him up close a couple of times at offseason showcases, and I think this offseason we'll start to see colleges catch up because he should have recruiting interest already.     Riley provides balance to a powerful Green Wave running game with electric speed on the outside in the passing game. Riley shows he can win against corners and safeties in 1 on 1 coverage, something that he sees a good bit with the way defenses play against Ashbrook. I think Riley can be successful on the outside or even in the slot on the next level, because there's a lot of room to grow his game. The routes that Riley runs on a regular basis on his highlights are good, and he shows good technique in closing the cushion on corners and stacking them to win deep passes down the field. I'm interested to see how well Riley takes coaching in a showcase setting and can apply those things. If he shows well, he should start to gain some college interest this offseason.     With the Huskies coming off a state championship, there are high expectations on them to play well again next season. Jahmere had a bit of a breakout season for Hough with 7 receiving touchdowns. Jahmere also stepped up big in some showcase games, which shows you the potential and trajectory of his overall ability. He has very good speed - on multiple highlights you see him getting behind defensive backs for big plays. I like his route running also, and he's got the size to where he can be a matchup problem against smaller defensive backs. He has offers from East Carolina and Gardner-Webb, and I think he's poised to have a breakout summer from a recruiting perspective. All arrows are pointing up with this young man.     Londyn is a player who has some special ability between the lines. I saw him live last season at JM Robinson, and he tipped a ball to himself, caught it, outran the defense, and scored a touchdown from about 20 yards out. When you look at him physically, the reach and catch radius are impressive. Londyn has the speed to be a downfield threat, and the size to be a real problem in high-pointing the football in one on one situations with corners. College football programs are taking notice of these same things as well, with recent offers from Campbell, Kent State, Wake Forest, and Charlotte. Switching schools to Ambassador Christian should be interesting to see how he fits in their offense, but I'm sure he will have the opportunities to produce with his talent.     Recently picking up an offer from East Carolina reaffirms the fact that Ethan is a Division 1 caliber prospect on a lot of college football program radars. Similar to his aforementioned teammate [player_tooltip player_id='1150380' first='Steele' last='Fletcher'], Ethan is poised to have a bigger role in the Chargers offense due to some other talented players graduating. Ethan has a great size/speed combination that allows him to win on a variety of routes on the outside against opposing secondaries. Ethan shows strong hands on his catches, and some ability after the catch to make plays with the ball in his hands. That ability also allows Ethan to be a threat as a returner in the special teams game as well. As the off-season moves forward, I'm expecting more interest and offers to come his way.     70 catches, over 1100 yards receiving, 18 touchdowns, and over 1800 all-purpose yards. Those numbers make you do a double take, because that is some really impressive production from a receiver. That production has caught the eye of some college football programs as well, with recent offers coming from Buffalo, Kent State, East Carolina, and UTSA. Marcus has a full package in his bag as a wife receiver - his speed first and foremost allows him to win down the field. He can win over the top against slow defensive backs, and the threat of that allows him to win on short and intermediate routes against defenses as well. As if that wasn't enough, Marcus can also play defensive back at a high level. But, I like him best with the ball in his hands and he's a very strong candidate for this 704 Junior Bowl team.     Chanse is a player I really like for a number of reasons. He operates very well out of the slot and shows he isn't afraid to go over the middle and make tough catches for the Blue Devils' offense. Chanse is also a multi-sport player, showing his overall agility and athleticism in his game. Mooresville loses a lot of production in the passing game to graduation, so a good futures bet is that he will see a major jump in targets and production. An All-Conference player, Chanse can win with speed and I really am excited to see the jump he makes this upcoming season.     Totaling nearly 800 yards this past season, Khylieb came on the scene strong as an absolute speed threat who can turn games very quickly with his big play ability. His Twitter references a time of 4.33 seconds in the 40 yard dash - while that may not be a professional NFL laser time, his highlight film definitely backs up the fact that you simply can't leave him in single coverage and expect to slow him down on a consistent basis. That production led Khylieb to be named All-Conference this past season, and I'd expect similar production from him this upcoming season as well. Khylieb stepped up in big games as well, and it's only a matter of time before college football programs start coming his way from a recruiting perspective.

The Queen City Senior Bowl honors 80 of the top seniors in the Charlotte Metro Area. Prep Redzone North Carolina takes a look at a hypothetical "704 Junior Bowl" - players that had a strong junior season that would be considered for a selection if such a game existed in the Charlotte Metro Area. In Year 1 of this series, I went ahead and selected who would be on my Junior Bowl team. This year, I am going to give you a list of candidates for consideration, then we'll do a final release of the full team once all position candidates have been released. So, let's take a look at our wide receiver candidates for selection.