Deep Dives: 704 Metro Area Linebackers

We are continuing our Deep Dive Series, now branching out to the surrounding counties outside of Charlotte, known as the 704 Metro Area! We are looking at players specifically in Cleveland, Gaston, Union, Cabarrus, and Iredell counties. If we have a special player in another adjacent county - such as Stanly, Lincoln, or Rowan - they will be eligible for inclusion in this ranking also!   We will keep it going with the linebackers in the 704 Metro Area, and we will follow the same setup as we did for Mecklenburg County: The top five players will get their own individual breakdown, while our remaining players will get a summarized analysis of their abilities. Let's get started!    Most people reading this know how talented Jalaythan is - and it's natural talent meeting the ideal physical profile college football programs are looking for at the linebacker position. The film jumps off the page with elite athleticism, instincts, and tackling ability in the open field. The most important thing for Jalaythan right now is his recruiting, so we'll focus on that for this article. Jalaythan announced his spring visits about a month ago, which include NC State, Oregon, Georgia, Kentucky, Miami, Louisville, and Georgia Tech. He is nearly complete with those, and we can presume he will make a college football program happy after that with a commitment announcement. That program will get a great talent, a great leader, and a wonderful young man by all accounts I've heard and received!     This linebacker class in this region of North Carolina is very DEEP in terms of overall talent, and it was difficult to pick the order of these next players. So I leaned on what I've seen in person and production over the past couple of years, and Tanner won the best of those areas for me. He's been involved in a lot of winning in the Blue Devils program, and he's a tackling machine from the linebacker spot. He's a two-time All-Conference player who had 100 tackles, 18 and a half tackles for loss, and 40 quarterback hurries last season. He'll be expected to be a defensive leader for a Mooresville team that lost a good bit of talent to graduation this past season. Tanner has college football interest from a number of programs, and I expect that to continue as we head into camp season.     I've talked about Memphys's skills as a pass rusher on here before, and that's one of the great things about him - his versatility. Coming off a strong season where he had 92 tackles, 18 tackles, and 8 sacks, Memphys can be an asset as an EDGE player or as an off-ball linebacker. Memphys takes great pursuit angles to get to the ball carrier when playing from depth, and he shows great tackling fundamentals when he gets to the football. I would classify him as a power-type of pass rusher, but he has a good get-off at the snap as an EDGE player, and has the speed to beat slower offensive tackles around the edge in his pass rush. This will be a big camp season for him to help generate some recruiting interest, because I think he's deserving of it.       Landon is a two-time All-Conference player for the Golden Lions, who has been very productive already in his career. This past season, in helping lead Shelby to another state championship, Landon produced 134 total tackles, 5 sacks, and some imposing plays to help set the tone defensively in some big games. Landon is one of those players you love to have on your team, and opponents don't like, because he plays to the echo of the whistle, and is one to fire up his teammates by playing that way. Landon also shares on his Twitter profile that he is a pro snowboarder, and he plays basketball for Shelby as well, which reflects the speed and athleticism he plays with between the lines on Friday Nights.     Brayden is a very good athlete who is also a basketball player for the Storm, and he shows some impressive speed and agility for his size. With 53 tackles, 7 sacks, and some strong contributions on offense, Brayden is poised for a big senior season on a much-improved Stuart Cramer squad. Brayden can play the off-ball linebacker position, play on the edge as a pass rusher, and even play some running back in some power run-oriented sets on offense. Brayden is starting to get some deserved recruiting attention from college football programs as well.    Honorable Mentions   [player_tooltip player_id='1426916' first='Cobel' last='Nkembeng']- Cuthbertson [player_tooltip player_id='1957195' first='Davis' last='Weycker'] - Piedmont [player_tooltip player_id='1146633' first='Christopher' last='Baker'] - Forest Hills [player_tooltip player_id='1429533' first='Evan' last='Culicerto'] - Marvin Ridge Jamarion Brown - Carson   Out of this group, we have a couple of tackling machines in [player_tooltip player_id='1429533' first='Evan' last='Culicerto'] and Jamarion Brown. Culicerto and Brown were both well over 100 tackles for their respective teams this past season, in the middle of their team's defenses. Brown notably forced 5 fumbles while making those tackles and is a physical hard-hitter in space. [player_tooltip player_id='1957195' first='Davis' last='Weycker'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1146633' first='Christopher' last='Baker'] are athletic players in space who are defensive leaders on their teams. Both players are getting some college recruiting interest and are entering big camp seasons going into their senior years. [player_tooltip player_id='1426916' first='Cobel' last='Nkembeng'] is on the opposite end of that, our only 2029 player on this list. He's on here, though, because at 6'1 and 215 pounds, he's got the physical traits of a future big-time player. Cobel already shows impressive speed in space to chase down ball carriers who have an advantage with the pursuit angle. Analysis   Markalen Camp - Burns [player_tooltip player_id='1398025' first='Thomas' last='Kieffer'] - Pine Lake [player_tooltip player_id='1971581' first='Zack' last='Riddle'] - NW Cabarrus [player_tooltip player_id='1702088' first='Faison' last='Manning'] - AL Brown [player_tooltip player_id='1678647' first='Owen' last='Smith'] - South Rowan [player_tooltip player_id='951250' first='Caleb' last='Foley'] - West Stanly [player_tooltip player_id='2113132' first='Trae' last='Clyburn'] - West Iredell   There is a lot of talent in this group. Camp from Burns is an extremely athletic outside linebacker off-ball player who is getting interest from schools. Other players out of this group that stand out include [player_tooltip player_id='951250' first='Caleb' last='Foley'] from West Stanly, who has some really good size and is an extremely hard worker. [player_tooltip player_id='2113132' first='Trae' last='Clyburn'] is a name you may not know that well, but he played a big role in the West Iredell defense becoming masters at turning opponents over this past season. He is a hybrid linebacker/defensive back you have to account for at all times. Riddle and Manning are two of the best linebackers in Cabarrus County who stuff the stat sheet in a lot of different ways on Friday Nights. Kieffer and Smith are similar in that they're all conference players who lead their respective teams in tackles from their linebacker positions. They're both tone setters and leaders for their defense, and should have strong senior years this upcoming season.

We are continuing our Deep Dive Series, now branching out to the surrounding counties outside of Charlotte, known as the 704 Metro Area! We are looking at players specifically in Cleveland, Gaston, Union, Cabarrus, and Iredell counties. If we have a special player in another adjacent county - such as Stanly, Lincoln, or Rowan - they will be eligible for inclusion in this ranking also!