Williamstown (NJ) Williamstown defensive end Aaron Lewis, Jr., committed to Michigan on Sunday after an official visit. He flipped from West Virginia and also has offers from Miami, Ohio State, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Tennessee, and Texas A&M, among others.
Lewis stands 6’5″ and 235 lbs. As a junior in 2018, he made 102 tackles, 25 tackles for loss, and 6 sacks.
RATINGS
ESPN: 4-star, 80 grade, #32 DE
Rivals: 3-star, 5.6 grade, #43 SDE
247 Sports: 4-star, 90 grade, #13 SDE, #238 overall
Hit the jump for more on Lewis’s commitment.
Lewis was offered by Michigan in January, but he committed to West Virginia in April. Despite that commitment, he continued to explore his options. He was a surprise visitor this past weekend, but obviously that quickly turned into a public commitment.
Lewis has good size and has plenty of room to fill out as he ages. Listed between 235-240 lbs. right now, he could probably carry up to 300 lbs. or so eventually pretty comfortably. He moves well and shows above average change-of-direction skills for his size. He plays a lot of nose tackle in a three-man front for his high school, and his quickness off the line is tough to combat for high school centers and guards. His long arms and aggression make him a plus tackler and difficult for quarterbacks and running backs to escape in the backfield.
On the negative side, Lewis needs to work on his stance and his hand striking. Mostly he relies on quickness and just shucking smaller guys to the side, but he should strive to improve his hand placement. Also, shifting positions to a strongside end or even a 3-tech defensive tackle position will change his responsibilities. For a high school nose tackle, it can be relatively easy to have a “see ball, get ball” mentality, but playing on the edge requires a little more thought processing when it comes to containment and maintaining responsibilities.
Overall, I think a pretty good approximation for Lewis is former Michigan defensive end Chris Wormley, who now plays for the Baltimore Ravens. Lewis has similar size (Wormley was listed at 6’5″, 250 as a senior) and a similar overall game, although he’s not quite as highly regarded by the recruiting sites. He will probably need a year or two of marinating before he’s ready to see the field, depending on his body development and how the rest of the roster shakes out over the next couple seasons.
Michigan now has twelve public commitments in the 2020 class, and two so far this weekend, joining linebacker William Mohan (LINK). Lewis is also the second defensive lineman in the class, along with Braiden McGregor (LINK). McGregor is more of a weakside/strongside end guy, while Lewis is more likely to play Anchor or 3-tech, and they should make a nice combination.
TTB Rating: 86 (ratings explanation)
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More commitments! Thanks again for the prompt analysis.
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Looking for your post on Jordan Morant.
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Would certainly like to get another Wormley!
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I can see the Wormley comparison. An intriguing commit because I hadn’t heard much about him. I like his energy and how quick he is off the snap. To me, it looks like he’s a tweener. Too tall to be put inside and not athletic enough to play an End. That kind of worries me but he’s a player and you take kids like him who have qualities that could become an asset. I was hoping to see more of him off the edge, and maybe we will this year. His offer list is pretty good but I wonder how many of those were committable? I’m not as high on him as Thunder and would give him a 78 rating on the TTB scale.
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