Delran (NJ) Delran safety R.J. Moten committed to Michigan on Saturday morning. I saved myself some time – and gave you some extra info – in my scouting report on him, which I posted this morning (LINK).
Moten has long been considered a Michigan lean, and he scheduled his commitment for when he was going to be in town for the BBQ at the Big House (LINK).
Hit the jump for more.
If you read the scouting report, there’s not much more for me to do that project him into Michigan’s defense and then give him a rating.
I see Moten as an outside linebacker/safety hybrid who would fit nicely in the Viper role. However, he would need to tap into his offensive aggression in order to play that Viper role, something that we have yet to really see him do. It’s certainly possible, because he’s a physical runner, but I think he needs to boost his confidence on the defensive side of the ball. Michigan has a couple Vipers scheduled to graduate after 2019 (Khaleke Hudson, Jordan Glasgow), so the job will be open when Moten arrives in 2020. It largely depends on which other options develop a foothold on the role (Brad Hawkins, J’Marick Woods, Quinten Johnson, Joey Velazquez, Daxton Hill, Michael Barrett, etc.).
My player comparison for Moten is former Michigan (and Oklahoma State) linebacker Josh Furman.
I should also say that Moten is a very good baseball player; he plans to play both sports at Michigan, but Major League Baseball could come calling and wipe out his football career.
Moten would be the first Michigan football player from Delran High School since wide receiver John Ellison (1988-1991), who had 5 catches for 40 yards in his career.
TTB Rating: 68
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Was at a graduation party yesterday where there were a lot of Chip football dads along with one wrestling dad whose kid is probably a better wrestling prospect than football kid and subsequently gets recruiting news for wrestlers. Evidently, Garcia is a very big time, stud wrestler who has dominated against very stout competition, top 5 in the nation at whatever weight he wrestles at, with a chance at the Olympic level should he get the right coaching and choose to try.
Then we watched a bunch of the State Championship game. Being me, I was watching Clarkston linemen. Spindler and Dellinger were really good on both sides of the ball. As an aside, those guys are making their blocks all night long, why on this earth would you run a reverse, pass thing going for two at the end of that game? They spent the entire last play running parallel to the line of scrimmage. I dunno about that one.
Then … 247 has Moten at .9298, Thunder has him at 68. As always, the true outcome likely resides somewhere in the middle. Although on this one, I’m pulling for Thunder to be way wrong. Unless the guess here is that the kid ends up at Shortstop.
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That’s interesting about Garcia. I’m interested to see how long he sticks with football.
Seeing roundups of what other analysts are saying since Moten committed, it’s honestly just dancing around what I’m saying in the evaluation. Other people are saying things like “steeping learning curve” and a lot of times it amounts to, “Ya know, he’s a good athlete and did you know he plays baseball?”
Sites project him as a safety; I project him as a Viper linebacker. (And so does Don Brown, apparently.)
The truth is that there’s just not very much on film to suggest he’s an elite FOOTBALL PLAYER at the safety position, or linebacker for that matter. It’s a lot of projection.
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Seems like he fits pretty nicely as a viper. He’s an elite athlete who has yet to focus on one sport or one position. Sounds like he’ll still be playing 2 sports, but it seems like there’s a good chance after 2 years of playing and coaching at one position we could have a top flight viper.
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How many people between the 2019 and 2020 classes are getting projected to viper? Seems like a lot.
I have read conjecture that there may be a shift to using 2 – or at least putting viper/safety personnel in at WLB.
Maybe this is over-thinking it but I wonder if we won’t be seeing 4 very-safety shaped players on the field more regularly. 4-1-6 personnel lining up any which way. Then again Gil was a safety recruit so maybe there’s not much change.
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I mean, I think it depends on what personnel/package you’re talking about. If you’re talking about a 4-1-6 or 3-2-6…sure, it’s called a dime package. If you put Glasgow on the field with your Viper and two safeties, though, then I don’t really see that as much of an uptick in athleticism. If you’re trying to improve your coverage abilities, that doesn’t do it. If you’re trying to improve your third down/exotic blitz package, then I think he’s a better option than, say, Brad Hawkins.
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