Washington (DC) St. John’s defensive end Tariq Boney committed to Michigan a little over a week ago, picking the Wolverines over offers from Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and West Virginia, among others.
Boney is listed at 6’2″, 230 lbs.
RANKINGS
ESPN: 4-star, 80 grade, #46 DE
On3: 3-star, 86 grade, #76 edge
Rivals: 3-star, 5.6 grade, #65 edge defender
247 Sports: 3-star, 86 grade, #88 edge
Hit the jump for more.
Boney wasn’t offered by Michigan until this past February. He had scheduled official visits to West Virginia, Tulane, and Michigan for June, but it’s unclear whether he’ll take those other visits now that he committed to the Wolverines.
A lot of Boney’s highlights show him being used on stunts, where he loops around from his standup edge spot and then aims for an A gap or a B gap. He tends to use his quickness to elude bigger offensive linemen; his ability to get low and dip his inside shoulder should be helpful when he comes off the edge. He does occasionally show some quick-twitch ability and playmaking chops, like when he makes a jumping one-handed interception for a pick-six.
If this were the NFL Draft, we would probably be talking about Boney’s arm length. He’s a little on the squat side for a defensive end/outside linebacker at Michigan’s level. He looks more like an old-school middle linebacker, and for a while when watching, I couldn’t place the body comparison until I finally landed on 2010 defensive end recruit Ken Wilkins (who eventually became a defensive tackle after being 6’3″, 244 lbs. as a recruit).
Overall, I don’t really see Boney being a great fit at Michigan. He probably slots in as an outside linebacker (think Jaylen Harrell or Josiah Stewart), but he doesn’t have the length of Harrell or the quickness of Stewart. He could potentially have a future down the road as an upperclassman at Michigan, but in today’s game, it seems like a lot of players leave after two years if they’re not seeing the field. Boney needs to work on his pass rush repertoire and get stronger so he can handle the bigger linemen at the Big Ten level.
Michigan now has five commits in the class of 2026. Boney is the first player from St. John’s to commit to Michigan since safety Quinten Johnson in the class of 2019.
TTB Rating: 58
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