Previously: Last year's profiles. S Makari Paige.

Delran, NJ – 6'0", 200
		24/7	4*, #178 overall #16 S, #5 NJ
		Rivals	3*, 5.7 rating #28 ATH, #15 NJ
		ESPN	4*, #246 overall #16 ATH, #7 NJ
		Composite	4*, #254 overall #26 S, #7 NJ
		Other Suitors	ND, PSU, BC, Wisc
		YMRMFSPA	Dymonte Thomas
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello post from Ace.
Notes	Twitter. Dad was Florida and Eagles LB.
Film
Junior Year:

There are recruits, and then there are Harbaugh Guys. Harbaugh guys volunteer to run a 40 in the parking lot, or they play 17 sports at the same time, or they issue quotes about how the Ball Is Life and Dropping The Ball Is Death, or they TALK IN ALL CAPS.

RJ Moten is the second variety of Harbaugh Guy, a multi-sport athlete with legit pro baseball aspirations and a father who had a cup of coffee in the NFL. Harbaugh Guys create Harbaugh Incidents like this one:

“He said straight up, ‘You can play both,’ and then went in the back room and grabbed his bat and started swinging,” Moten said.

I want Harbaugh to recruit guys from increasingly obscure sports so he can demonstrate that his back room contains a hockey stick, snooker table, cricket bat, spiked frisbee, and the head of one of his defeated foes.

[After THE JUMP: Moten jumps, people notice]

I digress. Moten was mostly on regional radars (Rutgers, Syracuse, BC offers, that kind of thing) with Michigan an offer outlier until an Opening regional where he earned a 127 SPARQ score by putting up a 4.62 40, 4.3 shuttle, and 41 inch vert(!) at 200 pounds. This triggered both a major ratings revamp…

When 247Sports first rated Moten, a Delran, New Jersey product, he received an 85 rating and ranked 677th nationally. Two months later, though, Moten was given a 92 rating … finished the cycle with a 93 and a ranking of 178th nationally.

…and a couple of major offers from Notre Dame and Penn State. Michigan offered three weeks before either—they were in fact the first powerhouse to offer Moten. Moten was apparently a silent commit (more or less) almost from the moment that happened, so other pursuers were somewhat perfunctory. Michigan got the jump thanks to an unofficial visit where he put on a show. Lorenz:

7. If Michigan reels in RJ Moten, they are getting a prospect they believe can be a star. I posted this on the board (or maybe in an older article), but Moten blew the staff away during a workout on his unofficial alongside a different defensive back target. He is an elite athlete and is someone they believe has a higher ceiling than almost anybody else at his position this cycle.

Other evaluations emphasize that ceiling. Moten is uncommonly college-ready for a dual-sport athlete, at least physically. 24/7's take from the All-American Bowl: 

Not many prospects in the secondary look better physically on the hoof than safety RJ Moten. … “put together like a brick house” according to 247Sports Director of Scouting Barton Simmons. Moten has struggled some in one-on-one pass coverage but has still displayed all the traits of a high-ranking defensive back with his ability to move.

24/7 analyst Charles Power:

… thick, muscular build … Already looks like a college defender … impressive range and physicality at safety. …Will need to hone his coverage technique given his relative inexperience in man coverage as he plays so much offense. Checks many of the boxes as a top prospect in terms of athleticism both with times and in multiple sports, diversity of football skills and bloodlines (father played in NFL).

Brian Dohn elaborates:

…elite athlete … great frame, wide shoulders, he runs well and his ability to change direction and accelerate is impressive. As a safety, he is physical and willing to come up and make a big hit and fill a gap against the run. He reads the play well and gets through traffic to get to the ball carrier. … speed gives him range to cover all over the field. … size and versatility will enable him to play at the line of scrimmage and blitz, cover in man in the passing game and also be a factor against the run. … still needs to develop his technique, particularly in coverage."

Upside takes abound. Webb said he "might be Michigan’s recruit with the highest upside," in part because he's "just learning how to play the safety position"; Dohn notes he was "just electric" when he saw him in person for the first time, "so much bigger than I thought and explosive." FWIW, it doesn't seem like anyone at Rivals saw him in person. There were no takes from the AA game and their Now We Talk To An Analyst article explicitly says "on film."

It's common for supremely versatile athletes to enter college with some holes in their technique. Moten is no different. He played a lot of running back in high school; his breakout camp saw him play WR; he's spent a lot of time other football prospects use for 7-on-7 swinging a bat. So his evaluations are sprinkled with notes of minor concern about technique, which you may have noted above. His high school coach:

[Moten has] played so many different positions that he's never really been able to perfect any one. Lucas recognizes that and is going to start honing in on his star player's future position.

"I think that he definitely needs to focus more on the defensive side of the ball now that we know the plans for him," Lucas said. "Obviously in high school we prep him a lot more for offense. Him and I had this conversation where we’re going to work on more defensive back drills. Instead of safety we’ll actually work more on cornerback drills for his hips and his feet."

Rivals's Adam Friedman:

"ton of athleticism … has the skill set to be very successful at [safety] … speed, aggressiveness, and ball skills … technique is very raw and there will be a steep learning curve"

Touch The Banner was relatively skeptical for similar reasons:

Maximizes speed…Versatile athlete …Tough runner who’s unafraid to lower shoulder …Does not sink hips well to change direction…Limited technique in both zone and man coverage…Sits too high in backpedal…Not quite a burner…Hesitant at times on defense… lacks ideal change-of-direction and man coverage skills, and his straight-line speed would be best used either covering a wide swath of the field or setting the edge and occasionally blitzing the passer.

The 4.3 shuttle that was a part of Moten's big SPARQ score is the same one Makari Paige put up at 6'3" and was cited there as a bit of a concern in man coverage. Moten might end up being the sort of safety that can get exploited by coverage matchups.

Moten's move back down the 24/7 rankings—at one point he cracked the top 100—is another indicator Moten's athleticism isn't quite matched by his on-field performance yet.

One more position note: the latest news from Moten's coach is that he was 210 as of last August. Michigan lists him at 200, for whatever a Michigan roster listing is worth. Josh Metellus was listed at 6'0, 218, FWIW. He's in the range where safety or viper are both possibilities. Also, an off-field quote:

“R.J.’s a different kid,” Delran baseball coach Jim Goodwin said. “When he gets done baseball practice, he’s in the weight room. Then he’s doing something for football. Then he’s doing something for baseball at night. Then he does his schoolwork. He’s a 4.0 student.

“That’s the type of kid (he is), you need to have that level head to be able to manage your time, and he has that. And he has that drive that no one can tell him he can’t do something."

You'd have to be organized to play two sports at the same time in 2020, when one sport is often a full-time commitment.

Etc.: Moten's status as a baseball prospect:

One high-ranking baseball official, with knowledge of the draft and the scouting community, thought that Moten had a chance to go in the “single-digit” rounds (read: anywhere below the 10th round) due to his athletic profile. But there’s no question Moten has been hurt by the pandemic and the inability to show off his skills in game situations, which was even more crucial for him since he was preparing for or playing football while other draft prospects were playing baseball late last summer and in the fall.

FWIW, the MLB draft, scheduled for June 10th and 11th, has been shortened to 5 rounds (from 40), with undrafted players limited to 20k signing bonuses. Moten is not in ESPN draft analyst Kiley McDaniel's top 150, which covers the first four of those five rounds. The chances Moten goes pro out of high school are low.

Why Dymonte Thomas? Thomas was also a high school ATH with high-level athleticism and baseball aspirations. He was just about universally projected to safety in college but spent his high school days as a running back and linebacker. His Michigan career got off to a slow start as he adapted to the secondary; he emerged as a starter partway through his junior year and was a very good starter in 2016; he's a fringe NFLer now. Thomas is a hair bigger and came in a fair bit more hyped than Moten is.

Josh Furman, another guy ranked as an athlete who needed some time to put it together, is a less happy comparable. In Furman's case his breakthrough came at Oklahoma State, where he was a starting spacebacker after a grad transfer and got drafted very late.

Guru Reliability: Moderate. Not as much as there often is because of baseball but did stay healthy, play a position he projects to, and hit the Army game.

Variance: High. Wildcard with a lot of work to do who will also play baseball in college.

Ceiling: High. As mentioned, wildcard.

General Excitement Level: Moderate-plus. Swing for the fences with a guy who has a lot of excellent physical attributes but will need time to get acclimated. Can't decide of multi-sport aspects are a positive since he'll be spending time on a thing that is not football when he might need to spend more time on football than his peers to catch up.

Projection: The most likely of the three safeties to redshirt as he did not enroll early and is coming from the farthest behind in the technique department. Could still see the redshirt come off if he's useful on special teams; ideally he'd be waiting for 2021.

In 2021 there will be a safety spot open as Brad Hawkins departs. Viper, another potential landing spot for Moten, is going to be filled by an incumbent. That will probably be Michael Barrett, and he'll probably stick around for his senior year. A redshirt sophomore Moten should be a strong candidate for viper or the safety spot Dax Hill will almost certainly vacate.