Future Blue Derivatives: Cass vs King

[David Nasternak]

Donovan Peoples-Jones, Jaylen Kelly-Powell, and Ambry Thomas are no strangers to being featured in Future Blue Originals posts; David and I scouted October’s Cass-King PSL playoff game, and Ace, David, and I took in King’s game against Southfield A&T in the Prep Kickoff Classic. With Michigan losing their top two outside receivers, Peppers at SAM, and Lewis and Stribling at corner, it seemed like the time to take another look at the three Cass and King commits that have a shot at seeing the field for Michigan in 2017.

I headed back to the Youtube mine to find another complete game film chock-full of Michigan prospects. This time we’ll take a look at the regular-season meeting between Cass Tech and King, which was played in early October on Cass’s weather-beaten field; you’ll see the sloppy field conditions come into play multiple times throughout, though not to the point where we’re unable to get a good feel for the incoming freshmen’s strengths and weaknesses. A quick aside: I’ve had this tab open since the video was posted, and in that time Mike James has uploaded more full games that would very much be of interest to Michigan fans.

[Hit THE JUMP for the scouting reports]

[Kelly-Powell is #1 and either line up at safety or in press on Thomas (#13)]

Jaylen Kelly-Powell is listed most places as a safety, but this game was worth a closer look because it showed that he can play as both a deep safety and in press as a corner (more on Kelly-Powell as a corner in the section on Ambry Thomas as a receiver below). In essence, it highlighted his versatility.

Over and over, Kelly-Powell made subtle adjustments mid-play that I think will translate to success for him at the next level. At 00:15 he starts the play in off coverage to the boundary. As he sees the run going to the field he charges across, but, most importantly, drops back after a few strides. If he charges in a straight line across the field and the runner gets free, Kelly-Powell is going to get outrun. He does a nice job getting depth to give himself the best possible chance at taking a good angle to the ball. At 00:32, he sticks with Thomas through his move, turns his head at the right time, and makes a play on the ball in the end zone without allowing Thomas any separation.

Sometimes, though, straight-line speed is necessary. At 00:23, Kelly-Powell is lined up to the boundary again and has to carry Thomas all the way across the field. He closes with excellent speed and power, while the way he weaved through the ref and another Cass defender and still managed to keep track of Thomas is impressive. Additionally, on the first play of the video you see Kelly-Powell drop down into the box and time up a blitz nicely.

[DPJ (#9) is shadowed by Thomas (#13)]

Donovan Peoples-Jones. Hoo boy. He’s pretty good if you’re looking for a receiver who can catch, block, run, and do all of those with power. The above is close to an every-snap video (I dropped a couple runs where they zoomed quickly and we couldn’t tell how the perimeter blocking was), and Peoples-Jones wastes no time showing how dangerous he is. Thomas drops into Cov3 and Peoples-Jones comes underneath him on a slant. It looks like Thomas’s help in the middle of the field has DPJ stopped, but he just runs through the tackle and keeps going. Credit Thomas; he turns on the afterburners and takes down Peoples-Jones when it looked like he was absolutely taking this catch to the house.

The next play shows that if Peoples-Jones is a robot constructed expressly to play football then somebody needs to tweak the punt-return software. He might just be human after all.

As far as strength is concerned, at 1:16, Thomas gets a good jam on him and takes him out of the play. Peoples-Jones then fights through a jam at 1:41 and probably would have been very open if not for the field pulling him down.

Things got back on track for Peoples-Jones at 00:30, where he has his way blocking Thomas on a run to the outside. Peoples-Jones’s run blocking skill surprised me in the PSL title game; as we’ve seen from Michigan’s receivers the past few seasons, that’s a part of his game that will fit right in. 

As far as route running goes, Peoples-Jones rarely ran anything other than a fly or a slant, making that part of his game difficult to judge. He runs a deep in at 1:35 that Thomas makes an incredible play on, and at 1:50 he comes across in motion and runs a hook. He does seem to have good on-field awareness, though. At 1:23, he sees his QB under duress and improvises, doubling back on his route and coming back to a short ball.

[Thomas is lined up in the slot until 1:00, where he’s lined up outside to the field]

Ambry Thomas has impressed as a receiver the other times I’ve watched him, but it wasn’t until he put up 156 yards for three touchdowns on six catches against Cass in the PSL title game that it became clear to me that he’s not just a two-way high school player but a guy who should at least get a chance to work at receiver in practice and see where it goes in college.

The first thing that stands out when watching the above, which is as close to every snap as I could get, is Thomas’s speed. He’s clearly faster than Kelly-Powell, who’s pretty dang fast himself. More impressive, though, is the way he was able to finish routes after Kelly-Powell jammed him; the plays at 00:00 and 00:25 are good examples.

We get a good look at his precise route-running at 1:00, as he feigns inside before cutting back out, eventually drawing a PI flag as Thomas has to be held in order to prevent him from completely breaking away once he hits top gear. On the topic of speed, he releases off the line and is five yards into his route before most other receivers can get off the line. I know there’s not a ton to take in here aside from fly routes, but from what I saw last fall, his ability to adjust to the ball in the air, run precise routes, and good old-fashioned speed warrant a look in the slot.