An All-American addition at a position of need revealed his commitment to Michigan today when Harbor City (CA) Narbonne four-star cornerback Darion Green-Warren announced his pledge during the Formerly Known As The Army Game today. The former Oklahoma commit chose U-M over fellow finalists Georgia, Nebraska, USC, and the Sooners, as well as offers from a number of top programs.

Green-Warren has already signed his letter of intent with Michigan and will join the program this semester, making him the tenth early enrollee in the class; six 2020 signees have already practiced with the team during bowl prep. Green-Warren joins Andre Seldon among cornerbacks in the class, though the two have strikingly different profiles. He's the 23rd signee in the class overall.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals	ESPN	247	247 Comp
4*, 5.8, #12 CB, #22 CA, #154 Ovr	4*, 82, #17 CB, #17 CA, #212 Ovr	4*, 91, #19 CB, #22 CA, #239 Ovr	4*, #14 CB, #19 CA, #184 Ovr

Green-Warren's rankings fall in a relatively tight range. He's considered a top-20 corner in the country but not quite in the elite tier. Rivals is most bullish on him; incidentally, he attended their exclusive elite camp.

247 and Rivals both list Green-Warren at 6'0" and around 185 pounds; ESPN docks him an inch and adds five pounds. He's got excellent size and length for a corner.

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]

SCOUTING

While Green-Warren has been a well-known prospect for years and played at national powerhouse Mater Dei before transferring to Narbonne for his senior year so he could enroll in college early, there's almost no scouting on him from a non-camp setting. This is particularly annoying with Green-Warren, whose profile—bigger corner who's not an exceptional athlete—translates much better to a full-pads setting than camp one-on-ones and even 7-on-7 play.

What we do have in that regard is a film breakdown of DGW's sophomore tape when he originally committed to Oklahoma in the summer of 2018 (he decommitted this spring) from Rivals's Sooners outlet:

But into his actual play it takes all of one play to see the confidence that Green-Warren plays with - he attacks the ball as soon as he sees it and clearly has the ability to make a play with the ball in his hands.

Green-Warren is clearly a long-limbed player, the type who often struggles with change of direction, but he looks natural in his transitions and again is not only decisive out of his breaks but has the explosion to make the most of those decisions.

In the Big 12 Green-Warren will be asked to make a lot of tackles in space and though not the most violent of hitters, he shows good technique and an understanding that simply taking a ball carriers legs out is the best way to bring him down. That said, don't misunderstand, he isn't afraid to stick his nose in and make a tackle on a bigger ball carrier when needed.

In camp settings, he's at his best in 7-on-7 play. He leapt out as a top performer to 247's Steve Wiltfong at the Adidas 7-on-7 National Championships in April 2018:

Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei 2020 four-star cornerback Darion Green-Warren made the biggest play of the day for Ground Zero in beating Premium, breaking up a pass, and that was typical for his day, breaking up passes, showing great closing speed and instincts.

That was against plenty of top-level competition; Giles Jackson and OSU's Garrett Wilson were top performers on offense at the event.

This spring, 247's Brandon Huffman praised DGW's technique at the Pylon 7-on-7 Nevada event, while also noting something that came up elsewhere—he relishes facing tough competition:

Green-Warren was the best defensive player for Ground Zero, who was a play away from making it to the Championship Game. He was solid in coverage all weekend, plays with advanced technique and was rarely tested. The Oklahoma commit is a very confident player and loves the challenge of taking on another teams top receiver.

He was the Alpha Dog when Ground Zero took the Adidas West Coast Invitational title in March, according to 247's Greg Biggins:

We could have gone a couple of different directions here but felt Green-Warren was the most consistent player for Ground Zero from start to finish. The Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei corner took on the challenge of manning up with every team’s best receiver and was in lock down mode all afternoon. He was extremely impressive covering Calabasas (Calif.) wide out Johnny Wilson in the semi-finals and Sammamish (Wash.) Eastside Catholic’s Gee Scott in the championship game and always competes at a high level.

Wilson is a 6'6" top-100 overall WR signed with Arizona State; Scott is a 6'3" Ohio State signee ranked as high as #26 overall (247).

In this year's edition of the Adidas National Championships, Wiltfong said DGW "drew the toughest assignment every game, had several interceptions and [displayed] instincts, awareness and feet coveted at the position."

While the 7-on-7 exploits are well-documented, there are lingering questions about Green-Warren's athleticism. He hasn't been as good in one-on-one drills; even SoonerScoop, which was inclined to praise him while he was committed to Oklahoma, though he was uneven at February's Los Angeles Adidas camp:

Green-Warren was a little up and down on the day and watching him go through warmups there was some wonder if he was feeling 100-percent. But when he was able to really go he was one of the camp's more competitive corners as far as just battling through the whistle and doing all he could to separate ball and receiver. Green-Warren also drove on the ball as well as any corner on the day.

Even some of the praise in that report implies receivers were able to get some separation on him.

He also wasn't consistent at the Opening finals, and 247's Gerard Martinez noted he had similar struggles at USC's camps:

Harbor City (Calif.) four-star cornerback Darion Green-Warren had his ups and downs at The Opening Finals, which sort of sums up how he plays at the USC elites camps this summer. In situations where he can play near the line of scrimmage and physically battle for position, Green-Warren makes some great plays on the ball.

However, when he gets caught in man coverage downfield, Green-Warren struggles to transition out of his backpedal fast enough to run with the wide receiver. Green-Warren can get away with playing cornerback with a safety deep to help him on vertical routes, but that also limits the coverages a secondary can run to his side of the field.

Martinez went so far as to suggest DGW may be better suited as a safety at the college level. On the other end of the spectrum, Rivals's Mike Farrell had DGW as an honorable mention for his "fancy feet" award at the Rivals elite camp, noting he was "smooth in his backpedal."

Reporting from the All-American Game, Wiltfong noted Green-Warren has battled well but those athleticism questions linger:

Like Mullings and Moten, he impresses from a stature standpoint, and he made some plays in coverage in 1-on-1s and 7-on-7. Overall athleticism is a question mark for Green-Warren, but he's playing with confidence down here in the Alamo City and has gotten his hands on some footballs.

Michigan has an interesting pair of corners in this class. Green-Warren has great size but there are questions about his ability to remain in the hip pocket of quicker receivers. There are no such questions with Andre Seldon, but Seldon is 5'8". They've both displayed the talent to overcome their limitations; it's still hard not to note those limitations.

OFFERS

In addition to his finalists, Green-Warren held offers from Florida State, Michigan State, Oregon, Penn State, Wisconsin, Arizona, Arkansas, Boise State, Colorado, Illinois, Louisville, Maryland, Nevada, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Tennessee, Texas Tech, and Utah.

HIGH SCHOOL

While not a football factory like Green-Warren's previous high school, Mater Dei, Narbonne has produced plenty of talent, with 12 four-stars in the Rivals database and a long list of two- and three-stars who have mostly populated Pac-12 and Mountain West rosters. You may remember 2010 four-star safety Sean Parker, who chose Washington over Michigan in a heated recruitment. USC already has a commitment from Narbonne's 2021 QB, Jake Garcia.

STATS

Narbonne's MaxPreps page only lists stats from seven games this year. In those games, Green-Warren had eight pass breakups, nine solo tackles, seven assists, and six TFLs (which makes our pet PBU-to-solo-tackle ratio stat look even better).

As a junior at Mater Dei, DGW posted 26 tackles (21 solo), 2.5 TFLs, three interceptions, six passes defensed, and a forced fumble. He had two more picks and four PBUs as a sophomore. 

FAKE 40 TIME

Green-Warren has a verified electronic 40 time of 4.67 from an Opening regional in February, which gets zero FAKEs out of five. He also posted a 4.30 shuttle. He may have trouble in man coverage against quicker receivers.

VIDEO

Senior highlights:

7-on-7 highlights from the summer:

Video from the Rivals Five-Star Challenge and the Opening finals:

Junior highlights and single-game reels can be found on his Hudl page.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Making the assumption that Ambry Thomas returns next year, the outside cornerback spots should be spoken for between him and Vincent Gray. As we've seen, however, Don Brown likes a three-cornerback rotation even before accounting for the slot, so there should be snaps to be had. Green-Warren will be in competition with Jaylen Kelly-Powell, Gemon Green, Jalen Perry, DJ Turner, and Seldon for a spot in the rotation; given the almost total lack of production from that group, he seems to have as good a shot as anyone.

Green-Warren has played enough top-tier competition in both high school and camp settings to be more prepared than the average freshman, especially since he'll also go through spring ball. If he can flip his hips well enough to utilize his size and technique, he can excel in Brown's system like Channing Stribling and Jeremy Clark did. If he can't, safety could be a very viable option.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

It's pretty much done. The only "top target" left on the board according to 247 is 3.5* VA OT James Pogorelc, whose crystal ball reads 100% for Stanford but with no new picks since November—in the interim, Stanford has had 14(!) players enter the transfer portal.

Michigan seems more likely to plug holes using the transfer market than making more late additions to the recruiting class. TMI's Brice Marich reports the coaches are looking into one of those Stanford transfers, offensive tackle Devery Hamilton, a one-time Wolverine commit. He'd be eligible immediately, which would help a great deal given the recent attrition from the O-line.