West Bloomfield and Oak Park are two of Michigan’s premier football programs, and their early-season meeting did not disappoint. David went to WB to film this game for us and came back with a bounty of film unlike any I've encountered in my few years writing these posts. On top of a ten-plus minute every-snap reel, there were multiple Michigan commits or players of interest in this game. There’s a solid month’s worth of weekly FBOs from this game alone.

We start with a look at Michigan’s most recent four-star commit: safety Makari Paige. He’s an interesting prospect because in many ways he doesn’t fit with Michigan’s recent trend of deploying safeties interchangeably. Paige is 6’3” and 182 pounds and has a wingspan reminiscent of the Jordan “Wings” poster. All the scouting reports I’ve read on him tab him as a ball-hawking center fielder, with how he can support the run game a question.

The WB staff tasked Paige with checking four-star, 6’4”, 230 pound former Michigan target and very large human Maliq Carr almost the entire game and Paige excelled. To see why he has earned every bit of his 0.9139 composite rating…

[Hit THE JUMP for every-snap film and scouting]

Makari Paige Every-Snap Film

Scouting

[00:00] Reads the back’s bounce back inside and is quick enough to get to the middle to meet the back but doesn’t get low enough and gets run past.

[00:11] Does a fairly nice job reading the back’s inside cut and changing direction without getting caught by that block in front of him.

[00:21] Takes a good angle to the ballcarrier as he rounds the corner and also displays good speed getting across.

[00:54] Closes on botched snap quickly; lengthy, so it looks like he’s moving slower than he is. Not too concerned about not getting in on the tackle because he starts to redirect but gets cut off by the OL flying backwards.

[1:15] Keeps inside leverage on Carr. As Carr starts to break outside, Paige does a nice job jamming him. Flying backwards after that jam isn’t good, but seems like strength and conditioning will clean that up.

[1:42] Another good read in the run game (the play before [1:28] was as well), but the shoulder tackle won’t work in college. He’s in the right place at the right time, though.

[1:54] Carr reads the hips of the slot and breaks down to turn inside in time to stay step-for-step with the receiver. Worth noting that WB doesn’t have Paige on Carr here and look what happens. I’m unconcerned with the post-catch effort; maybe he could go full throttle and catch up to Carr, but seems unlikely.

[2:22] Really nice play. Paige could easily get sealed outside here but uses his hands well to get free as he crosses the OL. He also breaks down and wraps up instead of leading with the shoulder here.

[2:30] Playing press and shows he can turn and run step-for-step with Carr.

[2:45] Paige forces Carr outside and stays in front, using his hands just enough to not get called but still elicit some frustration.

[2:55] Paige reads the screen quickly, and it’s impressive that he’s able to maintain balance through the intended pick. Nice wrap on the hit, too.

[3:08] Paige basically devours the route at the top, then sticks with Carr (who impressively runs through the jam) on the in as he goes across the field. It’s kind of funny that Carr puts his hand up at the top of the route with Paige having a hand on his back and in position to get an arm across the front of Carr.

[3:18] Paige again shows burst as he gets way over the top. It’s certainly the kind of angle that would cut off a chunk run.

[3:29] Paige flips his hips at the right time to carry a fly route and has no problem staying a step ahead.

[3:53] Paige Slimers the route again and now Carr’s looking for interference calls.

[4:28] Same as usual as far as covering the fly is concerned, but Paige sees the ball carrier flying toward him and takes the Boring Safety approach to stopping him (remember, this is a good thing) breaking down and waiting to see whether he’ll make a move, then wrapping up when the runner looks to go up the sideline.

[4:42] Blown back on a double. That they’re doubling a safety near the goal line says more about Paige’s game than whether he can withstand a double.

[5:05] When Paige lines up with inside leverage he doesn’t give it up because he flips his hips at the right time and pins the receiver outside.

[5:15] If he doesn’t slip I’m pretty certain he stops this near the goal line.

[5:28] I put the arrow on the wrong player; Paige is the field corner, not the boundary corner. Step-for-step on the fly again.

[5:43] Same.

[5:53] Eraser.

[6:30] He definitely has the speed to blitz off the edge, but he comes in high.

[6:42] A showcase of Paige’s change of direction and closing speed.

[6:54] Nice heads-up play to read the trajectory of the ball and see he can come off his route to step up and help.

[7:03] Jams Carr out of existence, then locks on to the runner in a split second and closes hard. Too high, but hard.

[7:13] Excellent route shadowing and discipline to stay way over the top of the route, even as it’s improvised.

[7:39] Another display of closing speed.

[8:00] Again, takes safe angles to runs that keep him over the top and prevent anything explosive.

[8:13] Maybe I spoke too soon. Gets too far inside and low and has to loop around and try to pursue from behind.

[8:22] Erases swaths of space in a hurry when he reads run.

[8:55] Another excellent job shadowing the route.

[9:09] Smooth route handoff from Wheeler to Paige, and Paige times things up perfectly to make the hit with no gain had the ball gotten to the receiver.

[10:29] This is an interesting play because the vast majority of snaps Paige has been mirroring routes and showing what he can do in coverage, and here he’s instead able to freelance a bit after coming up to play the outside receiver and play the ball in the air. You can see that he reads the trajectory of the throw and realizes he’s in position to play that, which allows him to disregard the receiver and time his jump for the pick to end the game.

Summary

Paige showed that he has the speed to stick with most receivers as well as the cautious approach to angles to stay in front of runners. I think that he’s going to fit well in Michigan’s system even if they continue to eschew the free and strong roles and use safeties interchangeably because he can clearly fit runs well and, though he sometimes comes in too high or leads with a shoulder, hit with power and wrap up. Not tackling with two arms and leading high are pretty common for high school players and something that can be cleaned up with effort and coaching; these aren’t causes for long-term concern. He also has the quickness to erase large swaths of space in a hurry while maintaining the patience to read the back or receiver’s hips before coming up to close. Between the cautious angles, the correct reading of plays and players’ movement, and the quick-twitch response in tracking ball carriers, Paige is the kind of safety that can prevent explosive running plays.

Paige was covering Carr, and though Carr’s an excellent prospect he’s a fly runner, not a route artisan. Paige can go step-for-step against guys with good straight-line speed and he has the timing on his jams down, so I think he will fare well when tasked with walking down and covering slot fades. He also has very long arms, and though I don’t think the one play he had the opportunity to high-point the ball is enough to judge his vertical we did see Paige carry in-breaking routes with ease and thus stay in position to get his arm across a receiver’s. Paige was very smooth in his transition from backpedaling and his well-timed flip of the hips and use of his hands allowed him to maintain the leverage he had pre-snap and keep receivers pinned outside. He's a plus player in coverage.

Paige does not get tangled up or lost in space, and that trait along with his excellent run-game positioning makes me think he’s best at safety over corner. His game-winning interception showed that he has the athleticism to be a ball-hawking free safety, but I think his excellent jams and smoothness in coverage indicate a safety versatile enough to also line up at the line of scrimmage. If there’s one reason to play Paige deep it’s his propensity for getting way over the top of runs and taking an angle that guarantees no breakaways.