Joe DeLeone and Ryan Roberts dive into the buzz surrounding Jireh Edwards, a rising 2026 5-star prospect
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00:00Is Dre Edwards a future All-American? This five-star safety is built different and the film
00:05proves it. It's a historic year for safety recruits, but Jaira Edwards might be one of
00:16the best. He is unbelievable to watch. Ryan, what stands out to you when you watch his tape?
00:22Versatility. I mean, they asked him to do a little bit of everything for his high school
00:26football team and it makes sense, right? He's six foot two. He's 200 plus pounds. He moves
00:30well in tight quarters. He's a really good tackler. If you look at his numbers from last
00:36year, Joe, he's making a lot of tackles for loss. He's sacking the quarterback. He's around
00:40the line of scrimmage a ton. I think this is just one of these modern day versatile safeties
00:45that can do a little bit of everything. He can play from the roof. He can play down towards
00:49the box. He can play in the slot at times. This is a very versatile defender that a college
00:54team is going to be able to utilize in a lot of different ways.
00:57I think what is so attractive about a safety prospect like this is what you just talked
01:01about. The versatility to find a high schooler that is playing in the slot the way that he
01:06is to find a guy that, as you talked about, complaining to the line of scrimmage over the
01:11top, all of those things. And more importantly, I'm obsessed with the physicality. This is a
01:17kid who wants to hit dudes. He's a bigger safety listed at six foot two, over 200 pounds,
01:22and he's willing to throw that weight around. Another thing that is super hard to come by
01:26with just any defensive back recruit is having the build and then also willing to use that build
01:32to deliver punishing hits. This is one of those players who you could probably even see
01:37him step onto the field early and contribute as a freshman, whether it's just special teams
01:42or if he goes to a team that needs somebody to start at safety for them early on. I wouldn't be
01:47shocked if we're not talking about Edwards as one of the better freshmen in the country in his first
01:52year.
01:52Well, I think the craze of the 4-2-5 and 3-3-5 is going to play into a player like Edwards's
01:59favor as well, because this just reminds me of a versatile safety that could play either safety
02:04spot in a defense, but can also play like that big nickel role as well, like kind of like a rover
02:09of sorts, because he just has that physicality and that explosiveness and tight quarters. Like
02:13this for me, and he's not going to end up with Jim Knowles at Penn State, but he reminds me of a Jim
02:20Knowles safety where he's a guy that can rotate down and you could play just like some, some
02:25shells where you have three safety alignments and a guy in like a true free safety type and then to
02:31like kind of, you know, uh, safeties upon, uh, on the numbers. Like he can kind of do a little bit
02:35of that stuff and you could rotate down depending on how the offense aligns and the movement that
02:39they potentially see. Like this is a kid that can do a little bit of everything. And I think that
02:43general movement towards 4-2-5, 3-3-5 alignments is going to help him get onto the field
02:49very early on the college level. He is currently listed as the number three safety in the class,
02:56a 26th player overall nationally, and the number three player in the state of Maryland. A lot of
03:04great Maryland recruits this year. Yeah, it'll be incredibly interesting to see what happens with
03:09Edwards as there are a lot of fantastic safeties in this class. Folks, comment below what you think
03:15of Edwards, hit that like button and subscribe. We'll talk to you later.