Everyone loves surprises, right? Well here is one for you on Saturday afternoon in the form of Orlando (FL) Jones linebacker Marcus Tillman Jr. who visited Texas yesterday for the Stars at Night camp. Tillman wasn’t a name that was really on the radar until last night when he showed up and earned himself an offer, but he has a pretty stout offer list that includes the likes of Clemson, Florida, Ohio State, and Virginia Tech.
Linebacker has been an interesting plot line to follow this cycle, with the state of Texas being thin at the position. The Texas staff has been turning over rocks all over the country rather than settling on a player they think would be considered a reach and landing Tillman is another data point for that theory.
Adding Tillman to the calculator gives Texas its second linebacker commitment of the class along with De’Gabriel Floyd and likely narrows the scope a bit on who the staff will be focusing on going forward.
Film Analysis
Player Information
Name: Marcus Tillman Jr.
Position: LB
High School: Jones
City & State: Orlando, FL
Measurables
Height: 6’1 (Unverified)
Weight: 220 (Unverified)
40-yard: N/A
Shuttle: 4.3 (Unverified)
Vertical: 35 (Unverified)
Statistics
2016: 58 tackles, 5 TFLs, 1 Sack, 2 FF, 2 FR, 1 INT
Film
https://www.hudl.com/profile/6134001/Marcus-Tillman-Jr
[one-half-first] Pros:
- Plays downhill, physical football. Can stick his foot in the ground and go hunt the man with the football in the wrong color jersey.
- Better tighten that chin strap up because this young man brings the funk to the ball carrier.
- Displays good athleticism and good COD in pursuit of the ball.
- Shows some good pop in his hands when he uses them properly and has the ability to provide a good jolt to those trying to slow him down.
- Pretty solid tackler at this point and shows he will wrap up.
- Appears capable of dropping into coverage on shallow routes and shows the ability to find the ball and make plays on it.
- Could end up being a fun player to watch run down on special teams early in his career.
- Plays with good effort consistently in pursuit of the football
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[one-half] Cons:
- Pretty raw as a player at this stage in his development and looks a lot more comfortable moving forward more than anything at this point.
- When he uses his hands he can be very effective, but he needs to do so more consistently.
- While he seems capable of dropping to cover shallow routes, he can get a little lost when asked to drop deeper into coverage.
- Doesn’t exactly have a clean projection as things sit right now. Will likely be a longer curve guy when it comes to his development.
- While he does play off the ball at times on tape, he is often used as an edge defender. Need to see more of him read and reacting from the ILB spots if that is what the staff views him as long term.
- His sophomore tape was more impressive to me than his junior tape. Want to see more of the former this fall.
[/one-half]
Summary
Marcus Tillman Jr. is a linebacker that hails all the way from Orlando in the Sunshine State of Florida. Listed at 6’1, 220 pounds Tillman possesses solid size for the position and has been utilized both on and off the ball the past two years. On the positive size of the ledger, Tillman shows on tape that he possesses good physicality, athleticism, COD ability, and solid field speed in pursuit of the ball carrier. Tillman shows that he is pretty comfortable at this stage in development when it comes to going forward and attacking up the field and shows that he has pretty good pop in his hands by showing he can provide a legitimate jolt to blockers. Tillman shows on tape that he is a pretty reliable tackler and shows the willingness to wrap up the ball carrier rather than always going for the big hit and coming in out of control. As far as coverage goes, Tillman’s comfort level seems to be on shallow routes at this time and he shows he can get to that depth and make play on the ball, as he was able to log both PBUs and some INTs on tape. On the negative side of things, Tillman’s comfort level appears to decrease once he is asked to drop deeper down the field and he showed he can get a little lost in that regard. This is something he will have to greatly improve if he is going to be asked to play off the ball at the next level, as he will be asked to do this frequently and he will be victimized accordingly if he is unable to do so. Tillman is utilized more on the LOS coming off the edge, which makes me wonder what exactly his projection will be at the next level. He’s a bit of a project either way you slice it and doesn’t have the cleanest projection you will come across in that regard. I’d also like to see more read and reacting from him from the ILB spot just to see more of what he is in that regard, but we will probably have to wait for more tape to come out for that part of the evaluation to be completed.
Final Verdict
To say things materialized quickly with Tillman Jr. would be severely understating it. It’s clear that the staff loved him enough to make sure he didn’t leave campus without an offer and he was blown away enough to pop on the spot and get in the boat. With Texas’ need for linebackers it is hard to be disappointed with the staff once again finding a prospect that met their standards outside the state lines even though the out of state flavor for this class will probably raise a few eyebrows.
As I said above, Tillman’s projection isn’t the cleanest as things sit right now, but it is very hard to question a Todd Orlando evaluation, and that goes double when you take into account that he offered Tillman on the spot after getting to see him up close this weekend. I am going to defer to the man who has made a living making these kinds of evals and has made a lot of money developing them into quality ball players.
With Tillman and Floyd now occupying two of the linebacker spots in this class, the staff will likely narrow its focus on whom they are targeting with limited spots now available.
