Prospect Breakdown: Kenyon Rivera
Kansas has smartly been recruiting from the talented high school football state that is Georgia football. They have many high-level schools and one of the recruits is from one of the most prestigious schools in the state (Buford).
Kenyon Rivera is a talented linebacker prospect from Buford High School in Buford, Georgia. He spoke with Blue Wings Rising about his recruitment. “I am very excited to receive this offer from Kansas,” Rivera told Blue Wings Rising. “It has really made my day. I feel very grateful and blessed.”
Following our in-depth conversation I did a deep film dive to review the Georgia high school athlete. Here are the notes I put together for the Blue Wings Rising supporters and viewers.
Strengths:
- Aggressive Blitzer: He blitzs with harmful intentions of hitting someone as hard as he can. There were multiple times he met the running back in the backfield as he was receiving the ball via handoff. He also had multiple sacks due to his blitzing nature.
- Fast: He can chase down athletes with no issue. He had to do this a few times due to his teammates occasionally missing their assignments.
- Outside Linebacker Upside: I think he fits the edge-rushing nature more than the drop-back linebacker because he is so aggressive when attacking the ball in the backfield. He lines up at the line of scrimmage in his edge rushing stance and blitzes like the typical edge rusher does.
Areas To Improve:
- Coverage: If he is going to be packaged in as a stand-up inside linebacker at times I’d like to see a bit more success out of him in drop-back coverage. You can tell he is more natural when he is blitzing off the edge.
- Edge Rushing Moves: He does use these but not enough because he blows by the defenders. I’d love to watch him use some of these moves to get to the quarterback such as swim moves, rips, etc.
- Breakdown: He could also work a bit on breaking down in front of the offensive threat. Getting low and driving as well as having a strong base to not allow someone to get past him in a mirroring situation.
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