Friedman's Takeaways: Mid-Atlantic prospects show out in Baltimore

BALTIMORE – The Mid-Atlantic states produce plenty of high-end talent but not many of those impressive prospects have not been out on the camp circuit this spring. The Baltimore Under Armour Camp provided a space for them to show off how much progress they’ve made this offseason. Rivals.com national recruiting analyst Adam Friedman shares five takeaways from the event.

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The most anticipated performance of the entire camp thankfully came early on when Immanuel Iheanacho stepped on the field. The ranking for the towering 2026 offensive lineman has been a hotly debated topic in recent months. The main takeaway from what we saw on the field is he should be rated higher than his current three-star status but not yet as high as others may have him. Iheanacho has the physical traits of current NFL offensive linemen and he threw around some defensive linemen with ease. He had an uneven start to the one-on-one session but got better with each rep. Iheanacho has the look of a high-end right tackle who could turn into an interior offensive lineman in the future, depending on how his game develops. His flexibility, lateral quickness, and sheer size/length eliminated outside rush attempts by defensive ends and his strength made it nearly impossible for defensive linemen to beat him inside.

Iheanacho obviously impressed but so did the rest of the offensive line group. Prospects like Rivals250 prospects Jaylen Gilchrist and Jayvon McFadden along with four-star Bryce Jenkins were excellent. Gilchrist worked at right tackle on Sunday and won almost every single one of his reps. He has re-shaped his body and seems much quicker than we’ve seen previously. Jenkins appears to have added more solid mass to his frame and overpowered a number of defensive linemen who came his way. McFadden worked at left tackle on Sunday but he projects as an interior offensive lineman at the next level. He won nearly every one of his reps as well, displaying his trademark aggressiveness and inspired play.

Offensive linemen like Joshua Blackston, Eidan Buchanan, Kenneth McManus, Jesse Moody, Grayson Reid, Khalil Stewart and Thomas Wilder also shined at various points during Sunday’s camp.

Headlined by Ohio State commit Zahir Mathis and 2026 Rivals250 defensive end Zion Elee, the defensive line put up an excellent performance against the loaded offensive line group. This was the first event Mathis participated in this offseason and it’s obvious he’s made a lot of progress since the end of last season. He’s filled out his frame and is able to play with an element of strength that he hasn’t shown much in the past. Elee is coming along nicely as a pass rusher. It’s easy to see he has a better grasp of pass rushing strategies since we previously saw him at the Rivals Camp Series in Charlotte.

Christian Evans could be considered a stock riser after this event. The interior defensive lineman has a unique combination of strength, quickness and aggressiveness that made him one of the best defensive linemen on the field. He relied more on those traits than he did his technique, but still had plenty of success. Yvan Kemajou and Elijah Golden also impressed. Kemajou has shown a lot of progress this offseason and should also be considered a stock riser while Golden has a huge season ahead of him at IMG Academy.

Performances from Tariq Boney, Elijah Crawford, Asaiah Hamond, Cortez Harris, Anthony Sweeney and Nahsir Taylor also caught our attention at different points during Sunday’s camp.

Faheem Delane and Blake Woodby were two of the highest-ranked players at the camp on Sunday and the defensive backs from Maryland have major visits on the horizon. Woodby, who just took an unofficial visit to Georgia, really enjoyed spending some time with Kirby Smart and his staff. He already has official visits locked in for Auburn on May 31 and Maryland on June 21 but he’ll schedule more visits with Oregon and Cincinnati along with Georgia.

Delane’s official visit schedule has not changed since he locked in his visits a few weeks ago but there is plenty of jockeying behind the scenes. Maryland should get him on campus first on May 31 followed by Ohio State on June 7, Oregon on June 14 and LSU on June 21. For the last few months, it has seemed like Ohio State and Oregon have been the two programs to watch for Delane, but this race is much closer than that. LSU and Maryland are really pushing for the highly-ranked safety prospect. What could shake things up is the potential that Georgia gets Delane for an official visit, which is something he is looking into.

In addition to Delane and Woodby, the secondary was loaded with talent. Indiana commit Byron Baldwin came away with the MVP award but prospects like Jireh Edwards, Jahmari DeLoach, Tariq Hayer and Sheldon Robinson also shined. Axavier Bridges-Brooks got a lot of attention during the one-on-one session, too.

Baldwin’s length and instincts helped him consistently force quarterbacks into bad passes. Edwards continued his outstanding offseason with another great performance on Sunday where he was able to get his hands on the ball on multiple occasions in addition to using his physical style to disrupt the timing between quarterbacks and receivers. Finney has elite physical traits to go along with his impressive speed. He’s raw when it comes to his techniques as a defensive back, but there is a lot of potential and versatility he brings to the field. DeLoatch Is very explosive and that gave receivers and that made it difficult for receivers to create enough separation for quarterbacks to get them the ball.

Hayer has not participated in many events this offseason but he was on the field Sunday looking to prove he deserved to be one of the highest ranked defensive backs in this class. He’s added muscle to his frame and that helped him play more physically with receivers at the line of scrimmage and when they were in their routes. It’ll be interesting to see how he continues to develop and if he stays in the secondary or if he moves into the box.

Robinson and Bridges- Brooks play a similar style as bigger defensive backs. Each of them were able to knock down plenty of passes and make their physical presence felt during the entire camp.