Three-Point Stance: Rebuttal for Jets' DB over Griffin backlash

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell’s thought-provoking Three-Point Stance is here with a response to Jets safety Jamal Adams, how important the Longhorns' latest commitments are and another early puzzling pledge.

MORE GRIFFIN-FARRELL-ADAMS: Godfather & Gorney Podcast

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

My column last week about why I would not draft Shaquem Griffin if I were an NFL GM drew quite a bit of reaction, but one response in particular caught my eye. Former Rivals.com four-star safety Jamal Adams, now with the New York Jets, took things to a personal level in calling out my apparent inability to rank prospects at any level with the following tweet …

As someone who has been called every name in the book, I don’t worry about the clown comment. However, I found it very interesting that Adams is still apparently holding some sort of grudge in regards to his ranking by Rivals.com out of high school, a ranking that was higher than a couple of major recruiting outlets and wasn’t far off his highest rating of 18th overall (still a four-star) by one service.

I’ve always had great respect for Adams’ ability on the football field as an undersized safety with an amazing motor and the fearlessness needed to play the position and that won’t change. I was on the selection committee for the Under Armour All-America Game when he was selected to play in that game, I picked him to play in our Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge in Chicago and have admitted a few different times that perhaps we missed on his ranking by a little bit.

But let’s keep a few things in perspective.

Being ranked No. 38 overall in the country isn’t a bad thing. With the number of prospects we evaluate each year, it puts him essentially in the 99.9-percent range as an elite high school prospect. And being No. 3 at safety? Not so bad when you consider the two safeties ranked ahead of him were All-American Quin Blanding and John Smith, now known as JuJu Smith-Schuster, who played wide receiver in college and just had a great rookie season in the NFL.

Adams was part of a 2014 class that was one of the most talented at the top that I’ve ever covered. I’m more than happy to take my lumps when we completely whiff on a prospect we should have ranked higher (Le'Veon Bell, Russell Wilson, etc). But to be called out for ranking someone five spots from being a five-star and in the top .00001 percent of elite players?

So to Jamal Adams, who I wish continued success, I respect your right to call me a clown for counting out Shaquem Griffin before he’s even had a chance to play in the NFL. However, your ranking out of high school was pretty darned good.

I love the recent commitment of the Texas Longhorns. Just a couple weeks after I was worrying about their lack of in-state commitments compared with Texas A&M and out-of-state rival Oklahoma, they pull an expected-yet-important commitment from athlete Jordan Whittington.

Whittington, who could play receiver or defensive back in college, is one of the early “can’t miss” prospects in the 2019 class. He has the personality and leadership to help recruit others from in-state and outside of Texas. He’s the highest-rated non-five-star in the country and the only reason he hasn’t reached that status yet is because of questions about his speed, which are being answered more and more as we see him.

But he wasn’t the only big commitment for Texas recently as it also landed grad transfer Calvin Anderson. Obviously grad transfers don’t count in recruiting rankings, but the heavily recruited offensive lineman from Rice chose Texas over Michigan, Oklahoma, Auburn, Notre Dame and a ton of others, and he should make an immediate impact.

It will be very interesting to follow the 2019 class in the Lone Star State and the Longhorns landed one of the biggest commitments of the year in Whittington. I’ll list my top five impact commitments so far in Thursday’s column.

Last year, it was the Kansas Jayhawks landing Devonta Jason and others out of Louisiana early in the process that had everyone a bit puzzled. This year it’s Dallas-area athlete Marquez Beason choosing Illinois early that has many scratching their heads. For Kansas, it was uber recruiter Tony Hull that lured Jason and his teammate, defensive back Corrione Harris, to Kansas, only to see Jason flip to Mississippi State. However, Harris, a Rivals100 prospect, stuck with the Jayhawks and goes down as one of their top signees in recent memory.

This year it’s safeties coach Bill Byrd and wide receivers coach Andrew Hayes-Stoker leading the charge for Beason, but it’s his relationship with his former teammates, Calvin Avery and Kievan Myers, that could be the biggest reason for his early commitment.

So will Beason be like Harris and stick with his commitment or be the next Jason and de-commit down the stretch? Time will tell but in the meantime this is a huge get for the Illini.