Commit #2 yesterday was NJ DE Aaron Lewis, who Michigan cruelly swiped from West Virginia in an act as old as time. Hopefully this one works out more like swipe #2 than swipe #1.

Lewis was the South Jersey POY after a monster junior season that saw him rack up triple-digit tackles as a guy splitting time between SDE and DT; this piqued the interest of two of the three sites and a wide variety of Midwest powers.

Let's play the feud!

GURU RANKINGS

Rivals	ESPN	24/7	Composite
3*, 5.6 rating #43 SDE, #16 NJ	4*, 80 rating #32 DE, #9 NJ	4*, #238 overall #21 SDE, #7 NJ	3*, #433 overall #21 SDE, #13 NJ

Two mid-four-star rankings and one not-even-high-three from Rivals. The only site to explain anything is 247.

SCOUTING

24/7's report on Lewis's player page is about the only serious scouting out there right now, from Brian Dohn:

Ideal frame… can carry 260 pounds with ease. Can play inside or on edge. … fast-twitch … Physical at point of attack. … Plus body control. Great motor. Has closing speed. …Needs to work on staying lower within first few steps. … Uses speed to the edge too frequently. Multi-year starter at top-20 college program.

Lewis made one of 24/7 top performers lists after a UA regional camp:

…every bit of 6-foot-5. He lined up on the edge  …also moved inside …already a tactician and he attacks his reps with a plan. … long and has a great frame for a defensive end.

But that's about it. Rivals didn't have anything except a commit post from the WVU site:

…thing that jumps out immediately about Lewis is his size … great first step …uses his hands effectively to shed blockers in order to make tackles. …speed causes problems …effort stands out …good leverage despite his size

Size, and athleticism that doesn't always go with that size. By the time Lewis reaches college he should be close to a play able weight. He's growing rapidly, having added about 25 pounds over the past year despite admitting that "he has not done a ton of weight training." He might actually add more height:

For starters, the 6-foot-6 Lewis said his doctor recently told him he wasn’t finished growing.

“I was like, ‘Really?’ ” Lewis said. “I don’t want to be a 7-foot defensive end.”

If Lewis's 6'6" frame is more of a 6'4" or 6'5" frame being reported in WWE terms that's fine. If he ends up at a legitimate 6'7" or 6'8" that's getting into the realm of leverage problem. I'm reminded of 6'8" Pat Massey, who was inexplicably a DT at Michigan—one who got ejected from the gap frequently. Once you get past 6'6" your options are usually restricted to OL—or TE, I guess. There's a reason they called 6'8" DE Ed Jones "Too Tall."

In all likelihood Lewis will be a jumbo DE of approximately the right height, though, and Michigan is explicitly pointing him towards the Wormley role even if he seems to have gotten his technique mixed up:

"I’ll be moving around from the anchor, which is the three-technique, or strong side defensive end on the tight end. I will be moving around from the anchor to the defensive tackle sometimes, to the bandit."

[After THE JUMP: first step]

OFFERS

Before his original commitment Lewis issued a top 5 of Michigan, OSU, PSU, Wisconsin, and the Mountaineers. Miami also offered recently.

HIGH SCHOOL

Lewis is the first Williamstown player in the Rivals DB to go to a P5 school.

STATS

A monster line for a guy who moves between three-tech and SDE:

In helping Williamstown to a 12-1 record and the program’s second sectional title, Lewis made 102 tackles, an astounding total for a defensive lineman. He made a team-high 40 solo tackles and led the squad with 25 tackles for loss, 16 hurries and six sacks.

FAKE 40 TIME

None on record.

VIDEO

Stands up too quickly but you can see the potential for a penetrating DT in there. Guy gets in a lot of backfields.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Lewis looks like the defensive equivalent of a Greg Frey recruit. Get a guy with a great frame and some athleticism in and then see what you get after you're done stacking meat on him. Leverage is going to make or break Lewis's career on D; if he can stay low he has the makings of a terrific 3T. If not he might end up playing SDE on a team that also has Braiden McGregor. That wouldn't be nothing—it would be a solid rotation role—but it wouldn't be a massive impact.

If dude does keep growing and that hampers his ability on D he might be able to hack it as an OT.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Michigan has 14 announced commits. Assuming that scholarship wrestler/football PWO Gaige Garcia is one of the commits from the weekend that leaves four more commits that happened over the weekend but haven't been announced yet, taking Michigan to 18 in a class that looks headed for the usual 25-ish.

Lewis is the second SDE type in the class along with five-star-ish Braiden McGregor. Michigan will certainly be pursuing more pure DTs—Lewis may develop into one but that's down the road—and has their irons in the fire for a few WDE types.