Milton (MA) Milton Academy tight end Andrew Rappleyea committed to Michigan on Sunday. He picked the Wolverines over offers from Boston College, Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin, among others.
Rappleyea is 6'4" and 215 lbs. As a junior in 2021, he caught 21 passes for 475 yards and 4 touchdowns. He claims a 4.62 forty and a 39" vertical.
RANKINGS
ESPN: Unranked
On3: 4-star, 91 grade, #10 TE, #169 overall
Rivals: 4-star, 5.8 grade, #12 TE, #240 overall
247 Sports: 3-star, 88 grade, #25 TE
Hit the jump for more.
Rappleyea was offered by Michigan after visiting in December. He returned to campus this weekend for an unofficial visit, seemingly with the intention of committing to the Wolverines.
Rappleyea is a little on the short side for a tight end, leading me to believe that he's headed for the H position more than an in-line Y. He has good ball skills and can go up and contort his body to reel in catches. He also does a good job of catching the ball with his hands rather than being a body catcher. He also shows good signs of having the feet, leg drive, and base to work up to the second level and be an effective blocker on linebackers. His speed is adequate, though he does not play against particularly good competition.
The aforementioned size might be a limiting factor, as well as the level of competition. He will probably be too small to play the Y position effectively. He's also not a field stretcher, though I think he can fill a similar role to what Erick All did in the passing game in 2021.
Overall, I think Rappleyea is a solid prospect. My personal belief about tight ends is that it's mostly about how they're used and not necessarily who they are. Michigan does a good job of using and developing tight ends. If Jim Harbaugh recruits you to play tight end, you're going to play at some point and probably be pretty effective. On the occasional opportunity to make wide receiver-like catches - which only seem to come a couple times per year - it's nice to have a guy who can jump and make some acrobatic or contested catches.
Michigan now has four commitments in the 2023 class, joining WR Semaj Morgan, LB Raylen Wilson, and K Adam Samaha. (Defensive tackle Joel Starlings decommitted yesterday.) The last player Michigan signed from Milton Academy was linebacker Kalel Mullings in the class of 2020.
TTB Rating: It's too early for 2023 rankings.
Solid is good. Let's be honest, we haven't brought in a superstar TE in, forever?
ReplyDeleteOne of this staff's consistencies is they can take a decent, solid, or good TE and make him into a contributor on this team
Who knows, maybe this kid will turn into an even better blocker than Erik All, who was up there as OMVP for his diversity in the game plan
"My personal belief about tight ends is that it's mostly about how they're used and not necessarily who they are"
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I have a similar view on RBs but have been wondering if it applies to TEs as well recently. Like RBs it feels counter intuitive, but the NFL salaries are in a very similar range and there's analytics out there to support the perspective.
My impression is that there are some really high impact TEs (Antonio Gates back in the day, Gronkowski) but am reconsidering this. There always exceptions anyway. Some of the same logic applies to both positions.
In TES favor- they have to be able to block and catch and many play nearly ever down. They seem less reliant on other's ability than a RB is for his OL (though QB can be argued for TE too). Teams put multiple on the field at the same time regularly.
Against TEs - they can be subbed out (for extra OL or extra WR) and can rotate, just like RB. Few excel at both blocking and passing, so it's about having a match between skills and playcalls and each can be adjusted.
I tend to view things through the Michigan perspective so I think All and Butt have a lot to do with 2021 and 2016 being the best teams of the Harbaugh era, but also have to acknowledge that McKeon and Gentry (NFL TEs) were both here in 2017 and didn't seem to change the story.