Grading Stanford’s 2021 Early Signing Day

Last week, National Rivals Recruiting Director Adam Gorney gave each team in the Pac-12 a grade for their early signing day signings, giving Stanford an A. In addition to having Gorney give Stanford a grade, I thought it would be good for CardinalSportsReport.com to give Stanford a grade as well. I will be grading Stanford based on three criteria. The first will simply be overall talent. The second will be how well the incoming talent addresses needs on offense. The third will be how well the incoming talent addresses needs on defense. Each will be weighted evenly and will be compiled together to give an overall grade.

Overall talent: At the moment, Stanford has the 18th best recruiting class in the 2022 class according to Rivals’ Team Recruiting Rankings.

The highest rated recruit who Stanford signed is 4-star outside linebacker David Bailey out of Mater Dei in Santa Ana, CA. Bailey is the 74th overall prospect in the 2022 class, 6th at his position, 6th in the state of California, and rated at 5.9 out of 6.1. Bailey is projected to be a real game changer for Stanford. He’s got all the tools you want to see in an outside linebacker: Size, speed, aggression, intelligence, you name it.

After Bailey, Stanford landed five 4-stars who are rated at 5.8: Tight end Sam Roush, offensive tackle Lucas Heyer, offensive tackle Fisher Anderson, weak side defensive end Teva Tafiti, and strong side defensive end Ernest “R.J.” Cooper. The highest rated among them is Heyer, who is rated 170th in the nation, 18th at his position, and 1st in the state of Minnesota. Cooper is not far behind, rated 176th in the nation, 15th at his position, and 27th in the state of Texas. Anderson (214th) and Tafiti (223rd) are also in the Rivals 250. The only one in that group who did not make the Rivals 250 is Roush, who has been knocking on the door.

After that group, everyone else rated 5.7 or lower is a 3-star recruit, so that makes six total 4-star recruits who Stanford signed in the early signing period. Those six recruits are a major reason why Stanford’s class is ranked in the top 20. Stanford did lose a major recruit in 4-star safety Kamari Ramsey, who was a late flip to UCLA right before the early signing period began. Ramsey is also rated at 5.8 and ranked 198th in the nation. When they had him in the fold, their class was ranked top 15.

While it was obviously a bummer to lose Ramsey, Stanford still has a really talented group coming in and I think if we are grading this class on just overall talent, I think Gorney’s grade of an A is on the money.

Offensive needs: When looking at the 2021 offense, one of the major needs was better play at the offensive tackle positions. Junior Walter Rouse struggled at times and then sophomore Myles Hinton experienced a baptism by fire, often looking like he just wasn’t ready to be a starter. As a result, James Pogorelc had to come in at times and provide some relief.

In the short term, having Lucas Heyer and Fisher Anderson come in helps to provide more depth and it also gives David Shaw more options beyond Pogorelc in the event that Rouse and/or Hinton aren’t up to the task. In the long term it gives Shaw a pair of offensive tackles that he can help build around for the future.

It should also be noted that Heyer and Anderson aren’t the only offensive tackles who Stanford signed in December. Stanford also signed a pair of 3-star offensive tackles in Kenji Swanson and Jake Maikkula. So, when it comes to offensive tackles and addressing that need, Stanford seemed to cover the base really nicely.

Touching quickly on the rest of the offensive line, Stanford did not add a guard or a center in the 2022 class. It would have been nice had they added one, but it wasn’t nearly as pressing of a need. Juniors Branson Bragg and Barrett Miller both held their own at guard just fine and at times, Bragg even had to cover at tackle. Junior Drake Nugent did just fine at center as well.

Moving on to skill positions, Stanford would have benefited from having a better backup quarterback behind sophomore Tanner McKee. Sixth year quarterback Isaiah Sanders was much more of a specialist, coming in for his unique wild cat packages and then outside of him, there really weren’t any good options. Freshman Ari Patu showed some promise, but I’m not sure if we saw enough of him to really know how good he’s going to be and then senior Jack West should have been nowhere near the starting quarterback position in the first place. And even as a backup quarterback, he wasn’t much to write home about.

The lone quarterback who Stanford signed in December is 3-star Ashton Daniels, who is rated at a 5.5. He’s a pro-style quarterback and could give Patu some competition for the backup quarterback role behind McKee. Daniels led Buford high school to three state titles in a row and is a proven winner. That’s a very desirable quality in a quarterback and sometimes, that quality alone can take guys really far.

If we are talking about addressing the need for a better backup quarterback, I think Stanford addressed this need just fine. Patu showed some promise last year while Daniels gives them another viable option to go to as well.

If we are talking about finding their next franchise quarterback, Stanford didn’t address that need at all. But, given that they have McKee, I wouldn’t call that a need at this time. 2023 is a class that I do think needs to have at least one guy who can address that need.

In terms of wide receivers/tight ends, when at full strength, Stanford had plenty of different options to go to. Sophomore Benjamin Yurosek showed that he’s already an elite tight end while senior wide receiver Brycen Tremayne (expected to return), junior wide receiver Elijah Higgins, sophomore wide receiver John Humphreys, sophomore wide receiver Bryce Farrell, and senior wide receiver Michael Wilson (possible he returns) all showed that they are capable of making big plays. The issue was a lot of those guys got hurt. Tremayne was out for the rest of the year following the Oregon victory and Wilson didn’t come back until the Utah game. In addition, Humphreys, Farrell, and Higgins all missed some time as well.

What the wide receiving group needed more than anything was depth and Stanford did a solid job of addressing that need by adding Elic Ayomanor and Mudia Reuben on signing day. Wide receiver Jason Thompson, who signed as a preferred walk-on, should help as well. Those guys have the potential be solid receivers and give Stanford more depth should injuries strike again next year.

That all being said, it would have been really nice had Stanford added a more elite wide receiver in the 2022 class. In addition to just raw depth, it was clear that once Tremayne went out, they were lacking an elite playmaker at that position. Depth was addressed, but adding an elite wide receiver was not.

Going back to tight ends, Stanford added a couple in Sam Roush and 3-star C.J. Hawkins. Both guys have the potential to be really good route runners and blockers at the tight end spot and give that room a real boost. However, tight end wasn’t as big of a need last year thanks to the play of Yurosek.

The final group to address on offense is running back. Austin Jones, Nathaniel Peat, Casey Filkins, and E.J. Smith formed a very solid running back room last season. But none of those guys are elite. None of those guys are in the same class as Christian McCaffrey, Bryce Love, and Toby Gerhart. It’s possible that one of those guys takes a major leap forward next year, E.J. Smith being the most likely, but I have a hard time seeing any of them approach the kind of elite level that Stanford has been used to seeing at the running back position.

I think an elite running back is atop the list of needs for Stanford on offense and in the 2022 class, they have not addressed this need. The only running back they added on signing day was 3-star running back Arlen Harris, Jr. who is rated at a 5.7. Harris projects to add depth to the running back room for next year but doesn’t project to be an elite running back.

I think when grading the offense in terms of how well it addressed team needs, I would rate it as a B+. Adding the offensive tackles was really nice, adding a quarterback to provide more depth was good, and I think the receivers/tight end positions did a nice job of addressing the needs of the team for next year.

However, what’s keeping me from giving Stanford an A- or an A is the lack of an elite running back and the lack of an elite wide receiver. If they had one of those two pieces added, I’d bump the grade up, but without either of those pieces, I do feel like a B+ is a more appropriate grade.

Defensive needs: When looking at the defense, without a doubt, the biggest need of this Stanford team was stopping the run, which ultimately starts with the front seven. In terms of beefing up that unit, Stanford knocked it out of the part on signing day. In addition to Bailey, Cooper, and Tafiti, three guys who should be impact players, Stanford added some other nice pieces as well.

3-star strongside defensive end Jaxson Moi, who flipped from Cal, has a lot of potential, and should add depth on the defensive line. And the same can be said for 3-stars Zach Rowell and Pat Caughey as well. Looking more at the linebacker positions, both Benjamin Hudson and Matt Rose project to add depth to their rooms as well.

The only real knock I have on how Stanford recruited in the front seven is they didn’t add an obvious impact player on the interior. They did a great job adding guys who’ll boost the pass rush and make plays on the outside, but the interior defense on the front seven didn’t seem to get addressed as well as one would like it too. However, there is the possibility that some of those guys move around a bit and address that need better than expected.

As far as the secondary is concerned, Stanford didn’t add any elite players. Hence the loss of Ramsey being significant. However, they did add some solid guys who should add depth in Terian Williams and Joshua Thompson. If Collin Wright follows through and signs in February, that’ll be another guy who’ll add more depth.

In terms of whether nor not an elite secondary player is a need, I wouldn’t say it’s a major need since Kyu Blu Kelly is coming back and Jonathan McGill is now healthy, but at the same time, it would have been nice to hang onto Ramsey and have that piece added as well.

When grading the defense, I think as a whole it did a much better job of adding elite playmakers than the offense did while also addressing more of its pressing needs. Adding an elite player in the secondary would have been nice, but I’m not sure the lack of one is enough for me to bump Stanford down from the level of an A. That said, I don’t feel quite comfortable giving Stanford a flat A for addressing the needs of the defense with the lack of an elite secondary commit and the lack of an obvious fix for the interior defense. Thus, I feel an A- is an appropriate grade.

Overall grade: Stanford got an A for overall talent, a B+ for offensive needs, and an A- defensive needs. If you combine those three grades together, that puts Stanford at an A- overall. As a whole, there’s not a lot to really complain about. The overall talent coming in is fantastic and while some of the needs from last year could have been addressed better, it’s still a recruiting class that Stanford should be really excited about. It’ll be fun to see what type of impact the 2022 class has on the team next year and beyond.

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