Syracuse Football: Film breakdown on 2020 DE Leon Lowery

After a long hiatus, the Syracuse football recruiting staff has locked in a new recruit. Here’s a full film breakdown from our recruiting analyst.

The wait is over. After a dry spell in recruiting for Dino Babers and the Syracuse football coaching staff, they received a verbal commitment Sunday night from New Jersey defensive end, Leon Lowery.

Lowery was in the 315 all weekend, attending Dino Babers’ football camp, where he received his formal offer from the coaching staff, after impressing. Lowery is a Garden state native, growing up close to the Rutgers campus in North Brunswick Township.

As a rising high school senior, Lowery already has great size at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds. He will obviously need to add some weight to his frame before arriving on the Syracuse campus, but he has plenty of time to do so.

Lowery was relatively unknown for Syracuse fans heading into the weekend, as he did not yet have an offer.

However, according to 247sports.com, he does hold offers from the likes of Indiana, Rutgers, Temple, and Virginia Tech. Lowery is also rated as a 3-star prospect, the 61st best weakside defensive end, and the 28th best player in Jersey in his class.

He announced his commitment to Syracuse via twitter:

Lets’s break down this defensive end’s high school film:

This is an athletic freak.

At the :53 mark of the tape, Lowery is lined up at the defensive tackle position on the top of the screen. He is by far the one that fires off the ball the quickest on either team. By the time the offensive guard can react to the ball being snapped, Lowery is already on top of him. He just fights inside of the opposing lineman and gets a straight shot on the opposing quarterback. Once he is in the backfield, he makes sure he brings the quarterback down with a solid tackle.

Lowery is incredibly quick for his size. It is shown in this play and also on the punt blocks he has previously in his film. The key for him at the next level will be maintaining or adding more speed while adding weight.

At the 2:05 mark, Lowery shows off his great strength. This time he is lined up at the defensive end spot, where he will most likely end up at SU. This time he is being blocked by a bigger offensive tackle. I expected him to once again use his speed to get to the quarterback, especially since he was competing with a tackle.

Instead, he uses his strength to engage the tackle’s hands, shoving him to the side and hitting the quarterback as he throws. Lowery forced the interception that occurs on the tail end of the play with his hit of the quarterback, using his strength to get there.

The last play I want to look at occurs at the 3:02 mark of the film. Lowery is once again in more of an interior lineman role, but it doesn’t matter. On this particular play, he shows off his great bend and motor. He fires off the ball, engaging with his blocker and pushing him backward. He uses his leverage to get around the blocker, chasing down the quarterback on the opposite side of the field from where Lowery lined up. Lowery has great athleticism. He will just need to add size to prepare for the next level.

Lowery joins Kevin Lemieux as the two defensive commits in Syracuse’s class of 2020. Lemieux is also a defensive end.