High school recruiting rankings are fun to look back at, especially when a Super Bowl rolls around and we get to see where the starters ranked as prep prospects. Sometimes they were five-star guys, sometimes they had no stars at all. Who knew the guys with zero stars would be a part of football lines one day?
So we decided to pull the projected starting roster for the AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs and see how these players once ranked.
DT Chris Jones, for example, was the No. 18 overall prospect in his high school class (2013). OL Andrew Wylie was ranked No. 2011 and a two-star prospect in his 2012 class. And not surprisingly, some of the guys listed below didn’t even receive a national ranking.
For this project, we used the 247Sports.com composite ranking from the 2011 high school class moving forward, and the Rivals.com ranking for the years prior.
Generally, recruiting services view their star-rating system the following way:
Five stars: Services deemed to be a future franchise player in the NFL (yes, even way back in high school). Usually around a top-30 type of prospect, class-wise.
Four stars: Generally a Top-300 type prospect in his prep class, and a player who will go on to be a solid contributor at an FBS school. He then is likely to be drafted one day if the progression continues
Three stars: For 247Sports, they consider a three-star prospect to be in the top 10-percent of players in his class. He should end up a starter at his future college and may have an outside shot at the NFL one day.
Two stars: Has little to no pro-potential, but will contribute in college.
No stars: Not on the “radar screen,” basically. Not expected to be a part of NFL betting lines.
Not surprisingly, the services nail some of these projections and whiff on some of them. The toughest positions to project seem to be the quarterback and offensive linemen. Projections like those for the defensive line tend to be the most accurate.
So let’s take a look at the Chiefs:
CHIEFS STARTING LINEUP
NOTE: “YEAR” denotes what high school class they were in, and “NAT. RK” is the overall national individual ranking given the respective player coming out of high school in that year’s class.
| OFFENSE | ||||
| POS | PLAYER | STARS | NAT. RK | YEAR |
| WR | Hill, Tyreek | 0 stars | n/a | 2012 |
| WR | Watkins, Sammy | 5 stars | 20 | 2011 |
| LT | Remmers, Mike | 0 stars (*) | n/a | 2007 |
| LG | Allegretti, Nick | 3 stars | 843 | 2014 |
| C | Reiter, Austin | 2 stars (*) | n/a | 2010 |
| RG | Wisniewski, Steven | 4 stars (*) | 131 | 2007 |
| RT | Wylie, Andrew | 2 stars | 2011 | 2012 |
| TE | Kelce, Travis | 2 stars (*) | n/a | 2008 |
| QB | Mahomes II, Patrick | 3 stars | 398 | 2014 |
| RB | Edwards-Helaire, Clyde | 3 stars | 378 | 2017 |
| FB | Sherman, Anthony | 2 stars (*) | n/a | 2007 |
| DEFENSE | ||||
| POS | PLAYER | STARS | NAT. RK | YEAR |
| DE | Kpassagnon, Tanoh | 0 stars | n/a | 2012 |
| DT | Jones, Chris | 5 stars | 18 | 2013 |
| DT | Nnadi, Derrick | 4 stars | 97 | 2014 |
| DE | Clark, Frank | 3 stars | 692 | 2011 |
| LB | Hitchens, Anthony | 2 stars (*) | n/a | 2010 |
| LB | Wilson, Damien | 0 stars | n/a | 2011 |
| LCB | Ward, Charvarius | 0 stars | n/a | 2014 |
| SS | Mathieu, Tyrann | 4 stars (*) | 191 | 2010 |
| FS | Sorensen, Daniel | 3 stars (*) | n/a | 2008 |
| RCB | Breeland, Bashaud | 3 stars (*) | n/a | 2010 |
| CB | Fenton, Rashad | 0 stars | n/a | 2013 |
(*) - Rivals.com ranking
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Brian McLaughlin is a writer for BetMGM and co-host of BMac and Herd’s FCS Podcast. He has written for The Sporting News, headed up the PARADE Magazine High School All American teams, covered college football for HERO Sports, and wrote for so many newspapers he lost count. Follow BMac on Twitter @BrianMacWriter.
