Top 10 wildest HS recruitments among Super Bowl stars
The Super Bowl kicks off Sunday and Rivals covered the vast majority of Eagles and Chiefs players back when they were high school prospects. Rivals recruiting director Adam Gorney recalls the craziest recruitments from players going after football’s biggest prize this weekend.
RELATED: How Eagles starters ranked in high school | How Chiefs starters ranked in high school | Comparing 2025 five-stars to NFL standouts
1. SAQUON BARKLEY (2015)
Rutgers was the dream school growing up and after visiting with the Scarlet Knights and getting the offer, Barkley committed there early in his recruitment. Born in The Bronx, Barkley and his father grew up fans of Rutgers and the New York Jets, as they moved to the Allentown, Pa., area, where he played his high school ball.
But as Barkley’s recruitment picked up through his junior season and Penn State came much more into the picture, a flip happened and one of the best backs in recent memory would now play for the Nittany Lions and not the Scarlet Knights.
The four-star would become a superstar at Penn State and the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. One wonders what would have become of him – and the Rutgers program – if he stuck with his first decision.
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2. A.J. BROWN (2016)
The high four-star receiver who was on the fringe of a five-star ranking was very serious about playing at Mississippi State. This was peak time for the Bulldogs in the Dan Mullen era when he took them to No. 1 in the country and Brown was a Starkville kid.
But Brown chose Ole Miss over Mississippi State, Alabama and Cal at the end of the Hugh Freeze era and into the Matt Luke years. It still worked out for him because he’s so talented and had DK Metcalf alongside him as well.
Brown, who was also signed by the San Diego Padres out of high school, focused on football in Oxford, had nearly 3,000 receiving yards in three years and was a second-round pick in 2019.
3. COOPER DEJEAN (2021)
DeJean camped at Iowa in the summer before his junior year at Ida Grove (Iowa) Oabcig and didn’t really stand out all that much. Iowa general manager/chief of staff Tyler Barnes said during a signing day interview that he was on their board as a walk-on heading into his junior year.
But Barnes made the nearly four-hour trek to western Iowa to see DeJean play basketball that year and Barnes said it took him about six plays to know he could play football for the Hawkeyes.
The coaching staff didn’t know if he’d be a corner, a safety or even an outside linebacker but they wanted him on the team. So Iowa offered him and he became one of the best players in recent memory there before becoming an early second-round selection.
4. CJ GARDNER-JOHNSON (2016)
Gardner-Johnson was all over the place in his recruitment. The four-star cornerback from Cocoa, Fla., committed to Miami early only to back off that pledge and pick Florida. But after some coaching turmoil in Gainesville, Gardner-Johnson reopened his recruitment as Miami came back in the picture along with Ohio State while the Gators stuck around.
Then in the spring prior to his senior season, the Cocoa standout re-committed to Florida but by the fall had five official visits planned to Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Georgia and back with the Gators. He decided to stick with Florida and he became a fourth-round pick.
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5. ELIAS RICKS (2020)
Ricks was a five-star prospect and the top-rated cornerback in the 2020 class. He became a national name after having six pick-sixes in one season at Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei before transferring to Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy for his senior season.
USC pushed hard along with Alabama but this was a battle between LSU and Ohio State until commitment day when the Tigers won out. Ricks had a phenomenal freshman season in Baton Rouge alongside fellow five-star Derek Stingley Jr., but there were always rumors of tension that Stingley was getting too many accolades and Ricks was looking to transfer.
Ohio State looked to be the destination but Ricks decided on Alabama where he played well but never had that magic like Year 1 in Baton Rouge. He ended up going undrafted in 2023 but was picked up by the Philadelphia Eagles.
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6. CHRIS JONES (2013)
When Jones committed to Mississippi State in the summer before his junior season, the headline on Rivals was as nondescript as the news: “Bulldogs add another commitment.”
At the time, the Houston, Miss., defensive lineman was not the five-star standout he would become as his recruitment totally blew up through his senior year and especially after a great performance at the Army All-American Bowl.
But as more and more attention came from Ole Miss, Alabama, USC and others, so did some death threats from all corners as Jones considered taking other visits and seeing other schools. Most likely because of that scary situation, Jones decided against some late visits and signed with Mississippi State before becoming a second-round pick.
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7. PATRICK MAHOMES (2014)
Mahomes could end up being arguably the greatest player in NFL history but when the high three-star quarterback was coming through Whitehouse, Texas, in the 2014 class, Mahomes only had offers from Houston and Rice.
When DJ Gillins de-committed from Texas Tech, only then did Mahomes become a top option for then-coach Kliff Kingsbury. Mahomes ended up starring in Lubbock before becoming something of a controversial top-10 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. Mitchell Trubisky was the only quarterback taken ahead of him during that draft.
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8. TRAVIS KELCE (2008)
Ranking Kelce as a two-star coming out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, looks like a massive miss – and it was considering his Hall of Fame career – but it would have been impossible to know at the time because Kelce had no desire to play tight end.
The agreement between Kelce and then-coach Brian Kelly was that he would come in as the third quarterback in the Bearcats’ 2008 class and if it wasn’t providing results then he would move positions. That’s exactly what happened as Kelce grew, moved to tight end and ended up as a third-round pick.
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9. JUJU SMITH-SCHUSTER (2014)
In the final days before Smith-Schuster’s National Signing Day decision, everything was trending toward Oregon for the five-star safety (who would end up playing offense for the remainder of his career as one of the best multi-position athletes in Rivals’ history).
The Ducks looked strong and at a Long Beach (Calif.) Poly event, Smith even said, ‘Go Ducks’ so it looked as if Oregon was well ahead of USC. But on national television, Smith-Schuster had a last-second change-of-heart and picked the hometown Trojans. He ended up as a second-round pick.
10. XAVIER WORTHY (2021)
In one of the wildest finishes to a recruitment, Worthy signed with Michigan and all was well until there was an issue with his transcripts and by April after signing day, he needed to look for a new home so asked out of his letter of intent.
More than 30 programs tried to get involved with the Fresno (Calif.) Central East high four-star but he ended up at Texas where he had a great career and caught nearly 200 passes in three seasons.
Worthy went on to break the NFL Combine record in the 40-yard dash and he was a late first-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft.
