Prospect comparisons always generate a lot of discussion, and with the 2025 and 2026 ranking sessions starting this week, it’s a good time to take a step back and compare some of the current standout prospects to some college or NFL stars.
First up, five comparisons of some of the best recruits in the East.
Pierre Dean – Broderick Jones
Jones was a standout offensive line prospect coming out of high school. For a high school student, he weighed so little that from a distance it was hard to tell just how big he was. As you get closer to him, he gets bigger and bigger, which is exactly what happened with Dean.
The North Carolina native is very lean at 269 pounds, but is a few inches shorter than Jones. Both offensive linemen have long arms and are able to use their upper body strength to overwhelm defensive linemen.
Another similarity: Dean may end up signing with Georgia, just like Jones.
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Kendre Harrison – Jimmy Graham
If Harrison played defensive end, the simple comparison would be Julius Peppers Because both are from North Carolina, both are basketball players and stars on the football field. Instead, Harrison is more similar to another North Carolina native, Jimmy Graham, who played four years of basketball at Miami before switching to football.
Harrison and Graham are both 6-foot-7 and flex primarily on the outside of the offensive formation. Like Graham, Harrison wanted to play basketball in college, but he focused primarily on football.
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orlando brown jr.
Big-name players like Iheanacho are very rare, so the number of players he can be compared to is rather small. After seeing Iheanacho last weekend, I thought of Orlando Brown Jr. Both men are approximately 6 feet 7 inches tall and weigh nearly 340 pounds. Huge offensive linemen can operate on the left or right side of the defensive line, using their sheer size to cut off rushers on the outside and their overwhelming strength to prevent defensive linemen from beating them on the inside.
Brown’s skills weren’t quite where he needed to be when he entered college, and Iheanacho likewise had parts of his game that needed work before he saw the field at the next level.
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Shamarius Peterkin – T-Shirt Higgins
Peterkin may not be as well-known as Higgins, but the North Carolina native shares many of the same characteristics as the former Clemson standout. Peterkin, like Higgins, has a strong basketball background and you can see that when you turn on the film.
At 6-foot-4, Peterkin is a long-stepper who excels at moving around the court, much like Higgins did during his high school career. Higgins was a bit taller and more developed coming out of high school than Peterkin was at this point in his career, but he still had time to put on weight before heading to college.
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David Sanders Jr. – Paris Johnson
It’s an easy comparison to make, as Sanders has talked about how he enjoys watching Johnson and emulating the former Ohio State star’s game. The two offensive tackles have similar bodies and even similar playing styles at this point in their careers – using their length and speed to their advantage.
As Johnson got older, he added weight to his frame, and Sanders was doing the same thing as he neared his senior season.
