2024 Recruiting: Devon Baxter (2024)

Previously: 2023's profiles. K Dominic Zvada (Tr), S Jacob Oden, S Wesley Walker (Tr), S Jaden Mangham(Tr), CB Aamir Hall (Tr), CB Ricky Johnson (Tr), CB Jeremiah Lowe, CB Jo'Ziah Edmond, LB Jaishawn Barham (Tr), LB Jeremiah Beasley, LB Cole Sullivan, OLB Mason Curtis, DE Lugard Edokpayi

Devon Baxter might be the most contradictory man from the Middle Atlantic since Thomas Jefferson. He's a four-star to the more trusted two sites that I'm a little mad I can't call the Class Sleeper. He's a football-obsessed son of a DL coach and nephew of a pass rush academy director who's raw as a cucumber, and only just starting to develop his rush technique. He's a gym rat who lost 30 pounds over his high school career, and an underground prospect in a small, unscoutable league (that's somehow in the heart of the football-rich DMV) that at least one Michigan recruiting reporter went out to see five times. He's football player who spent a semester doing nothing but reading classical literature, and an A student whose favorite subject in school was the one that made him work the hardest.

Chemistry, believe it or not, I actually struggled with chemistry. But that was my favorite subject. I loved going to that class every day.

Also like Jefferson, everyone who meets Baxter tells you he's tall. What they also agree on is he's a hyperathletic, long-limbed, position switcher who thinks focusing on one or two positions in an Amoeba defense a welcome break from his current versatility. If only there was a place for such people.

[After THE JUMP: Taco watch versus Taco warning.]

Michigan caught him on the rise. Early rankings are set based on which kids are known to be coming up through various camps, big schools, 7v7s, and training orgs, and then sophom*ore tape and the sophom*ore->junior camp season. At that point Baxter was a former quarterback still learning DE in a lower league where his dad coaches. Via MLive's Ryan Zuke, things started to click as a junior.

“Me getting more comfortable in the defense,” Baxter told MLive about his ascent as a recruit. “Our defense is one of a kind. The things our defensive coordinator has us do, it is a lot more than any other position in our defense. When I started getting comfortable and understanding the defense, that helped me really start taking over more games and being more active on the field.”

Baxter had DE bloodlines—dad's a DL coach, brother's a D-II linebacker who set their HS's sack record, and their uncle Marlon Curtis runs a training org called Pass Rush Academy. However he only started playing some defense his freshman year, while still playing offense and basketball, moved all over the place—DT, LB, safety, whatever—and didn't appear at camps. Baxter also *dropped* about 30 pounds before starting to regain it, which probably scared off any schools intrigued by the formerly 260-pound athlete, so "Evaluation U" (coined by Lorenz) had to do their homework again. Holland heaped credit on the staff—and former grad assistant Dylan Roney in particular—for finding this pass-rushing prospect in a small DMV league that doesn't pass.

Because he's an athletic freaky freak. Those who saw Baxter didn't have to stare long. Though they disagreed on his measurements—between 6'5" and 6'7" and 225-235—all concurred on his athleticism and wanted him first off the bus. Brian Dohn noted the basketball/receiver background and called him a "quick-twitched athlete [who] covers a lot of ground in first few steps, with big upside. Both Lorenz and Holland named Baxter their personal favorites of the class on Signing Day, with Holland telling it like he caught a 30-pound smallie:

I hit up a program source and I was like how much do you guys like this Baxter kid, and they're like "A LOT!" And I was like should I go see them should I go see him, and they're like sure, so I went out and I saw him, and I was like MAN. This kid is long, athletic, and so physically impressive. He is like an athletic specimen. And he's a great athlete too. I named him the most athletic guy in the class because you know when he you see him in person he kind of just looks like a bodybuilder.

EJ said the height was exaggerated…

Baxter has a really impressive frame with a ton of length. Baxter is listed as 6-foot-7 on On3, but that’s pretty generous. I would say he’s closer to 6-foot-5. Still, Baxter is that tall, long, athletic prospect that Michigan desires in its pass rushers.

…but argued that Baxter already had the speed and explosiveness to be an effective 9-tech rusher, and made an Ojabo comparison. The first time he visited Gywnn Park, EJ called Baxter's length "special." He asserted Devon had the most upside of the (pre-Edokpayi) class when watching him at passing drills on EJ's second visit in July 2023. Five months (and three more trips) later he likened Baxter to a professional pugilist.

When he you see him in person he kind of just looks like a bodybuilder. If I were to compare him to someone it would be like Anthony Joshua, who's a former world champion heavyweight boxer.

Lorenz, who's been through all the recruiting cycles under Harbaugh's staff, thought they'd gotten their hands on an early version of NCAA 2025:

Baxter has the type of build and athleticism the staff would probably look for if they had a 'create-a-player' option. A legitimate 6'6" with a massive wingspan, the sky appears to be the limit.

Rivals came in lower than everyone else, but the one time they scouted him Adam Friedman had Baxter among a small group of SDE possibilities to be the #2 edge in the class after Dylan Stewart, noting the "impressive athleticism for his size." Nelson Hubbell of New Rivals was stumping for a move up the rankings whenever he checked in on Baxter's senior season, but a late injury seemed to prevent a reevaluation. Brice Marich named Baxter one of his Halloween most spoooOOOOoooky prospects:

seeing the long and twitchy edge rusher Devon Baxter lined up across from them. … has shown outstanding quickness off the snap of the ball, great ability/speed and tenacity.

Touch the Banner liked him as a TE if not DE, dropping a 78 score for a prospect with "the length, burst, and change-of-direction skills to make an impact getting after the passer, perhaps more so than anyone in the pipeline right now," last month, meaning he's including Edokpayi.

There are no 40 times listed, but trainer/uncle Marlon Curtis compared Baxter to two of the fastest DEs ever. Josh Sweat was a 6'5"/251 edge for FUS with 34 5/8" arms, an "86" athleticism score, and 4.53 forty at the combine. Uncle Marlon's over comp was to Jevon Kearse, the safety they grew into an NFL D-lineman that convinced every coach in the 2000s he could do the same. As for Curtis's nephew:

“He’s a raw talent. … He has such a high ceiling with his athletic ability.

But he's still got a lot of development to go. Baxter imagined his future was at quarterback until a growth spurt and athletic explosion after his freshman year put him in big WR-TE territory. According to Baxter's high school coach Danny Hayes, Devon only started trying defense because everyone on the team had to play both ways, and stuck with basketball instead of training or camping to develop his football skills. His uncle only started working with him the summer before his junior season, whence the explosion. When EJ Holland took a look one year later, he saw a work very much in progress.

Baxter isn’t going to wow you when doing drills. I just don’t think he’s ever had a lot of position-specific coaching. In fact, Baxter wasn’t even a pass rusher up until a couple of years ago. He’s a former quarterback and tight end. However, all the tools are there—the twitch, the length, the speed and the athleticism. Baxter clearly has the biggest upside on the EDGE board.

Another visit ended with Holland fretting about the low floor

….still needs a lot of work from a technical standpoint and looks extremely raw. Whichever school lands him will really have to invest a lot on individual development. I can’t say enough how impressive his length is, but he needs to learn to use it to his advantage. Baxter is flexible, but he can continue to work on his bend.

Touch the Banner called his technique "lacking." Brian Dohn thought Baxter "sometimes looks a little unsure and it impacts the speed of play" and developing moves, and how to use them. This spring Anthony Broome opined Baxter was "another lotto ticket" coming in as an "athletic traits-heavy developmental prospect that Michigan will take its time with."

These reports invariably came with mention of Michigan's developmental track record and, more importantly Baxter's "attitude and mentality." They also often mention Baxter really wanted to enroll early, could have benefited from it, and had all the grades, honor's courses and APs to get in on his own merits, but was stymied by an obscure Maryland literature requirement his counselor didn't know about, and was the only class he had his last semester of high school.

Also holding Baxter back from contributing early is a LAT injury he played through at the end of last season and has been rehabbing since.

And he's scrawny. Right, and that. Dohn mentioned "concern about building muscle mass and strength." TTB said "Michigan needs to get him in the weight room and see how quickly he can put on some much-needed strength."

So where are we on the defense spectrum now? I propose Baxter is best defined as an "Edge," meaning he could end up at the OLB (Ojabo/Upshaw/Harrell/Stewart) position or Heavy (Hutchinson/Morris/McGregor/Moore), leaning much more to the latter once he's fully developed.

Brice Marich said 240 pounds, though his site has a listed 225. That's probably the range across Baxter's junior and senior seasons after dropping 30 pounds of "baby fat" from close to 260, according to coach, dad and uncle in various conversations with Holland in the last two years. Holland's various trips give us a few snapshots of that build-up, from 231 in April 2023, 6-foot-5.5, 235 pounds at the Under Armour Camp in Baltimore later that spring, close to 240 by summer, and down again to 6'5"/235 in October as Baxter was transitioning back to basketball. Holland argued Baxter had already "filled out his frame nicely" but still had "plenty of room to add weight," especially when compared to the OLB-locked ex-commit Elias Rudolph with the same reported height and weight.

So: Heavy? Holland was saying it "will depend" and "they see him as more of a David Ojabo type" who "could easily add a ton of weight and become Mike Morris-esque" in April 2023, but by July was changing his tune.

Baxter isn’t a skinny prospect like fellow EDGE commit Elias Rudolph. … he’s really filling out well in both his upper and lower halves. I initially thought Baxter would be more of a speed rusher role at Michigan. However, he can play at 270-280 pounds once he gets under Ben Herbert and be a bigger EDGE.

Baxter's Dad/position coach thinks if anyone can add 40 pounds it's his boy.

It’s funny when I hear people say he’s skinny. He’s 240. He’s not skinny. He’s tall. One thing about Devon is he’s a workout junkie. I literally have to tell him to rest. He’d probably work out seven days a week if it was up to him, and I’m not exaggerating. I even told Coach Herb ‘keep him out of here’ (laughs). He’s going to have fun with Coach Herb.”

Scouts agree. On3's Charles Power noted little else but the "big frame and measurables." In their reevaluation Dohn noted they'd verified the size/length, and saw "the frame to add 20 to 30 pounds and not lose speed or agility." Dohn also sounded like he was talking about the Hutch side:

Aggressive tackler and does well in one-on-one situations because of his length and tenacity. Explosion shows best when lined up inside with hand on the ground. Displays some stack-and-shed ability. Willing to do anything to help his team.

Austin Meek was another arguing Baxter "has the frame to get bigger without sacrificing his quick first step."

But that's still a pass-rushing position. And Baxter still has plenty of it. Dohn:

During in-person evaluation, quickness at the snap and athleticism were quickly noticeable. Plays standing up but could put his hand on the ground. Shows explosion at the snap and can dip his shoulder to get around the edge. Body control is good and will continue to improve as his frame fills out. Changes direction with balance. Known how to use his hands to keep the offensive lineman off. Relies heavily on speed and superior athleticism as the high school level.

Unfortunately none of Holland's five trips got to see any of this, and one and two were in the offseason, three and four were against never-pass teams, and an injury 16 minutes into that one was that LAT injury that had Baxter performing at 40% for five.

Note there's a good example of that shoulder dip at about 3:30 on the senior highlight reel. That, strength, and a plan will get you to a lot of quarterbacks. Dad at least thought pass-rushing Baxter's greatest strength.

He’s long, he’s rangy, he’s quick off the ball, he knows how to play with heavy hands, and he can just hunt quarterbacks.”

Coach argued it was tenacity.

He is always getting double-teamed … He knows how to fight off the double-teams, he knows he is going to get double-teamed. That is when we start to put him more at linebacker so he can’t get double-teamed. [And] he has a motor. If the ball is on the other side, he’s not sitting there watching. He’s going after the play.

Hayes further apologized for a lack of counting stats due to his weird scheme that either held back the dogs or used Baxter like a Shawn Crable.

Crable? Does that mean Versatility? This is probably our one and only chance to hear this, so let's relish a high school coach (Baxter's dad) arguing his edge prospect will get to simplify things when he gets to Ann Arbor.

On how Devon fits into the Michigan scheme:
“To be perfectly honest, I think he fits better in their scheme than he fits in ours. We ask him to do a lot. Michigan will free him up to just go out and hunt quarterbacks. That’s what he likes to do. We ask him to be an outside linebacker, safety and defensive tackle. He has to do all kinds of stuff with us. He can just play football at Michigan. The fact that he’ll be freed up to go be a monster is the most exciting thing to me. For once, he’ll be on one side of the ball. What people don’t realize is Devon runs 100 nine routes a game, and then he has to turn around and play every snap on defense. That’s hard. I’m excited to see him go some place where his skillset fits.

Curtis called his nephew "very versatile," and Dohn did mention Baxter "possesses the athleticism to drop into coverage" but that can describe any Braiden McGregor.

Football junkie. You get the "student of the game" appellation from lots of coaches about their D-I guys—they're especially prevalent if you read Notre Dame scouting reports—but Baxter's might be the most believable. He learned to be a full-time WR/TE *and* DE/DT/safety/linebacker late in high school after growing up playing quarterback, following the NFL, and studying the greats. Holland likes to tell the story of the time Baxter was sent from film by the Michigan coaches, and Baxter sent back notes.

He also impressed the Michigan staff back in April when he sat down and watched the U-M spring game on TV. He took notes and broke down what he liked about the Michigan pass rushers, what he didn’t like and how he could fit in. I think the staff was sold from that moment. Baxter, while very quiet, is also a great kid and culture fit.

He didn't do it to impress, but to prepare.

“I’m watching what they do against certain fronts, so I can learn when I go in there,” Baxter said. “I want to be familiar with what they do from me seeing it. I’m taking notes on what they are doing and how they are reacting when there are shifts and motions. I just want to be mentally prepared for when I get up there.”

There's more. When asked about his December visit to Michigan, Baxter's most vivid memory was talking to the players about their plan to stop Jalen Milroe in the Rose Bowl. Hughes credited his player with a Devin Bush-like need/ability to assimilate knowledge.

He’s one of those types of guys that, once he sees something, he’s going to learn it and come back and do it. He is a very fast learner and very smart kid in the classroom as well. … first person in the weight room and pretty much the last person to leave the weight room.

By the way that quarterback background (see throw) might also come in hand in a Michael Barrett upback special teams role.

“We just had a 7-on-7 and he was tossing touchdowns all over the place,” Hughes said. “We don’t want to use him at QB, but he’s got the size and that range. He is good any place that we put him. He’s one of those guys where, ‘Coach, anywhere you want me to play, I’ll do it.’ He is one of those team players.”

One of those Michigan culture players you mean. I mean, I didn't do the Corum writeup but I did the Mason Graham one, and if there's a player in this class who matches that Ted Lasso/just-played-ironman-football-and-could-go-another-four-quarters-right-now vibe that Harbaugh inculcated after 2019, it's Baxter. At a time when parents of 4-stars spend their retirements on camps and unofficial visits, and move their families all over the country to make their kids look like marginally better football prospects, here's a kid playing for his pop in the worst league in the DMV to show off pass-rushing skills. And played this hurt at the tail end of a bitter season.

he was essentially playing with one arm. The LAT injury had an affect on the entire right side of his upper body and limited his ability to play the run as well as properly utilize his length when pass rushing.

He’s a two-year captain. His favorite subject is the one he sucks at. He made his coach cry.

He means a lot to the program. He’s been here since Day 1. His brother played for me and went to the state championship. Devon has been watching what we do, how we do it and why we do it. Devon knows exactly what we stand for. … He has a really high grade point average. … He just has more intensity in the weight room and the classroom. He’s a captain. He knows he has to do more than everybody else because others are watching him.

Holland's with me on this: "You couldn’t meet a better culture fit." Dad even had a message for all of you.

I want to tell the people at Michigan that you are going to get a kid that is going to come in and work hard. He is going to give you 110 percent. He’s almost allergic to failure. He refuses to fail. The more you tell him he can’t, the more he’s going to show you he can. Michigan fans, buckle up because you have something coming.

And just in case "allergic to failure" didn't get all your Hars in a baugh, yes, there is a workout video.

One for the Harbaugh quote board. From Coach Danny Hayes's lips to the gods' ears:

I always tell him "if you think education is expensive, just wait to you find out what ignorance costs."

It costs 50 cent, coach.

Etc. More Roney is a recruiter talk to remember for the next defensive staff opening.OMG Shirtless. Dad "stole the hell" out of Minter's favorite End/Tackle stunt, which I will now embed because I know you're curious about stunts and for no other reason.

Why Taco Charlton?

This was the comp that Touch the Banner made, and a tight fit. Taco was ranked higher and was 255 pounds, but was also a raw high school DE/OLB/TE/basketball player (on the same team as Caris LeVert and Jae'Sean Tate), with a 6'6" frame and some ludicrous athletic feats that shot him almost to the 247 top-100 after his junior season. Charlton burned his redshirt on special teams then made his way into the rotation as an either-side DE backup in 2014. He broke into the starting lineup in 2015, ultimately forcing DJ Durkin to abandon his hybrid OLB "Buck" position to keep Taco on the field, as a prelude to an All-Big Ten 2016.

Like Taco, Baxter is a football-obsessive, lengthy, high-motor, late-to-find-his-niche team dude. Like Taco, Baxter is going to need a couple of years to get his feet under him, and another to realize his potential. As for the weight difference, Taco had to "reshape" his body earlier in his career, suggesting Baxter had the same frame and just got a two-year head start on his reconstruction. Other than that the height, the length, the will, the speed, the athleticism, the guacamole: it's all on the table.

[ ] We have the ingredients to make Tacos.

Guru Reliability: Low. No camps, few visits. Big split between the sites, though if two of them are going to see a top-250 player and two a top-500 guy, I'd rather it be 247/On3 the two most bullish. Most of the scouting is from one site's local affiliate reporter who kept flying to D.C. to get stuff from Baxter's coach, dad, and uncle. Rivals and ESPN rated him once and forgot him.

Variance: High. Baxter is probably going to be a useful player no matter what simply because of his size, but the upside makes the variance wide. Baxter could be a poor man's Gholston… or he could be Julius Peppers, another 6'6"-ish weakside end.

Did you just copy and paste that from Taco Charlton's 2013 profile? Yep.

Ceiling: Vast. A 6'6" athlete who can get up to 270 or 280 and still play edge is a lock to end up on Bruce Feldman's Freaks list, and is destined for the top end of the NFL draft. Bonus ceiling points if he also has that Graham/Corum football obsessive trait.

Flight Risk Level: Low-ish. As with the rest of the defensive guys, the coaches who recruited Baxter are all gone, in this case Jesse Minter, Mike Elston, Ben Herbert and most of all Dylan Roney. On the other hand, what really got Baxter to commit was being on a visit with a bunch of OL already in the class who are probably our biggest locks to stick it out. He also said he most looked forward to practicing against those guys:

They had that great offensive line in the class, several offensive line commits I think. Why not? Why not go to a school where you'll be competing against the best in practice every day? Only way to get better."

Add a “Not concerned at all,” dismissal when Gorney went on his "Hey do you wanna decommit because of sign-stealing?" tour, and this exchange that Baxter had with his dad before committing:

He laid out everything. I told him to do the cons, and he wrote down distance. I told him to keep going, and he couldn’t write down anything else. I was like ‘do we still need to keep having this conversation?’ He looked at me and said ‘no.’

…and the scene that immediately followed.

"I stepped outside; I was yelling 'Go Blue' for a good five minutes outside the house. All my neighbors came outside, they were confused, I had to let them know what was going on.”

I once spent 2:53 AM to 2:56 AM yelling "The Tigers win the pennant!" across the 3rd and 10th arrondissem*nts of Paris, so I can confirm that five minutes of that is a lot.

General Excitement Level: High-plus. Baseline: 5. +1 for frame like Taco, +1 for athleticism like Taco, +1 for the kind of guy whose favorite subject is that which presents the greatest opportunity for self-improvement, –1 for he's got a LOT of development to go, –1 for and he needs to gain a lot of weight, +1 for that's because he was playing both ways, +1 for Mason Graham vibes, +1 for hitting most of our minor positive tea leaves, like the culture fit, football family, the two sites paying more attention liked him most, and whatever kept drawing EJ Holland to visit.

Projection: Redshirt, obviously, especially since he couldn't enroll early. That means Baxter's going to need at least a year to be playable, and two to start really competing with [gestures at the last few weeks of profiles] all that for snaps at edge.

Picking an edge for modern Michigan isn't that important, but it's interesting to me so let's do it: Taco Charlton in his day was the "open" DE for late Mattison's 4-3 over, a "Buck" end for DJ Durkin's 4-3, and then an "End" for Don Brown's 4-2-5, all terms for the systems' WDE variants. But I think even Taco would make a better Heavy for Michigan's modern system. David Ojabo showed a Baxter can certainly thrive from the weakside, but remember Ojabo still came off the field for Harrell against 12 and higher personnel. Also remember how much we could have used Ojabo in 2022. And Ojabo could have played Heavy when Harrell came on as OLB; it's just that Hutchinson never had to come off the field, and Mike Morris was itching to get on it. If Baxter can indeed get to that 275/280 range and keep his athleticism he should do that, because that's a star.

I think they'll start Baxter at weakside, but really he'll be an "Edge" who competes for roles on both sides. You also won't hear much from him for a time, then like Mike Morris suddenly he'll be getting spring chatter, snaps that others were planning on, and talk of captaincy and trust once the starter ahead of him clears off.