Russell was one of the defenders in his region last season so that automatically grabs the attention of evaluators all around the state. He flows to the football naturally, showing great top-end acceleration for an inside defender. Russell has a strong lower frame and is the type of athlete who should be over 270 at the college level. He’s explosive off the line, showing great flexibility and body control. That allows Russell to either control or blow by blockers and easily get the ball carrier down. He compiled 21 tackles for a loss last fall. A lot of those came from pure hustle and chasing down the QB, but the resounding theme is that the Baldwin defender is hard to block. Russell is way more physical than you would expect for his size. He gets pretty good leverage while getting off blocks, so he either has long arms or just plays with good leverage. Maybe both. Either way, he rips through his blocks showing a pretty good swim move that he should continue to hone because that is a weapon with how violent he comes off. Russell recently reported a 29-inch vertical jump and a 4.7 shuttle time. He’s explosive and changes direction well, now how he gains weight and how he adapts to those changes are a bigger question, you cannot argue against his general athleticism. It seems like Russell could wow coaches live at camps this summer or during the evaluation period in April/May.



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