Syracuse Recruit Review: Justin Lamson
The 2020 season is Tommy DeVito’s redshirt-junior season, but the NCAA isn’t counting eligibility. DeVito has at least two more seasons available to him after this season. With backup quarterback Rex Culpepper on the way out either via transfer or graduation in 2021, SU has a lot of unknowns at quarterback. There’s redshirt-freshman David Summers and two true freshmen in Dillon Markiewicz and Jacobian Morgan. Do any of those names excite you? Well 2021 QB commit Justin Lamson should and you better learn his name because he’s Syracuse’s signal-caller of the future.
Film Breakdown
After watching Lamson’s Junior season highlight film, here are the takeaways:
He puts a nice touch on his throws, especially in the downfield passing game. He consistently is dropping it right in the breadbasket for his receivers to make easy catches.
He has incredible pocket awareness and shows his dual threat capabilities by avoiding pressure and getting outside the pocket. This mobility compliments his vision as well. He keeps his head downfield and consistently finds receivers and makes something out of nothing.
Additionally, he is everything as advertised as a running quarterback. When he takes off he has every intention of getting to the end zone. When he sees a hole open up he won’t sit on and go through his progressions, he will immediately think run.
¬† As a runner he’s hard to bring down at 6-foot-3, 210 lbs. that will be the case. Keep in mind he played safety and was an all-state caliber player at that position too so his physicality can‚Äôt be questioned.¬†¬†
Player Comparison– Eric Dungey (and maybe some Johnny Manziel)
This one seems like a no-brainer, Lamson’s film and some other tidbits are comparable to Dungey. First, they both come from the West Coast, Dungey from Oregon and Lamson from California. Second, they share the same skill sets coming into college. Dungey was also a dual-threat QB prospect and lived up to it at SU. Lamson may have higher upside in the run game though. His film shows him running zone read concepts and the playmaking ability within the pocket, which brings us to a more far-fetched comparison, Johnny Manziel.
If you’re ever looking for an enjoyable five minutes, look up Manziel‚Äôs college highlights. From an analytical standpoint, some of the plays Lamson made in his film have to give off flashbacks of Manziel. This play in particular feels like deja-vu of Johnny Football¬†¬†
Lamson has great upside and a major part of Babers’ pitch was the offensive scheme he would be running. He can work in the run-pass option game and make the throws at all three levels. The rising senior has all the tools to be successful at SU and looks to be the quarterback of the future at Syracuse.
