This Sentell’s Intel rep shares a strong scouting report and the latest with 5-star prospect David Sanders Jr. up in North Carolina. He ranks as the nation’s No. 1 OT and the No. 2 overall prospect for 2025 for the 247Sports Composite ratings and The On3 Industry Ranking.
Let’s just start this David Sanders Jr. story off with a scouting recommendation. Feel free to take it like a Zagat or a Michelin rating.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve been around some good prospects. You know? I’ve been around some good prospects. I’ve never seen anything like him.”
“He’s Myles Garrett. Right now. If he doesn’t put on another pound. He’s Myles Garrett. That’s what I’m seeing.”
That’s what former Georgia Bulldog defensive end Robert Geathers had to say about 5-star Georgia football recruiting target David Sanders Jr. at the end of last season.
Georgia paid a visit on Thursday to see Sanders at his high school home in Charlotte. He is as coveted as any one single recruit for UGA in the 2025 class and he just happens to have a former ‘Dawg on his high school coaching staff.
Geathers played 39 games in three seasons for the ‘Dawgs. Then went on to become a fourth-round draft pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. The South Carolina native is part of a family that saw his father, his uncle and two of his brothers all reach the NFL.
Gathers spent 11 seasons of his own in that Sunday league.
The Cincinnati Bengals named him one of the 50 greatest players in their history in 2017. Geathers came to UGA as part of a 2001 class that featured luminaries like Greg Blue, Thomas Davis, Fred Gibson, David Pollack, D.J Shockley and Odell Thurman, among others.
What else did Geathers have to say about David Sanders Jr?
Geathers works with the defensive line and the defensive ends on the Providence Day staff in Charlotte.
When he says things like that, it carries weight. Especially that point about Garrett. Sanders goes both ways for his Chargers at offensive tackle and defensive end.
When Geathers says he could be another Garrett-type talent off the edge in a role that is not even his primary position, that’s something. Those two work against each other at practice. He’ll mimic the fire-breathing DE with an NFL vet’s bag of tricks at speed to school the high school junior.
Amazing. Explosive. Special. Specimen. He uses all those words to convey what he sees with Sanders.
“When I try to compare him, I don’t know if I had a teammate with his twitch and that ability,” Geathers said. “Not at that size and that frame.”
It gets harder and harder to do with Sanders. Not just because of his 6-foot-6 frame and 270 approximate pounds. There’s that plus a 340-plus pound power clean and his broad jump that is approaching 11 feet. Sanders also holds the school record in the shot put. Despite his long arms, he could hit 350 pounds on the bench press.
“He’s long and rangy and that frame and he can bend his knees,” Geathers said. “I’m thinking of guys at the professional level. Myles Garrett. If he gets up to 280 pounds, then Julius Peppers. Just that type of athlete and that type of ability in a big frame like that.”
There is more than even all of that with Sanders.
“It is a combination of all of that with him,” Geathers said. “He’s a football savant. There’s nothing you can throw at him that he doesn’t get or understand. Or gets before you throw at him. He makes adjustments. His understanding of the game of football. For a high school kid, it is impressive.”
There has been a lingering scouting concern about his weight. Georgia wants to see its prized tackles come in at well over 300 pounds. Sanders has been around that 255-to-270-pound range for the last year or so.
That’s why some think he can be an All-American DE in college. Geathers certainly thinks so. But Sanders is set on being an offensive tackle for now. He’s also more than good enough to get that opportunity. Every program in America will dance like Usher in his prime if he says yes to their offer and comes to protect their QB.
“My thing for David is do what you are happy with and what you want to do,” Geathers said. “I think he will be fine with whichever direction he wants to go.”
He’s hard to beat right now. Even at less than the ideal weight. Kirby Smart has already told him in the past that his current build and weight are not much different than future first-round pick Broderick Jones. Especially when Jones was running up and down the basketball court during his junior year at Lithonia High School.
“The only thing right now is try to go through him,” Geathers said. “He’s a little lighter guy. Smaller framed guy. But he’s so athletic right now he can be patient with the fundamentals. He doesn’t have to do anything funky because he’s so twitchy and so athletic.”
Sanders even played through his junior year with a torn labrum in his shoulder. It caused him immense pain and he waited until after the third straight state championship had been won before getting surgery.
“It is bigger than him,” Geathers said. “He plays for his teammates. He’s tough and he just gives you everything he’s got. You can’t ask for anything better than that.”
Check out the rest of Geathers on Sanders in this DawgNation Conversation below.
SENTELL'S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
