Louisville Football is on the mother of all hot streaks recently in recruiting. After four commitments in two days last week, today they pick up a WR they have been coveting in 3 Star Demetrius Cannon.
my new home ❤️ #committed #GoCards #FlyVille21 pic.twitter.com/cDoDX4qyv2
— 𝘿𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙪𝙨 𝘾𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙣② (@Ys_Meechie2x) June 22, 2020
Standing 6’3 and weighing in at 205 lbs, Cannon has been a sought after receiver. He had offers from Penn State, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri, Minnesota, and Tennessee, among others. 247sports has him ranked as the 508th best player overall in the nation and the 82nd best WR in their composite rankings. Wide Receivers Coach Gunter Brewer has been the lead in Cannon’s recruitment for UofL. Cannon plays for Trinity Catholic High School in St. Louis, MO.
Our recruiting guys, Shawn and Sam, watched his highlights and broke down what they saw.
Shawn’s Breakdown
Demetrius Cannon is a big, athletic WR that a QB should love. In the red zone, he can be an unbelievable weapon due to his size and athletic ability. Cannon isn’t afraid to go over the middle to make catches either. He’s actually fearless in that regard. While not a speed demon, he has more than enough speed to get behind the secondary for big plays or get some yards on little hitch routes. Cannon runs good routes and gets great release. He possesses lateral agility and quickness for his size, allowing him to make defenders miss tackles and get extra YAC. One thing this staff values is WRs blocking and Cannon shows himself to be a very capable blocker. His hand-eye coordination is excellent, meaning he’s very good at tracking the ball in flight and adjusting to make catches. Cannon is adept at high pointing the football and has strong hands to reel in those jump balls. Those strong hands and long arms also mean he has a pretty insane catch radius.
The first thing that stands out about Cannon is his ability to go up and get the ball. He’s incredible at winning one-on-one battles for jump balls, especially in the end zone. It’s so reminiscent of Devante Parker. His long arms and strong hands allow him to come down with the football even when he’s well covered. Cannon’s ability to high point makes him nearly impossible to guard one-on-one.
Cannon is very good at catching the ball with his hands, not his body. This is so important because catching with your body can lead to drops. This also allows him to maximize the use of those long arms and gives him him an incredible catch radius. He can go way up and over defenders (as discussed above), can catch the ball way out in front of him either on crossing routes or on go routes, and can catch the ball if it happens to be a tad behind. That’s a security blanket any QB would love.
The hand-eye coordination Cannon possesses is excellent. It shows up when he’s tracking the ball in the air. His eyes immediately lock on to the football in flight and he’s able to adjust his body and/or hands to reel in a catch. That ability to adjust to the thrown ball is a skill not all receivers possess, but Cannon does. On deep, over-the-shoulder catches, like the ones he will likely have ample opportunity to catch here, his elite hand-eye coordination comes in handy.
While not a burner, Cannon has plenty of speed to blow by DBs and get behind them. He will be a big-time deep threat and could get faster once he adds more muscle to his frame. What’s shocking to me, for a receiver his size, is his fleet feet. Cannon’s lateral quickness and agility is quite something. He has some nice cuts and jukes to make would-be tacklers in the open field miss and gain yards after the catch.
His route running is good. His high school utilizes a lot of simple fades in the red zone, go routes around midfield, and some little hitch and button hook type routes as well. What I really like seeing is the release Cannon is able to get at the line of scrimmage. This is another place that surprising lateral quickness shows up. Cannon just doesn’t get jammed often and even when DBs are playing off him to be able to stay with him deep, he still manages to get by them quite a bit with little resistance.
The trait I think the staff loves and that I love about Cannon is just his physicality. He’s not afraid of contact at all. He’ll go over the middle and reel in a ball thrown high, knowing it could result in him taking a big hit. When CBs try to get physical with him either at the line of scrimmage or in the end zone while the ball is in flight, he seems to shrug it off with ease to make the catch. However, it especially shows up in his blocking. As everyone knows, Coach Scott Satterfield’s offense is predicated on running the ball first. He likes to attack the edges. With that as his cornerstone, the offense requires WRs willing to block and open that edge. Cannon fits that description. He’s a very good blocker, able to engage a block and push the defender back or to the sideline.
Demetrius Cannon is a special talent that, when he gets here and starts to learn under Gunter Brewer and Scott Satterfield, could grow into a high level playmaker at the WR position.
Sam’s Breakdown
Finally, an offensive player and man what a player. 6’3 205lbs wide receiver Demetrius Cannon from Saint Louis Missouri chose Louisville.
In Louisville’s system, Demetrius projects to be an outside wideout. At 6’3, Cannon is not the fastest, but his straight line speed and long strides make it really difficult to catch once he gets to top speed. More often than not it takes multiple defenders to bring Cannon down. Right now Cannon is pretty good at running the 4 & 9 (curl and fly) routes in high school. Once he gets to Louisville and is taught how to use his body properly, I expect the staff to expand on his route tree and then you’ll see a more diverse player.
Demetrius Cannon’s strength is also on display during running plays. He is a really impressive run blocker. We’ve all seen how important it is for the wide receivers to block in Louisville’s offense. So many times last year when you saw Cunningham, Conley, Hall, and Hawkins break long runs, you’d also see the wide receivers blocking down the field. Run blocking usually isn’t a trait that you’d tag to a high school wide receiver, but that’s not the case with Cannon. All the great wide receivers run block as well as catch passes, Cannon does them both. He’s not your typical diva wideout and he’s not afraid to stick his nose in the action to help break the running back free. He’ll fit perfectly in Louisville’s system and locker room.
Demetrius is a pretty good route runner. He has a really good release off the line of scrimmage. Cannon gets in and out of his breaks so smoothly, most times defenders are still standing there stuck like their in quicksand. Cannon is a very good playmaker, but he needs to work on being more consistent with keeping the ball in his outside hand while around defenders.
Cannon has really great size for a wide receiver. Cannon has really long arms. Combining his long arms, strong hands, and leaping ability increases his catch radius. With such an impressive leaping ability and catch radius, it makes Demetrius a very dangerous red zone threat. CardNation you will love how this young man high points the football. He uses his strong hands to pluck the ball out the air and secure it next to his body. It’s very impressive how this young man can go up and high point the football in traffic and come down with the football.
Demetrius Cannon is a big play threat on the outside. Knowing that Coach Satterfield likes to go over the top and throw bombs when defenses sell out against the run, Cannon is the kind of receiver that can take the top off. In the red zone, he’s always a threat because, even when covered, he’s got the size, strength, and athleticism to still make catches. Cannon is a physical WR that will definitely help out blocking in the run game. It’s a trait the staff requires of WRs in their system. Cannon is very reminiscent of Cardinal Forever Devante Parker. I suspect once Cards fans watch him play, they’ll get that vibe too. Cannon could grow into a top flight ACC receiver, possibly becoming one of the best in the nation. It’s just a matter of him putting in the work to reach his potential. I think he will do so.
With Demetrius Cannon’s commitment, Louisville now has 17 commits in the 2021 class. 247sports still has the class ranked 18th nationally and 4th in the ACC. There’s likely another commit coming this week. Just stay tuned.
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