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Hokies get on the Virginia Board with Armani Chatman

Virginia Tech adds their first VA recruit with Bishop Sullivan wide receiver Armani Chatman.

By BlueLoneWolf
Photo courtesy Student Sports Flickr

So Virginia Tech finally got into the Virginia game. Their first Commonwealth commitment is Bayside (now Bishop Sullivan) athlete Armani Chatman out of the 757. This minimizes or negates the impact of Bryce Thompson decommitting if he’s playing at wide receiver, or it adds to the growing secondary class. Chatman is mixed bag of ratings: he’s rated quite highly on Rivals, 8th rated athlete and 163rd overall, and the fifth best recruit in Virginia with a 4 star rating. But on the other sites, he’s kind of all over the 3 star rank- 247 as a corner, Scout as a wide receiver, and ESPN as a wide receiver. He’s still a solid addition to the class, and it’s good to have the first in-state guy. Other offers of his included Maryland, Auburn, NC State, UCF, Rutgers, ODU, and West Virginia.

Let’s get a look at his tape, and see what the Hokies are getting.

Armani Chatman (Virginia Beach, VA. 6’-0”, 180lbs. Athlete)

Chatman as a wide receiver is your burner type that gets right by cornerbacks. He’s good on those fly routes and is pretty smooth. He’s got some good ball senses. He’s got agility, sure. I think he needs to work on his ball handling, but he’s more than capable of getting the ball at the high point, and has fairly solid hands. Chatman is also strong enough for his size, especially in terms of catching in traffic. I’d like to see more of his blocking tape, but the agility and smooth athleticism make it definitely worth it as a receiver, and the good hands already with the large catch radius are good icing on the cake.

Defensively, his statistics would say he could hack it as a corner. I like his break on the ball, and his speed and vision in coverage and off the edge. He tracks the ball well, much like he does as a receiver, and that results in turnovers. Corners good at reading the QB can be valuable, but they can be fooled by adept reads and eye motions, but at this level, it’s not as high a concern. Again, my favorite part of his game is his ability to close and his willingness to hit on defense, which can be lacking in some two-way players.

Either way, he’s definitely worth the get and a worthy addition to the class. Congrats, Armani, and welcome to the class of 2018.

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