Which city boasts the best HS football talent? Here's the final four
A longstanding debate in the recruiting world has been which metro area produces the best football players. So now in conjunction with millions of other brackets, ours has reached the final four metro areas: Miami, Dallas, New Orleans and Atlanta.
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Our national recruiting analysts picked the top 16 metro areas for high school football talent and seeded them 1-16, with No. 1 Tampa being their collective pick as the best. Our analyst group focused solely on the talent churned out so far in the 2020s.
And we will let the fans take it from there. So far, there has been two rounds of voting to whittle the 16 cities down to a final four.
Vote now in the semifinals and help decide the metro area that produces the best football talent.
PREVIOUS RESULTS
FIRST-ROUND RESULTS
No. 1 Tampa/St. Pete defeated No. 16 Philadelphia
No. 2 Atlanta defeated No. 15 Charlotte
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No. 3 Dallas/Fort Worth defeated No. 14 Chicago
No. 4 Los Angeles defeated No. 13 Las Vegas
No. 5 Miami/South Florida defeated No. 12 St. Louis
No. 7 Detroit defeated No. 10 DMV
No. 8 New Orleans/South Louisiana defeated No. 9 Houston
No. 11 Birmingham/Montgomery defeated No. 6. South Georgia
QUARTERFINAL RESULTS
No. 8 New Orleans/South Louisiana defeated No. 1 Tampa/St. Pete
No. 2 Atlanta defeated No. 7 Detroit
No. 3 Dallas/Fort Worth defeated No. 11 Birmingham/Montgomery
No. 5 Miami/South Florida defeated No. 4 Los Angeles
No. 2. Atlanta vs. No. 3 Dallas/Fort Worth
The Case For Atlanta: The Greater Metro Atlanta Area has No. 1 written all over it. The Peach State is rich with talent year in and year out, and in the past half-decade has churned out some of the top recruits and top players in college football each Saturday. It's draft season -- so the conversation starts with former Rivals No. 1 overall player Travis Hunter.
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The reigning Heisman Trophy winner is expected to come off the board early -- just like former five-star DE Myles Murphy (Cincinnati Bengals) and five-star OT Broderick Jones (Pittsburgh Steelers) did not too long ago. Brian Branch is another Atlanta area standout making noise on Sundays in Detroit. Like Hunter, former top-100 SAF Malaki Starks is a projected first-rounder. Former five-star LB Barrett Carter is expected to hear their name called later this spring in Green Bay.
Former five-star Caleb Downs is arguably the top safety in college football coming off a title run with the Buckeyes. His brother Josh is an emerging receiver with the Colts. Other five-stars from the ATL we anticipate continuing to make noise in college football this upcoming season include DL Edrick Houston (Ohio State), SAF KJ Bolden (Georgia), WR Mike Matthews (Tennessee), and QB Julian Lewis (Colorado). Other notable recruits from the area include RB Justice Haynes (Michigan) and LT Overton (Alabama).
– Sam Spiegelman
The Case For DFW: Everything is bigger in Texas -- especially the football talent. The Dallas Metroplex, in particular, has yielded a heavy volume of blue-chippers over the years -- several of which are making waves on Saturdays and on Sundays already. Former five-star WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba is one of the best young receivers that the Seattle Seahawks are building their passing game around.
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After a historic senior season, Marvin Mims finished inside the Rivals250 -- and provides juice for the Denver Broncos' offense. Former four-star CB Christian Gonzalez is one of the best young corners in New England out of The Colony (Texas). As they set the pace in the league, there's a wave about to follow.
Quinn Ewers (Texas) and Shedeur Sanders (Colorado) are both projected early draft picks. Some of college football's best are also from DFW. Former five-star EDGE Colin Simmons was named the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year with Texas. His teammate -- former five-star Anthony Hill Jr. -- is one of the most imposing linebackers in the nation.
Former five-star Peyton Bowen is one of the top safeties in the country heading Brent Venables' defense in Norman. Evan Stewart, another former five-star, has been dynamic at Texas A&M and also Oregon. Heisman Trophy hopeful Garrett Nussmeier is also from the area.
– Sam Spiegelman
No. 5 Miami/South Florida vs. No. 8 New Orleans/South Louisiana
The Case For South Florida: When it comes to the perception, the numbers and certainly the names, South Florida continues to hold onto its reputation as one of America's truly fertile football hotbeds. Narrowing the production window to the first half of this decade proves more of the same, whether leaning on the names stationed on Saturday's like Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith or those about to enter at the highest level like fellow former five-star and one-time prep teammate of Smith in first round projection Shemar Stewart.
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Dipping into the Rivals rankings, five-stars flood in from the region, including an even one dozen since the class of 2020 wrapped up. The blue-chip depth thereafter remains just as staggering, with 79 additional recruits ranked within the Rivals250 hailing from Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties combined. The volume is just as impressive relative to the NFL Draft, too, as more than 50 South Floridians have been drafted since the decade began, including nine in Round 1.
Some of the names near the top of the list have made sense all the way through the process like Smith's certainly will. Dallas Turner was a five-star who worked his way into the first round and he put together a great rookie campaign in the league thereafter. Fellow five-stars from that 2021 cycle included James Williams, Terrence Lewis and Corey Collier, however. Of the trio only Williams, drafted in the seventh round in 2024, heard his name called on the big stage.
So for every Patrick Surtain II, fresh off of a Defensive Player of the Year campaign with the Denver Broncos, there are also some big-name busts relative to ranking dotting the line in SoFlo.
– John Garcia Jr.
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The Case For South Louisiana: No state churns out more NFL talent per capita than Louisiana -- and South Louisiana produces a massive amount of talent that is taking over the league and also college football.
Both former first-round picks Brian Thomas Jr. and Malik Nabers exploded onto the scene in Year 1 as rookies. Thomas, out of Walker, La., was a Rivals250 WR who since surfaced as one of the NFL's best young perimeter receivers in Jacksonville. Nabers, who was sidelined as a senior due to state transfer rules, set multiple records while at LSU before breaking the mark for receptions by a rookie last season with the New York Giants. Former No. 2 overall player Maason Smith in 2021 was a second-round pick of the Jags and is quickly becoming one of the NFL's most formidable young DL.
There is expected to be another wave of South Louisiana talent to come off the board during the NFL Draft. Among them -- former Rivals250 OL Emery Jones (LSU) and former four-star WR Jack Bech (TCU). Some of college football's best are from The Boot. That includes former No. 1 overall recruit Arch Manning, who will orchestrate the Texas offense full-time this season. His teammate -- Derek Williams -- is one of the best young SAF expected to step into a bigger role this fall in Austin.
Former Rivals five-star WR Aaron Anderson came on strong in his second season at LSU and should be a part of a high-octane offense in Baton Rouge this fall. So should Chris Hilton, a top-100 recruit in 2021. Former five-star DL Dominick McKinley closed his freshman season out with a bang -- and is part of what should be a formidable front in the Bayou this upcoming season.
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Former five-star Harlem Berry is expected to be an impact freshman this season with the Tigers. Former five-star DE Jahkeem Stewart is also a candidate to be an immediate contributor at USC.
– Sam Spiegelman
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And it had only won the National League West three times since the turn of the century, seemingly miles away from ending what was already by then a decades-long World Series drought. Advertisement But then came Guggenheim — making huge infusions of cash, followed by a sudden return to contention. Since 2013, the Dodgers have exceeded MLB's luxury tax threshold (the closest thing baseball has to a soft salary cap) eight times and topped the league in spending seven times. They've splurged repeatedly on star talent, from lucrative extensions for Clayton Kershaw, Andre Ethier and Kenley Jansen; to blockbuster acquisitions of Adrián González, Hanley Ramírez and Zack Greinke; to the more recently transformative arrivals of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani. And in that span, they've never once missed the playoffs, won their division 11 of the past 12 seasons, and reached the World Series on four occasions — finally breaking through with championships in 2020 and 2024. 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'The commitment from our ownership group from the minute I got here has been incredible,' president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said this offseason. 'It has always been, 'Hey let's push. Let's go. Lets' get better.'' Business is booming Shohei Ohtani, center, gestures to teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto, left, as Roki Sasaki, right, looks on during a press conference in Japan in March. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) For all the money the Dodgers have spent, they've had little problem super-charging revenue streams at the same time. Shortly after Walter's Guggenheim group bought the team, it struck a ground-breaking 25-year, $8.35 billion television deal with Time Warner Cable, leading to the creation of a Dodgers-exclusive SportsNet LA cable channel (albeit, one that many fans could not access through their television providers until the 2020 season). 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Stability in leadership When Walter's Guggenheim group first came into the picture, the Dodgers didn't make sweeping personnel moves right away. Advertisement Stan Kasten was inserted as team president, but pre-exisitng general manager Ned Colleti and manager Don Mattingly maintained their posts all the way through the 2014 season. Changes did eventually come in the front office and the dugout. Friedman, then seen as the most promising young executive in the sport, was hired ahead of the 2015 campaign. Roberts replaced Mattingly a year later. But ever since then, leadership in the organization has remained largely the same. Rather than rock the boat in times of trouble, Walter has practiced patience when it comes to personnel decisions. Roberts' 10-year managerial tenure has best epitomized that preference for stability. At multiple junctures, factions of the fan base have called for his firing — such as after the Dodgers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 2019, or won just one postseason series in the three years after their 2020 title. Advertisement But the Dodgers stuck the course with Roberts, who was then hugely influential in guiding the team to last year's unlikely run to a championship, navigating his way around a rash of pitching injuries. Now, Roberts is the highest-paid manager in baseball in annual salary, and will be under contract for four more seasons after this year. A hands-off approach Other than the money his Guggenheim group has spent, the defining trait of Walter's ownership of the Dodgers might actually be the hands-off style with which he has run the team. Walter is typically seen in-person around the club on only a handful of occasions over the course of the regular season. He delegates much of the organization's day-to-day operations — on the business and baseball fronts — to Kasten, Friedman and their respective lieutenants, including chief marketing officer Lon Rosen and general manager Brandon Gomes. Advertisement Roberts framed that approach as a positive on Wednesday. Read more: Plaschke: Lakers had a great ride with Buss family, but Dodgers owner will give team new life 'I think a good owner in my eyes is a person that lets the people that he hires do their jobs,' Roberts said. '[Walter] does a great job of letting Stan and Andrew and Gomer, all those guys, Lon, do their jobs, right? But also kind of holding us all accountable and also providing resources when we need it.' Under that system, however, the Dodgers have nonetheless run into occasional controversies — from the signing and suspension of Trevor Bauer in 2021, to the decision to rescind, then reinstate, a Pride Night community award to a trans-rights group amid public backlash in 2023. Advertisement Even this past week, the Dodgers came under fire for their delayed response to recent immigration raids that have unsettled the city, though the team was expected to announce plans for assistance to immigrant communities on Thursday. In each of those situations, Walter refrained from offering any public comments. And generally, he has been reclusive with the media ever since buying the Dodgers, having rarely been made available to reporters to answer questions about the state of the club. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
