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Johnathan "12-Gauge" Lewis: Comparing the future Rutgers QB with Cardale Jones

By Griffin Whitmer
Twitter: @Kinglew_

During their coverage of the Elite 11 Finals, Bleacher Report did a small feature of Rutgers QB commit Johnathan Lewis.

B/R Analyst Michael Felder noted that Chris Ash would be getting his "own 12-gauge" in Lewis. Although Lewis has set to take a snap as a high school senior, his skill set clearly shows consistencies with that of Cardale Jones.

The actual 12-gauge

There is no denying that Lewis has an absolute cannon. He has one of the strongest arms in the country and was barely beaten out by 4-star Alabama commit Tua Tagovailoa for the strongest arm award at the Elite 11 Finals. Lewis is listed at 6-4 and 225 pounds. That size contributes a lot to his huge arm but also helps him utilize his arm strength better on the run. He also flashes the ability to make any throw on the field.

Size

As you can probably guess, each recruiting site has Lewis listed at a different height and weight. For the purpose of this article, we'll call hime 6-4 225. Jones is 6-5 250, so Lewis still has a little bit to do to catch up, but also has 5 years to catch up. Additionally, Lewis is the perfect size for a QB while Jones is just ridiculously big.

Sneaky Speed

Neither Lewis nor Jones will blow you away with their straight-line speed, but they are both incredibly effective on their feet. Lewis runs the power-spread at St. Peters Prep, an offense that gives him many opportunities to run. He is big but athletic and is hard to bring down. Jones displayed a power-running style en route to leading Ohio State to a National Championship during the 2014 season. He wore down the Alabama defense and scored a big rushing TD against Oregon in the championship game.

The big difference

The biggest difference between these two is playing time. Cardale had to wait until the B1G Championship game his RS-So year to play and got 3 games. He then spent his RS-Jr year splitting time with JT Barrett before declaring for the draft. Lewis will have the chance to earn the keys to the offense as a freshman. Whoever is named the starter for Rutgers this year will have 2 years left so if all goes as planned, Lewis will battle out incoming true freshman Tylin Oden for the starting job in 2018.