Beyond His Years: Sonny Abramson, Class of 2016 Quarterback

By, Matt Alkire

 

As I begin to write this article I realize the hypocrisy of what I’m about to embark on as my reputation has always been that of a scout brutal on quarterbacks. Hyperbole has never been an issue. In fact, finding a signal caller heavily touted to stand behind has never been something I could do. It’s always been the steely-eyed underdog with great pocket presence or toughness that his team rallies around that I am fond of. So, as I go into interviewing and talking about ninth grader Sonny Abramson I’m discovering new territory – the first pocket jockey I’m all in on.

I first came across film of Abramson in the 6^th grade – that’s right – middle school. My initial thought when his father sent the film to me was what I was supposed to with it. In this day and age where I’ve seen a player like David Sills commit to Southern Cal as a 7^th grader I simply don’t understand hyper-advanced recruiting. Players at that age all look like they should be having sleepovers and trading baseball cards, lanky and uncoordinated, the way 99.9-percent of us were. Sonny was different though. He had an air about him in the pocket and a gun for an arm relative to his age. I kept my ears perked.

The next year I got another clip from Neal Abramson and this one was special. Included in it was Sonny hitting a receiver on a crossing pattern that literally drove him back a few yards and into the ground. It was comedic and at the same time eye-opening. Should I give into the new trend of early scouting? I came to the conclusion that in this case I needed to make an exception. I had worked many youth camps as a volunteer and seen players at his age that played in national all-star games that weren’t near the level I was seeing on film. What was more; his father Neal wasn’t pushing an agenda. He just wanted an opinion on his son, no publicity or fanfare.

 

View Sonny Abramson's Freshman Highlight Film

There were no $25,000 weekends at passing camps for Sonny, no specialized diets (other than some wickedly good energy balls the family makes) and the Abramson family wasn’t looking to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated for Kids. In fact, they wouldn’t even make his highlights public. There was providence in what they were doing and it was for all the right reasons, something you don’t always see in today’s crazy world of recruiting.

Fast forward to this year at Pope John XXIII in Sparta, N.J., and you have what I see now - the best freshman quarterback I have ever seen in my life – on film or in person. You can trust when I say there was some pretty stiff competition before him, especially one in particular who blew me away years ago.

While I love Abramson’s arm, accuracy, mobility and all other physical attributes – it’s his mental attributes that blow me away the most. His pocket presence, poise and football IQ are off the charts. To watch the freshman walk under center, adjust line calls, routes and alter the offense on the fly is the thing of beauty. He gets the ball in his hands and processes information on the field as well as any high school quarterback I’ve ever seen, even at the senior level. Safeties are diving the wrong way, linebackers are tripping over their feet in backpedal and corners are biting on pump fakes like it’s their job. Then you see a beautiful, frozen rope pass.

Sure, he could get quicker in his delivery. He doesn’t use his lower body as much as I’d like on his deep ball and therefore shot puts it a bit, but when a 14-year old can lay in it the basket from 55 yards out I’m good to go. Tweaks can be taught, inherent intelligence and poise cannot. I guess the best way I can express my feelings about those issues is that I’d prefer my Lamborghini in silver, but if you give me a red one I suppose I could live with it.

An FBS-level coach who is taking a break for the season actually spoke with us after watching the young phenom’s film recently. He thought very highly of Abramson.

“If I compare this kid to what we evaluated as a staff last year, he’s already 95-percent above even the seniors from a mental standpoint and that’s the most impressive part. You can see some physical limitations with the kid just turning 14 years old a few months ago, but he has four years. When I look at him on film and see these adjustments on the fly, his ability to break down the secondary and fool them with fakes, site adjustments and just overall natural intuition – that’s a special kid. He needs to get stronger, but that comes naturally. He’s a player that will get offers as a freshman with schools looking to recruit so much earlier. That’s the newest trend. It’s become a basketball atmosphere.”

His high school coach Brian Carlson wasn’t quite as verbose, but the word maturity seems to keep hitting home as he told NJ.com, “His physical talents speak for themselves, his maturity is what jumps out at you and he never gets rattled. His intelligence is off the charts.”

North Jersey has always been rich in football tradition, it has just taken the rest of the country a while to catch up with that. In recent years with the constant coverage of high school recruiting and teams now flying all over the country to play games teams like Don Bosco Prep have gained national notoriety, being named the top program in the nation.

In recent years the area has hit a tipping point. Take the 2009 NFL Draft for instance – 1^st Round picks B.J. Raji, Brian Cushing, Kenny Britt, Eugene Monroe, Knowshon Moreno and Donald Brown were all from the Garden State. So, for a freshman to be starting at quarterback against top competition in North Jersey there would seemingly be a lot of pressure both from inside and outside the friendly walls of Pope John XXIII.

“When I came in I didn’t really feel it and I don’t pay attention to it to be honest,” Abramson said. “My focus is what we need to do to win and frankly, I thrive on that pressure, so I don’t think it would bother me anyway. I was just out there reading defenses and getting my timing down with my receivers to the point where we were in perfect sync, so I didn’t really have any time to worry about any outside noise.”

Abramson’s answers always seem to translate right onto the field, but they’re not robotic or prepared. Honestly, he has a very rare and somewhat odd way about him. Having dealt with over 10,000 young men in an interview situation you can get a good read on small things like voice inflection and smoothness to see if you’re being fed what you want to hear. Sonny just seems to be mature way beyond his years.

From watching his film for years and focusing on his year, I saw him making a lot of adjustments before the snap. He seems extremely cerebral and is just methodical at the line. I wanted to probe his mind and find out what is cycling through his brain when he gets behind center.

“I call the play in the huddle and within the first few seconds I’m doing my protocol which is just seeing how many safeties are high,” Abramson explained. “At that point, I look to see what the corners’ leverage is. At that point I have to see what the numbers game is in terms of our receivers versus theirs on each side of the field. After I’ve picked where we’re strong, I start deciphering what the defense is showing me and determine what set they’ll most likely be in. Then I look inside the box and figure out where the pressure points may be and which linebackers could come. Then I know if I need to keep a tight end in or need to check my back to stay in to block. Also, I can call a hot if I need to and just make sure I’m not taking unnecessary sacks or we’re not taking a loss on any given play.”

Watching him process information after the snap is a thing of beauty. He broke it down for me.

“That’s when I’m really taking in large groups of information very quickly,” Abramson added. “I have to check the linebackers first, then see the corners and finish with the safety on one side. Then it’s back to the middle and over to the opposite side of the field and all of this needs to be done in a split second. What I do is move guys with pump fakes and manipulate the safeties with my eyes to open something up for my receivers. That defense is trying to outsmart me, so I have to do the same thing to make the play work. It comes down to finding a mismatch on every single play.”

I previously mentioned that I’m tough on quarterbacks to a fault. Much of that has to do with spread offenses and the dink and dunk style of offense they have produced. Quarterbacks can now get away with looking good while having mediocre arms and poor field vision. You don’t see them use the seams, make opposite hash passes or get the ball downfield and trust their receivers. Abramson does all of these things well as a freshman.

“I do put a lot of trust in my receivers, especially in one-on-one situations. You have to do that. If I see one of my guys get open and no safeties are over the top I’ll immediately change the call at the line or alter what I’m thinking in the middle of the play and put a good ball up there for them and let them go up and get it. If I don’t and can’t trust my receivers to make plays on deep passes then we’re just not doing our jobs.”

Speaking of the word “our”, Abramson uses “we”, “our” and “team” to a fault. You would expect him to take some credit. Don’t get me wrong, he knows he’s a talented quarterback, but it’s not something he communicates. What he is quick to speak about is how well his supporting cast is.

“My offensive line was great for me this year and gave me a ton of time,” Abramson gloated. “I just have a ton of trust in them and they really put it out there every single week for me and my running back Deshawn Chatelier who is terrific. Also, my receivers Noah Brown, Ryan Izzo, Tom Adams and Austin Bailey made my job a lot easier this year. Those guys were great.”

Moving back to the aforementioned outstanding schools in North Jersey however, we did ask Abramson why he chose Pope John XXIII whose legendary coach Vic Paternostro has just retired. He must have had his pick of the litter and while Brian Carlson’s resume was sparkling having been a head coach at Kean University, it would be his first year at the school.

“When we were looking at schools we were looking at atmosphere, athletics and academics,” Abramson stated. “I wanted to be able to get a great education with people I could relate to and play in a great football program. Coach Carlson was huge part of the process as well. He had just come into the program and wanted to put in the spread and play fast tempo football which is exactly what I was looking for, so that was huge. He’s also just a great person who was very good to talk to and is more of a teacher. We built a great relationship very quickly and I just really appreciate him as a coach.”

Speaking of coaches, Abramson works with two other big names in the business in New York Jets’ Quarterbacks’ Coach Matt Cavanaugh and quarterback specialist Trent Dilfer.

“I’ve been very privileged and thankful to work with Coach Cavanaugh and he’s taught me a lot about footwork,” Abramson offered. “He and I are both very strong believers that everything starts from the feet up because if you don’t have strong footwork nothing is going to happen right in your throwing motion. We’ve worked together for two years now and I travel up to the Jets’ facility to work out with him.”

“Trent Dilfer is another person I’ve been very lucky to work with and he’s the person who really helped me get my release so quick. We really work on my upper body mechanics and the mental part of the game. When it comes to reading defenses I talk to both Coach Cavanaugh and Coach Dilfer and I just really appreciate all the time these guys spend with me.”

As for recruiting, the young signal caller is taking things slower than a lot of young men at his talent level who have already given their verbal commitments to schools. He and his father Neal Abramson simply believe in a different approach.

The family visited Stanford a year ago and met the entire coaching staff, was at Oklahoma to meet Bob Stoops and his staff and spent a day at Rutgers. He told Upper Hand he’ll definitely be going back to Stanford and Oklahoma again in the offseason and is open to seeing other schools.

Academically, it looks like every school in the country will be available to the young man if he continues on set path. He currently carries a 4.26 GPA on a 5.0 scale while taking five honors classes in Geometry, Biology, English, World Cultures and French II as a freshman. He doesn’t yet know what he wants to do for a living, but has a pretty good idea of what he’s looking for in a college and what he’s interested in studying.

“I want to be able to contribute to the university I attend as a student in a special way, not just be an athlete,” Abramson made clear. “Academics are very important to me. I really like Biology and Sports Medicine and just find how the body works fascinating, so I think it would be fun to study. I’m so driven on the field and want to go to a school where the football program gives me an opportunity to be a part of a winning atmosphere and have championship goals, so I want that in the classroom too.”  

After nearly seven years in the business I can say this much, to see a nearly turned 14-year old handle himself at such a high level both on and off the field is truly unique. North Jersey is going to have the pleasure of calling one of their own a major FBS prospect for years to come and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him blossom into one of the nation’s most coveted recruits for the Class of 2016. Of course, he’ll still only be 17 years old the day he hits the field as a college freshman.

The 6-foot-1.5, 190-pounder threw for 2,137 yards and 20 touchdowns this season in 10 games and has been named a Youth All-American for the past two years.