Tennessee football: Four-star local 2020 DE Tyler Baron commits to Vols

With a red-hot start to the early signing period, Tennessee football got a huge in-state pickup. Knoxville, Tenn. prospect Tyler Baron chose the Volunteers.

On Wednesday morning, Tennessee football kicked off the early signing period with commitments from two athletes, one of whom flipped from the TCU Horned Frogs. Then they secured a pickup at a position with great need, strongside defensive end.

Following those three pickups, they scored their best pickup of the day, another strongside defensive end, that afternoon. Local product Tyler Baron, as expected, announced his commitment to Rocky Top.

Baron, out of Knoxville Catholic High School in Knoxville, Tenn., was UT’s 22nd commitment, their fourth defensive lineman and their second defensive end of the class, both of whom committed that day. After making public his commitment to Tennessee football, he confirmed it on Twitter with a video.

A four-star on Rivals, Baron was always a crucial player for Jeremy Pruitt to target. He is the No. 108 ranked player nationally, the No. 6 ranked player at his position and the No. 4 ranked player within the state of Tennessee.

Fellow UT commit Cooper Mays, a four-star offensive lineman, is teammates with Baron. They are the only two commitments out of Knoxville so far in UT’s 2020 class. Baron is the 11th in-state commitment, 12th four-star commitment the and seventh four-star in-state commitment.

By joining Reginald Perry, who committed early, he helps fill a glaring need for the Vols. Pruitt has been trying to up his depth among edge rushers and defensive ends ever since he arrived on Rocky Top, and Baron and Perry help with that.

At 6’4″ 250 pounds, Baron could immediately step in to become a major pass-rusher for UT. Expectations are for him to play the role of Darrell Taylor in the future, which is indeed a tall task. Here is a look at his highlight reel.

As you can see, Baron is incredible at getting a push on the outside, and he can go inside or around the edge to stop the run. Being able to line up on or off the line of scrimmage and having an understanding of how to get around blockers is another major plus.

He could probably prove that he has a little more speed, similar to Perry, but positioning, leverage and power can all overcome that. Baron has it all, and the need at edge rusher puts him in perfect position to thrive with Tennessee football in the future.