Kyle Richardson has thrown Clemson into the mix for one of the best tight ends in the country.
Dabo Swinney‘s camp, particularly when evaluating the tight ends, had a new player on the 2025 roster overshadowing the prospects on campus competing for an offer.
Ian Schieffelin certainly crossed paths with two of the new players who have entered the mix.
In this edition, the focus will shine a light on Jaxon Dollar of Denver (NC) East Lincoln, who recently picked up an offer from Clemson in June. Dollar is considered one of the top players at his position and is a consensus top-100 player in the 2027 class.
His list of offers already includes top schools such as Notre Dame, Clemson, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and several others. It is easy to see what makes Dollar such a special player, and this is just watching him in street clothes in the heat.
Being a two-sport athlete, and pretty great at both football and basketball, it is incredibly evident that there are athletic gifts you just can’t teach.
Dollar can go out wide on the weak side of a formation and identify a matchup he’s able to win. His route running doesn’t appear to be as polished as it could be, but he makes up for that with a catch radius unlike most.
His instincts are incredibly sharp, allowing him to improvise off a route and bail his quarterback out of trouble when the moment calls for it. In Dollar’s case, it doesn’t likely hurt that his vertical leap towers over defenders, giving any passer a wide radius of where to put the ball for him to get up and come down with the catch.
On many plays for East Lincoln, the instruction is very simple: Toss it up for Dollar, and he’s coming down with it. Dollar is not some one-trick pony who simply runs fades to the outside and catches jump balls every Friday night. He is a diverse route tree, finding himself taking punishment over the middle of the field, or crisply cutting in between defenders to find the open spot within the zone.
The most impressive aspect of his game may be the improvisation we touched on earlier, particularly his on-field reads of any given defensive back hoping to stick with him. Dollar’s ability to slip in and out of certain spots, almost finding himself isolated for an easy throw and catch in certain instances.
Not only is Dollar an imposing force on offense, but he also plays on both sides of the ball, causing just as much chaos as a defender. It wouldn’t be entirely shocking if he were receiving offers to play as a pass rusher.
Dollar will also line up in coverage as a linebacker, being a true Swiss army knife on any given drive.
Clemson has certainly identified a top talent, and the competition will be incredibly tight to land such a coveted prospect as the 2027 cycle rages on.