Picking top 50 area players getting harder

Picking 50 used to be fairly cut and dried. Not in 2022.

The Chronicle’s annual preseason Fab 50 high school football player list started at nearly 100 this season. The difference between 40 and 80 was razor thin. The criteria for making the list is an even combination of production and recruitability. Skill players surely get the edge over linemen because it is easier to scale production.

As expected, the top teams feature the best players, with De La Salle, Serra and Pittsburg each boasting five.

It’s a senior-dominated group and most among the Top 30 (21 of 27) have committed to colleges, a high number.

Athletes (11) and quarterbacks (nine) dominate the list, followed by offensive linemen and running backs (seven each), linebackers and defensive linemen (four each), wide receivers and defensive backs (three each) and tight ends (two).

At the top of the list are two five-star designated players, Menlo-Atherton wide receiver Jurrion Dickey and Pittsburg quarterback Jaden Rashada. Dickey, a high-flying physical athlete, caught 120 passes in three seasons at Valley Christian before transferring 20 miles north this past week.

“His catching radius is humongous,” said MenloAtherton coach Chris Saunders.

Dickey played with Rashada on a 7-on-7 team during the summer. The tall, bigarmed quarterback reminds some of a young Randall Cunningham.

“Head to toe, the mental, the physical, the drive that you want in a quarterback, whatever list you want, he’s going to check every single box,” Pittsburg quarterbacks coach Juan Corral said.

Next 20: QB Nate Bell (Liberty), QB Jake Boyd (Los Gatos), DB Robin Boyd (Pittsburg), LB Brandon Broch (Bellarmine), RB Charles Brown Jr. (Antioch), LB Will Clemens (Marin Catholic), QB Matthew Dougherty Jr. (St. Francis), QB Armand Johnson (Wilcox), ATH Keala Keanaaina (St. Francis), QB Liam Keaney (Rancho Cotate), ATH Jabari Mann (Serra), OL Tyler Murphy (Acalanes), ATH Andrew Palacios (Wilcox), RB Ben Pfaff (Bellarmine), OL Ikinasio Tupou (Palo Alto), ATH Herschel Turner (Freedom), ATH Jeaden Underwood (The King’s Academy), RB Ricky Underwood (Lincoln-S.F.), ATH Dashiell Weaver (Campolindo), QB Brady Weingart (Redwood).