Rutgers offers 2025 top-20 EDGE Ari Watford

Virginia Beach (Va.) Salem four-star EDGE Ari Watford received an offer from Rutgers Monday. He announced the news on Twitter.

Watford is the No. 16 overall prospect and No. 6 EDGE in the 2025 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also the No. 1 player in Virginia.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Watford holds 19 Power Five offers and the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine currently has Virginia Tech as the favorite to land a commitment from Watford at 48.1%.

#AGTG I am blessed to receive an offer from Rutgers University! #CHOP 🪓 @GregSchiano @cjhetherman @dyrri_mccain pic.twitter.com/sWeOvwkskm

— Ari Watford ¹ (@ari_watford) February 21, 2023

Several schools have shown interest in Watford early on and one of the schools that seems really interested in the standout sophomore is Michigan.

Watford talked with The Wolverine’s EJ Holland last October about the Wolverines interest in him as well as visits he had planned on taking at that point in the seasons.

“Recruiting is going well,” Watford said at the time.  “I went up to Virginia Tech to see them against Boston College. I’m going to get to Virginia to see them against Miami. I’m looking forward to enjoying that game. I want to visit some other schools. It’s just a matter of being able to get there.”

Virginia Tech received the latest visit from Watford as he visited Blacksburg on Jan. 23.

Watford currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $87K. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.