AJ Lytton signs with Florida State

In a late-December ceremony held at his high school, long-time FSU defensive back commit Anthony Lytton made it official with Florida State, signing his letter of intent. The four-star prospect is one of FSU’s prized possessions in its 2018 class, which will be wrapped up on Wednesday’s National Signing Day. Lytton ranks No. 50 overall in the country, No. 7 among cornerbacks, and No. 3 in his home state of Maryland.

The 5’10 173 lb. Upper Marlboro (Md.) Dr. Henry Wise product has been committed to Florida State since April of 2017, choosing the Seminoles over 16 other schools that offered him, including Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Oklahoma and Penn State to name a few.

This past season, Lytton had three interceptions and, 13 pass break-ups and forced two fumbles. He had 10 career interceptions in high school and 25 pass break-ups.

Here’s our scouting report on Lytton:

AJ Lytton is a smooth, quick-twitch athlete that excels on offense, defense and special teams for his high school team. Lytton has excellent speed and reaches top speed quickly and with ease. His movements on film appear to be very fluid and natural and he has the hips and feet to efficiently transition in his movements and change direction.

On offense, Lytton works primarily in the slot and is seen making plays off of bubble screens and throws over the middle. He tracks the ball well in the air and looks to have good enough hands to play receiver at the next level. Lytton is also a playmaker with the ball in his hands, finding ways to get to the end zone with good vision in the open field, lateral quickness and acceleration to run by defenders. These traits also make him legit threat as a return man on special teams; something he also did very well in high school.

On defense, Lytton plays mostly off coverage. He plays with two different techniques in off coverage: a “walk-out” backpedal technique and an open-stance shuffle. He executes both very well at times and appears to play with proper depth and understanding of his cushion, allowing him to play tight to short breaking routes while staying on top of vertical routes. In limited examples on film we can also see flashes of his ability to “click and close” to drive on short breaking routes thrown off a 1 or 3 step drop from the QB.

Lytton does have somewhat of smaller frame at 5’11 170. He shows some willingness to come up and tackle vs. the run but it would be nice to see more examples of physicality and assertiveness as a defender. His size and length in coverage will also be a concern but he appears to have ability to overcome that to some extent by tracking the ball effectively and showing the ball skills and body control to adjust to the ball or get up to defend the ball at the high point. If Lytton does indeed play cornerback at Florida State, he will have to continue to develop his press technique as this something he did not do very often in high school.

Overall, Lytton is an intriguing prospect with the potential to contribute on offense, defense or special teams. He possesses a lot of natural athletic traits that you can’t teach and as he settles on a position of focus and refines his technique, you start to envision a player who can be a multi-year starter at Florida State.

Want to know where we think the rest of the Seminoles’ targets will be signing? Listen up: