Clemson Football: Amari Rodgers is a major impact player

Many Clemson football fans didn’t think we’d see Amari Rodgers at all in the 2019 season, much less making an impact this early in the year.

Less than six months ago, it looked as if Amari Rodgers would miss the majority of the 2019 Clemson football season.

Rodgers suffered a torn ACL during spring practice and the hopeful among us didn’t think he’d be back before November. He proved everyone wrong, though, and was amazingly back for the Texas A&M game a week ago.

Rodgers took it to a whole different level this week against Syracuse.

He had four catches for 121 yards and two touchdowns. Rodgers easily could be argued as the top performer on the Clemson football offense against the Orange and looked smooth in doing so.

He caught the first touchdown of the game from Trevor Lawrence on a 16-yard snag on the back of the end zone. Then, he made what many identify as the play of the game.

Following a momentum-changing interception by Mario Goodrich, Trevor Lawrence hit Amari Rodgers on a screen play on 3rd and 1. While it looked to be snuffed out in the backfield, Rodgers stiff-armed a man and accelerated down the sidelines. He stayed in bounds and left the Syracuse defenders in the dust, scoring an 87-yard touchdown and putting Clemson football up 24-6.

That play would send the Syracuse student section packing.

It’s absolutely amazing to see Rodgers on a football field. It’s even more stunning to see him playing at the level in which he is. He looks stronger than last year and still has great speed.

We all want to talk about the skill and dominance of Justyn Ross and Tee Higgins, but Amari Rodgers deserves his due. The junior is an absolute impact player and he’s going to be much more than just another weapon for Trevor Lawrence as this offense improves.

Rodgers is going to be a focal point for the unit and is going to continue to impress as the 2019 Clemson football season continues.