Florida and Gerald Chatman quietly jump into the race for a fast-rising 2027 DL

As it stands right now, Gerald Chatman was the only assistant coach retained by Jon Sumrall to stick around in Gainesville and still be with the Gators moving into 2026. Given he is already set up and settled, Chatman has been on the recruiting trail to work on the class of 2027.

And this week, he extended an offer to a rising defensive lineman from Wellington who will probably be on more radars soon.

Florida offers defensive lineman Tyler Alexander 

Tyler Alexander is a DT from Wellington who plays at Palm Beach Central High. He is listed at 6’4” and 305 pounds and holds current offers from Missouri, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Nebraska, Louisville, Pittsburgh, and UCF among Power Four schools.

On film, Alexander has some great mobility for a 300+ pound DT. His calling card is his ability to disengage with linemen to burst into the backfield, and his motor is high when pursuing QBs for a potential sack. Alexander is also used in a decent amount of twists and stunts and does well to get to where he needs to be to impact the play.

He is an interesting prospect because even though he is starting to rack up the Power Four offers, he is still regarded as a low-rated three-star prospect. Just knowing how these things go, we would have to imagine he is going to see a rankings boost once ranking updates take hold around February. 

We would probably grade him as a higher three-star on the fringe of four-star territory as the true four stars tend to bulldoze their opposing linemen a bit more, but we can see the vision Chatman has with Alexander.

The interior of Florida’s defensive line still needs to beef up after a cache of players left after the 2024 season, so we’ll see how heavy Florida’s pursuit of Alexander continues to be as recruiting season is about to heat up.