Then-Toledo head coach Jason Candle was walking the halls at Lakewood High School on a recruiting trip when he peeked inside the gymnasium and saw a lanky kid shooting around on the basketball court, according to a report by Dane Brugler of The Athletic. Candle liked his size. He liked the way the kid moved.
That kid was Emmanuel McNeil-Warren. And that chance encounter put a lightly recruited three-star safety on a path toward the first round of the NFL draft.
McNeil-Warren, who grew up in St. Petersburg and starred at Lakewood, is projected as a late first-round or early second-round pick when the draft begins April 23 in Pittsburgh. Tankathon lists him as the No. 26 prospect on its big board. He has met formally with the Bengals, Patriots, Colts and Falcons, among others, and completed pre-draft visits with the Browns and Cowboys.
If he hears his name called on the first night, he would become the third Toledo player drafted in the first round in the program’s 109-year history — and the second in three years, following cornerback Quinyon Mitchell, who went 22nd overall to the Eagles in 2024.
He would also be the latest in a long, improbable line of NFL draft picks from Lakewood High, a Class 2A public school that has produced at least 16 drafted players since 1984, including four first-rounders: Tom Carter (17th overall, 1993), William Floyd (28th, 1994), Dante Fowler Jr. (third overall, 2015) and Isaiah Wynn (23rd, 2018). In 2018 alone, three Lakewood products were drafted: Wynn, Shaquem Griffin and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
The Spartans have never won a state title. But when it comes to sending players to the NFL, the school has no equal in Pinellas County.
“I don’t know if you’ll ever see a run like this anywhere else,” two-time Pro Bowl receiver Ernest Givins, a Lakewood product drafted by the Houston Oilers in 1986, told the Tampa Bay Times in 2018.
McNeil-Warren was born in Tampa and raised in St. Petersburg, the oldest boy among nine siblings. His mother, Sharona McNeil, raised the family as a single parent. His father, Tarus Horne, became more involved later and coached at Lakewood. McNeil-Warren calls him a role model.
He started his high school career at wide receiver before switching to defense when the Spartans needed help in the secondary. As a senior in 2021, he recorded 65 tackles and three interceptions and helped lead Lakewood to the Class 4A state playoffs, where the Spartans fell to Cardinal Gibbons.
Despite the production, the major programs never came calling in force. McNeil-Warren held offers from Indiana, Kansas State, Maryland and Miami. Toledo was the first school to offer. He took it. He was the first member of his family to attend college.
McNeil-Warren saw limited action as a true freshman in 2022 before taking over as a starter in 2023: 69 tackles, two interceptions and four forced fumbles, which led the MAC and ranked third nationally. An injury limited him to eight games in 2024, but he came back stronger in 2025 with a career-best 77 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, two interceptions — including a 37-yard pick-six against Western Kentucky — three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.
Pro Football Focus graded him as the top safety in the country in coverage. He was targeted just 15 times all season. He earned third-team All-America honors from the Associated Press and was named PFF’s Group of Six Defensive Player of the Year.
For his career: 214 tackles, five interceptions, nine forced fumbles in 48 games.
During the NIL era’s transfer frenzy, he had opportunities to leave for bigger programs and bigger money. He turned them all down.
“Toledo believed in me from the start and I wanted to repay the faith they placed in me,” McNeil-Warren told NFL Draft on SI. “It was four years of brotherhood and family.”
At the combine, McNeil-Warren measured 6 feet 3½ inches and 201 pounds with a 4.52-second 40-yard dash. His tape shows a downhill safety who plays with controlled violence and enough range to patrol the deep middle. Nine forced fumbles in four seasons is the kind of ball production NFL teams covet.
ESPN’s Matt Miller, in a scouting report published by the Detroit Lions, called those forced fumbles a major selling point despite an average combine showing. The knock: He needs to improve in man coverage and as an open-field tackler. The consensus projection falls in the 18-to-32 range.
If McNeil-Warren is drafted, he will extend a streak that has made Lakewood one of the most prolific NFL feeder programs in Florida. The school has produced at least 16 draft picks — tied with Hillsborough High for the most among Tampa Bay area programs, according to Tampa Bay Newspapers’ High School Huddle.
The Lakewood-to-Toledo pipeline has been particularly productive. Receiver Bernard Reedy went from Lakewood to Toledo and spent time with the Falcons, Buccaneers and Patriots as an undrafted free agent. Rodney Adams played at Toledo before transferring to USF and being drafted by the Vikings in 2017. Mitchell’s first-round selection put Toledo’s secondary development on the national map. McNeil-Warren could make it two Toledo defensive backs taken in the first round in three years.
The current Lakewood coach is Dante Fowler Sr., father of the former No. 3 overall pick, who took over from Cory Moore after Moore left to become an area scout for the Los Angeles Rams.
For a kid who was shooting hoops in a gym when a college coach happened to walk by, that is a long way to travel.
“You’re getting a great player who really loves football,” McNeil-Warren told NFL Draft on SI.
The draft begins April 23. Lakewood will be watching.
Lakewood’s NFL draft picks
Lakewood High in St. Petersburg has produced at least 16 NFL draft picks since 1984, including four first-rounders. Toledo safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren is projected to join the list April 23. Here is the full rundown:
1984: Tron Armstrong, 5th round, New York Jets
1985: Ricky Anderson, 11th round, Arizona Cardinals
1986: Ernest Givins, 2nd round, Houston Oilers
1990: Pat Terrell, 2nd round, Los Angeles Rams
1993: Tom Carter, 1st round (No. 17), Washington Redskins
1994: William Floyd, 1st round (No. 28), San Francisco 49ers
2002: Tim Carter, 2nd round, New York Giants
2009: Louis Murphy, 4th round, Oakland Raiders
2012: Jonte Green, 6th round, Detroit Lions
2015: Dante Fowler Jr., 1st round (No. 3), Jacksonville Jaguars
2017: Shaquill Griffin, 3rd round, Seattle Seahawks
2017: Rodney Adams, 5th round, Minnesota Vikings
2018: Isaiah Wynn, 1st round (No. 23), New England Patriots
2018: Shaquem Griffin, 5th round, Seattle Seahawks
2018: Marquez Valdes-Scantling, 5th round, Green Bay Packers
2024: T.J. Tampa, 4th round, Baltimore Ravens