The 2025 high school football season is less than a week away for most teams.

With that, here is our preseason all-area first team, predicting who the best of the best will be by season’s end.

Offensive Player of the Year

Faizon Brandon, QB, Grimsley, Sr. The returning Gatorade NC Player of the Year and 247Sports’ No. 1 national prospect for the 2026 class gets all of his top five receivers from last year, an offensive line with four Division I recruits and his team should be the favorite to win this year’s NCHSAA 7A state championship.

Defensive player of the year

Andrew Rogers, DL, Grimsley, Sr. The 6-foot-6, 240-pound four-star recruit is the area’s highest-rated defensive player. The defensive end’s dominance for Dudley last year indicates he’ll be a suitable substitution for th

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