Look at the 2017 NFL Super Bowl — MOST of the starting players on BOTH sides were NOT 5 or even 4 star recruits out of high school! This is no outlier phenomena.
The Falcons had exactly ONE starting player who was a 5 star recruit out of high school, and they had THREE starting players who were 4 star recruits out of high school.
The same Falcons had TWENTY ONE starting players who were 0-3 star recruits out of high school, not counting two starters on this team were never even rated.
The Patriots had exactly TWO starting players who were 5 star recruits out of high school, and had THREE starting players who were 4 star recruits out of high school.
The Patriots had TWENTY starting players who were 0-3 star recruits out of high school, not counting Tom Brady, who most certainly would have ALSO have been in this group, but he wasn't rated out of high school. They also had one other player who was not rated out of high school.
Now tell me again how high school recruiting rankings even remotely predict future success with any accuracy? Tell me how these are outliers? Tell me how this is a straw man?
If these ratings were actually accurate, wouldn't the majority of these starting Superbowl players be 5 and 4 star recruits?