So I would then raise the question "How high is the staff on Billingsley?" If getting his two teammates Thompson and Fabian would help landing Billingsley (which was what has been reported), would we not take a 3 star CB to help land a 4 star TE? Maybe the TE is not that big of a position in this offense? Maybe with the commitment of Beason and Williams has pushed Billingsley to consider IL with or without his teammates.
Just random thoughts here
There's a lot of things that could be going on here.
Thompson is listed as a CB but is shorter than almost all of the CBs this staff has recruited . This staff likes CBs who are 6'1+. The only exceptions have been Nick Walker and Marquez Beason. This is quite a contrast from the shorter CBs that Beckman recruited (i.e. Bentley). Notice how little playing time Frank Sumpter got last year as opposed to Ahmari Hayes who is 6'3?
Then you have to look at where else he could play. Safety seems to be the most logical place to put him but we added quite a few secondary players last year and are probably looking at higher rated targets at that position in this class. I don't think Thompson can be a slot WR looking at his highlights.
It could also be an issue with numbers. We have offers to six Trinity Catholic kids and may only have 18 or so scholarships available for this class. We realistically have a chance at getting at least four of these players with Williams in the fold. I know there is some question as to whether or not the staff would pursue Andrews and Childress and this may indicate that they are. If we hired Patterson for "The Movement" then we really shouldn't be cherry picking or slow playing a couple of these kids. Take them and make it work and get as many of their 2020 kids as well.
The other scenario is that the staff wants to wait and see if Erick Young is serious about considering us. I would hope this isn't the case as I'd rather take a kid from an in-state power house as opposed to a guy who wasn't even thinking about us three weeks ago. Maybe the staff wants to see how that plays out. Thompson may have wanted to commit and the staff told him to wait and maybe he doesn't want to be slow played (understandable).
McCray is a guy we definitely want and need. Given that they took two graduate transfers at WR this year and only took two WRs in 2018, WR is a big need for this class.
I do think we want a TE and Billingsley is probably our top target. He may be difficult to land even as part of a package deal though.