Mike Jerrell: From faith in Findlay’s plan to his NFL debut as Seahawks starter at Falcons
When Mike Jerrell was a junior in high school, he wasn’t destined for this.
He was 6 feet 2, 245 pounds. Big enough for, say, everyday life. Or basketball. He had three times as many varsity seasons in that sport in high school than in football.
He was not large enough to be an NFL offensive lineman. Or at most levels of college football. He was on the junior varsity at Pike High School in Indianapolis.
He grew to an athletic 260 pounds as a senior at Pike. That became his only season of varsity high school football. Grand Valley State, a national power in Division II, wanted him.
But he wanted where he felt most at home, where he instantly felt people cared about him.
He chose the University of Findlay, a Division-II program in rural, northwest Ohio.
“I wanted to go to family, because it was a family vibe,” Jerrell told The News Tribune.
“And they had a plan for me.”
That plan? It was, well...not a common path, let’s put it that way.
“They manifest this for me. They told me when they sat on my couch,” Jerrell said, 6 1/2 years after that recruiting visit by Findlay coach Kory Allen into Jerrell’s family living room in Indianapolis.
“They said: ‘You’re going to be an NFL player one day.’
“They said: ‘In five or six years you’re going to sign an NFL contract.’”
That was more than a recruiting sales pitch. Coach Allen was so right.
Jerrell stayed at Findlay six years. He stayed through working as a security guard at the arena of his hometown Indiana Pacers NBA team during COVID, when Findlay was closed. He stayed through offers of NIL money he didn’t get at Findlay, interest from top-level programs such as Purdue in the Big Ten and Cincinnati in the Big 12.
He stayed on Coach Allen’s plan. FIndlay’s plan.
Sunday, three months after his college coach came to Jerrell’s first NFL training camp day in Seattle, 71,000 fans will pack Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. They will see Jerrell make his NFL regular-season debut.
The rookie sixth-round draft choice — now 6-5, 309 — is starting for the first time, at right tackle blocking for quarterback Geno Smith and the Seahawks (3-3) against the NFC South co-leading Falcons (4-2).
“I’m so incredibly proud of Michael,” Allen told the University of Findlay athletic department. “It’s not just who he is as a football player that made this happen. It is who he is as a human being. All of Oiler Nation is proud of him!”
Sunday’s crowd in Atlanta will be, oh, about 47 times the amount of fans that watched Jerrell at home games for Findlay.
“We had about 1,500,” he said.
Mike Jerrell’s path to Seattle starter
On the final roster-cut day of the Seahawks’ preseason, Jerrell was sweating.
He’d been opening the eyes of offensive line coach Scott Huff and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb for winning one-on-one reps against $60 million defensive end Leonard Williams and rookie first-round pick Byron Murphy in training camp.
Yet on Aug. 27 to end the preseason and set the initial regular-season roster, the Seahawks cut a fellow rookie sixth-round pick, cornerback D.J. James.
They kept Jerrell.
He was absolutely beaming.
“A little bit nerve-wracking,” he said that day.
“Dream come true.”
According to Findlay’s athletic department, Jerrell is the 12th Findlay Oiler to play in the NFL since 1925, when end Clarence “Dutch” Strasser played three games for the Canton Bulldogs. The list includes Jerrell’s college teammate Andrew Ogletree, a tight end in his second season with the Indianapolis Colts.
A 13th former Oiler, University of Findlay athletics Hall of Fame inductee Jerry Savoy, Class of 1966, signed as an end with the Los Angeles Rams. A knee injury ended his time in the NFL. He became a renowned husband, father, lawyer and civic leader in nearby Elyria, Ohio.
How did Jerrell join this list? How did he go this time last year from starting for the Findlay Oliers against the Walsh Cavaliers in North Canton, Ohio, to starting for the Seahawks against the Atlanta Falcons?
Seahawks general manager John Schneider was wowed by Jerrell’s athleticism in the Pro Day he jumped on to at Ohio State, down the road from Findlay in Columbus this spring. Jerrell tested in the 95th percentile on his running, jumping, speed and strength of all offensive tackles in this draft class.
That’s why Seattle drafted him. It’s why he made the team.
The Seahawks now have three right tackles injured. Starter Abe Lucas hasn’t been on a field practicing let alone playing since early January. He remains out indefinitely following knee surgery last winter. Ninth-year veteran George Fant started the opener for Lucas Sept. 8 against Denver. Fant injured his knee 13 plays into that game. He remains on injured reserve.
Stone Forsythe, Seattle’s last of three picks in the 2020 draft, started the first six games. He mangled his hand in the Seahawks’ third consecutive loss, against San Francisco Oct. 10. He’s out for Sunday.
The team could have elevated 42-year-old, nine-time Pro Bowl tackle Jason Peters from the practice squad to start Sunday, to debut in his 20th NFL season.
Instead, coach Mike Macdonald, Huff and Grubb chose Jerrell’s athletic ability and quick adaptation to the playbook. They chose Jerrell to debut over a two-time All-Pro and former Super Bowl champion.
“He had a great week of prep, guys. Just kept improving,” Macdonald said Friday before the team flew to Georgia trying to end its three-game losing streak. “Since he’s got here, he’s come such a long way in less than a year. So proud of him, and he’s got a great opportunity. I know he’s excited.
“Just the physical tools, absolutely, and then the game slowed down for him tremendously. And I know he’s working his tail off. And he’s banked a lot of great one-on-one reps, and then he gets against our ones in practice.
“So yeah, he’s got a very bright future. Hopefully, this is the start of it.”
Mike Jerrell’s bigger picture
From the day he chose Findlay in 2018, Jerrell has been seeing a bigger picture. He’s been pursuing a larger goal.
He gained 65 pounds while playing and getting a bachelor’s degree and a Master of Business Administration degree at Findlay.
When Findlay shut down school during COVID, Jerrell went home to Indianapolis. He took a job downtown as a security guard at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the home arena of the NBA’s Pacers. While he did, bigger-time programs asked him to come play for them.
“I think Purdue reached out,” Jerrell said. “I was getting (social-media) follows — that’s their way of, like, poaching — (from) Cincinnati, Coastal Carolina.”
How blind and rampant is poaching by programs in college football right now? Jerrell said college coaches were trying to get him to transfer this past spring — when he was already entering the draft on his way to becoming a Seahawks draft pick in April.
He values loyalty and longer-term goals over NIL cash that dictates college football today.
“That’s, that’s short-term money. That’s in-the-moment money,” he said. “I wanted to chase long-term money. And NFL is long-term money.
“I think people lose sight of the goal, of what we’re doing. People are chasing NIL, and that shouldn’t be the end goal. The end goal should be wearing and having an NFL badge.”
For that, he’s proud of staying at Findlay six years.
All of Findlay, Ohio, (population: 40,250) is going to be proudly watching him Sunday on the right edge of the Seahawks’ offensive line against the Falcons.
“It meant a lot to me to stay,” he said. “I didn’t take the easy way out, like most guys chasing NIL stipends or whatever. I worked jobs. I went to class. I did all my work myself, and I took advantage of whatever little resources we had just to get to where I’m at.
“It means everything to me to see ‘Mike Jerrell, the University of Findlay’ up on the screen instead of a Power 5 school. Man, it means everything.
“It can show guys that come from small schools you can make it to the NFL. You don’t have to go to Power 5s and chase NILs to get to the NFL.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2024 at 2:12 PM.
