Ted’s Talk: Predicting Michael Jerrell’s rookie season

The Seattle Seahawks tripled-up with the final pick of the 2024 NFL Draft by selecting a third offensive lineman at No. 207 overall. Seahawks scouts turned over a whole lot of stones to find tackle Michael Jerrell from Division II University of Findlay. He’ll face a meteoric jump in competition in the NFL but possesses enough athleticism and raw skills to give him a fighting chance.

Athletic Profile/Comps

Relative Athletic Score (RAS)

Mockdraftable – N/A

Well, no Mockdraftable to look at…at least RAS came through!

And would you look at that, Jerrell has the highest RAS of the entire Seahawks 2024 draft class!

The caveat here is that Jerrell was listed at OG but played OT in college. We’ll look at his RAS and comps at that position later.

Jerrell would be a very athletic OG, with elite speed grades. He was a former basketball player and tight end in high school which shows through in his testing. Running a sub-5.00 second 40 and a 32.5” vertical at nearly 310lbs is fantastic. The agility grades were just “okay”, which could be a bit of a red flag.

An RAS comp with Seahawks Legend Steve Hutchinson? Yeah, we’re going to look at that.

Man, Hutch was a freak of nature. He was taller and put up more reps on the bench than Jerrell, but the other scores are close enough. A guy can dream, I guess.

For fun, what would the comp between Jerrell and third-round pick Christian Haynes look like?

Yeah, that’s better. Haynes is shorter and heavier. Other than that? Pretty, pretty close…

Alright, let’s look at Jerrell at OT.

Here’s where Jerrell’s size and agility cause him to take a hit. He still has a good overall RAS at OT and the almost 34” arms give him a chance to stick there in the NFL. How about some comps at OT?

There are a couple interesting names here. Ekwonu was drafted three picks ahead of Charles Cross in 2022 by the Carolina Panthers. He’s had an up and (mostly) down start to his career but was talented enough to be drafted No. 6 overall.

The comp I want to focus on is Jermon Bushrod.

Bushrod is ever so slightly taller, heavier, faster and posted a quicker shuttle. Jerrell is stronger and had better vertical and broad jumps. Another fun similarity is their college experience. Towson was formerly in Division II from 1979-1986 before jumping up to Division I-AA (FCS). Bushrod also had to prove that he could play OT at the NFL level. Admittedly, the 35.5” vines for arms might have helped Bushrod on his way to a 12-year career with 2 Pro Bowls. He even played some OG with the Miami Dolphins toward the end of his career. Jerrell should take notes.

Gut reaction to the pick

Small school guys are fun! He seems like a character too as evidenced by his reaction to John Schneider telling him that the Seahawks were drafting him.

“Oh sh—, for real?”

Yeah, he’s going to be easy to root for!

Jerrell had a pre-draft visit with the Seahawks, so his selection wasn’t completely out of left field. He likely got on a lot of people’s radar when he participated in the Ohio State pro day where he put up those impressive athletic numbers. Jerrell will need that athleticism as he attempts to crack the NFL roster.

Macdonald and Schneider want to be tough in the trenches. Taking a flier on a guy with upside with your final draft pick instead of hoping that he comes to you as a UDFA is perfectly fine with me.

Rookie season prediction

I’m not trying to beat a dead Elway horse here but it’s going to be a massive leap in competition for Jerrell at the NFL level. He’ll probably need an entire year to get stronger to hold up against this caliber of athlete whether he sticks at OT, slides inside to OG, or cross-trains at both. Jerrell will need to show enough promise in the preseason to beat out guys like Stone Forsythe and Raiqwon O’Neal who were both on the roster in 2023. Seattle may be able to sneak him onto the practice squad but that would be a risk. I think he’ll make the initial 53-man roster and then be waived to add another player from a different team’s final cuts. Jerrell will slip through to the practice squad at that point and spend the year bulking up and adjusting to NFL life.