Mike Jerrell sat in his chair at his locker. He was tired.
Happy. Proud. And tired.
The rookie right tackle had opened the huge running lane Kenneth Walker dashed through for this game’s first touchdown. He had blocked for three more scores, including giving Geno Smith the extra time to throw his two touchdown passes. He had played all 56 of the Seahawks’ offensive snaps Sunday, in his first NFL game.
But when teammate Derick Hall approached him inside the emptying locker room well after Seattle’s 34-14 rout of the Atlanta Falcons that revived the Seahawks’ season, Jerrell eagerly stood up. And he smiled.
“Proud of you, man,” Hall said to Jerrell.
The linebacker wasn’t the only one.
“How about Mike Jerrell?” Smith, the 12th-year veteran quarterback, said. “Rookie. Sixth-round pick. Steppin’ in, he played big-time football today.”
Heck, everyone was talking about the rookie right tackle after his debut. At least, by 2024 standards.
“Jerrell” was trending on Twitter/X in the hours following Sunday’s game.
You could see, and hear, the pride in Jerrell before he and his Seahawks left Georgia.
Not just pride in himself. In the Division-II University of Findlay from where he came.
And where he stayed. Through six years, through COVID closing his school and Power-5 programs offering him NIL money he never got in college.
Findlay coach Kory Allen sat on Jerrell’s living-room couch six years ago in Indianapolis and told the then-260-pound linemen with just one other college offer, at Division-II Grand Valley State, that if he came to Findlay the Oilers would make him an NFL tackle.
Jerrell believed in Allen’s and Findlay’s path. The payoff of that faith came Sunday against the Falcons in front of 70,000 fans in Atlanta. It was a year to the weekend Jerrell played for Allen and Findlay against Walsh in North Canton, Ohio.
Jerrell shook his head at how far he’s come in 12 months.
“Man, it felt like a dream, like a dream come true,” he said Sunday, as Smokey Robinson bellowed “Tracks of My Tears” over the booming stereo system inside the visiting locker room at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“It just goes to show, man: Trust in your coaches, and everything they say. Believe in it. Buy into whatever program you are at. And you can achieve whatever you want to achieve.”
The 1981 funk song Super Freak began over the speakers. Jerrell was born 18 years after that song became popular in America.
Jerrell kept speaking. He even surpassed Rick James Sunday.
“They set the plan out for me,” Jerrell said of Findlay. “Obviously, I had to go in and work for it; it wasn’t given to me. And I believed in them.
“And I’m glad it got me to this point right here.”
He laughed.
“Going from playing Walsh to the Atlanta Falcons,” he said, smiling, “it’s crazy.”
Mike Jerrell starts fast
By two drives into this game, it was apparent Jerrell was more than just holding his own in his NFL debut.
He was a standout in the first half Sunday.
Starting for injured fill-in Stone Forsythe at right tackle — who had started the first six games this season for injured veterans Abe Lucas then George Fant — Jerrell was at his best on Seattle’s drive to its first touchdown. He repelled an initial push by the Falcons’ best pusher, Matthew Judon, to allow Smith the time to scramble left and throw for 5 yards to rookie tight end AJ Barner.
On the next play, he turned the four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Judon out then pushed him toward the right sideline with a strong kick-out block at the point of attack. Fellow rookie right guard next to Jerrell hooked Atlanta linebacker Kaden Elliss inside. That created a 3-yard-wide lane. Even flu-stricked this weekend, Walker and his family could have walked through that hole to score. Walker galloped 20 yards untouched to the goal line for the game’s first touchdown.
Jerrell ran to Walker. He and Haynes were the first two Seahawks to greet Walker and pull the weakened running back to his feet in the end zone. Seattle had a 10-0 lead.
“It’s always satisfying when we get a rushing touchdown. That just shows the true effort of the offensive line,” Jerrell said. “All five of us working together, to get Ken into the touchdown.
“That was my first rushing touchdown as a starter. So that meant a lot right there. That was a big play for me.”
Atlanta (4-3), which came in having won three straight, was chasing the rest of the game.
Coaches and players on the sideline — even inactive players such as Fant, the ninth-year veteran and one of those regulars Jerrell was replacing — patted Jerrell on the back and chest, pumping him up after his blocks on the Seattle drive ended by Walker’s TD run.
Jerrell didn’t know what all that fuss was about.
“They were like, ‘Good blocks, man,’” he said.
“You know, I kinda don’t like — I mean, I like getting applause for getting good work, but that’s my job, man!
“You don’t applaud a fish for swimmin’.”
He laughed again. Yes, Jerrell enjoyed this Sunday in Atlanta.
“But, man, I know they were proud of me, just to see the progression from when I first came in (during spring, offseason practices) to now, playing as a starter and giving a big touchdown block to help lead us to victory, they amped up everybody.”
One of the few times the Falcons got around Jerrell was with 3 minutes left in the second quarter, when edge rusher Arnold Ebikete beat him off the snap. Smith deftly stepped up in the pocket to avoid him. Jerrell then had the presence of mind, and speed, to run back to Ebikete and push him from getting to Smith from behind.
That freed the quarterback for his perfectly-placed pass over a defender on the hands of the lunging Walker for a 17-yard touchdown. That turned a tight, 17-14 game into another two-score lead for the Seahawks entering the final quarter.
Jerrell said his thinking on that play was: “Don’t panic. Stay with him and just use your athleticism to get back on track.
“I messed myself up on that play because I was looking and trying to figure out (from the guard and center Connor Williams) what the (silent) snap count was. So he got a jump on me.
“So don’t panic. Get back. And Geno did a good job of moving in the pocket. That’s what he’s good at, making extending plays. He helped extend it.
“And it got us a touchdown.”
Another one Jerrell helped produce. So ended the Seahawks’ three-game losing streak, and issues at right tackle
Judging from his performance against Atlanta, the Seahawks have found their guy. At least if — or when — Lucas returns from a knee surgery he had in January. Coach Mike Macdonald hasn’t provided a timetable on whether that’s going to happen anytime this season.
Even if Fant comes off injured reserve, Jerrell’s debut strongly suggest he, the rookie from Findlay in rural, northwest Ohio, should start Sunday when the first-place-again Seahawks (4-3) host the AFC East-leading Buffalo Bills at Lumen Field.
Yet true to a perfectionist and professional, Jerrell wasn’t completely satisfied with his debut.
“I felt like I played OK,” he said. “I felt like I could have played better. There were some plays I wish I could get back. But it’s good to know this is, like, the worst I’ll ever.
“That’s the bright side. This is the worst you’ll ever be. There’s some technique things I need to clean up. But I feel like I went out there and battled. And I feel like I showed I can play in the NFL.
“I know there probably were some doubts. ‘Kid from Findlay, D-2, can he play in the NFL,’ and the progression from playing D 2 last year…now playing the Atlanta Falcons, that’s a big stepping stone for me.
“It just shows how hard I worked.”
