Nose Tackle

Mississippi

6-2 335

Draft board overall prospect rank: #50

Draft board nose tackle rank: #2

Overall rating: 78 (Mid 2nd) 

40 time: 5.27

2/16/11: Powe is an amazing football player, with good mobility as a 345 pound nose tackle, but has a history of academic problems. The most notable of his academic problems the fact that it took him three years after committing to Mississippi to be academically eligible to attend and thus play for the University because he did not complete his courses in high school.

But there also was an instance when the police came to his house after giving him a written notice about the noise that was being created from some parties he had been throwing. Powe told the police that the reason he did not follow the warning is because he cannot read, which was first interpreted as a joke to avoid trouble. However, his mother has also been quoted as saying “Jerrell really is a good child, but he just can’t read.” Either his mom is hilarious or he really can’t read, or at least couldn’t at the time. Opposing fans got a kick out of that and held signs that said things such as “Jerrell Powe, can you read this sign?”

However, he puts in the effort in the weight room, dropping 20-30 pounds of fat since joining the team and has also significantly reduced his body fat percentage. He’s a massive run stopper that projects as a starting nose tackle in the NFL, which could make him a 3^rd round prospect because of how rare true nose tackles are and how many teams have switched to the 3-4 and therefore need nose tackles.

All things equal, I would rather have a football player who struggles with academics than a football player who gets good grades, but doesn’t put in the effort on the field and in the weight room, because you don’t need to know how to do much school stuff in the NFL. As long as you can read the playbook which I assume, since he’s a college student, he can, he should be fine.

If not, than this might be the first player to score a negative score on the Wonderlic. Either way if he makes it as an NFL player, it would be quite an inspirational story because of how much he’s been through, a story so inspirational that they might make a movie out of it like they did with his former Ole Miss teammate, Michael Oher. That movie was titled “The Blindside.” If they make one about Jerrell Powe, it could be called “Jerrell Powe, can you read this movie title?”

NFL Comparison: Jamal Williams