Daniel Jeremiah will be all over the airwaves this week discussing the NFL Scouting Combine.
The NFL Network Draft expert runs the rule over hundreds of prospects every year to fill fans in on what to expect from college football‘s graduating class.
GettyJeremiah will be a busy man until the end of April’s NFL Draft[/caption]
But not everybody will be aware of Jeremiah’s own journey into the NFL, which includes a heroic comeback worthy of postseason Tom Brady.
Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the media personality’s family relocated to California where his father David is the senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church — a Baptist megachurch in El Cajon, San Diego.
He threw for 7,550 yards and 82 touchdowns and ran for another 1,500 yards and 21 touchdowns as Christian High School’s quarterback — enough to be named to California’s All-State First team Twice.
Jeremiah was set to play for UCLA, but changed his mind after the coaching staff left. The same situation prevented him from attending second choice Oklahoma.
No.3 pick Pacific dropped its football program, so the passer went to Northeast Louisiana State — now Louisiana Monroe — which produced NFL quarterbacks Stan Humphries and Bubby Brister.
After two years, he switched to Appalachian State — the scene of a famous triumph.
The Deacons were down 17-13 in a Homecoming clash against Wake Forest when starting QB David Reaves injured his ankle.
Walk-on back-up Jeremiah had thrown for 1,450 yards as a freshman in the bayou and was handed the reins by coach Jerry Moore. A local report later dubbed him the Jere-messiah.
He led two fourth-quarter scoring drives and a 57-yard touchdown pass on third-and-16, which was followed by a two-point conversion, led to a 24-17 lead. The clutch performer later ran in the winning touchdown in overtime, finishing eight of 10 passing for 139 yards and a TD.
“As long as after next week either me or him is talking about being 5-0, I really don’t care who plays… I want to get a Southern Conference ring,” Jeremiah told The Appalachian to shut down any potential controversy over the starting job.
GettyJeremiah took an unusual route onto screens[/caption]
“I’ve been coaching for over 30 years, and I heard him make one of the premier statements that I’ve ever heard from a football player in my life,” Moore added.
“Daniel made the statement that if he made David Reaves a better quarterback, and if he made us a better team, that he’d done his job. Not very many guys make that kind of a statement.”
Jeremiah ended up starting for three seasons. In 2023, Appalachian State football posted a student-athlete information form on X. It said that a certain communications major wanted to work in broadcasting.
Job done — although just like his college career, he did not take the shortest route.
Jeremiah graduated in 2000 and joined the Baltimore Ravens as a personnel assistant from 2003 to 2004.
The reporter became the organization’s West Coast scout and moved on to the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles, where he worked under Howie Roseman until 2012.
Having previously featured as a production assistant for ESPN’s Sunday Night Football, Jeremiah joined NFL Media as an analyst in 2012.
He has since become a mainstay on the network and served as lead Draft analyst since 2019.
“I loved the draft,” Jeremiah told Chargers.com about his career goals.
“My dream would have been in broadcasting — that’s what I studied and wanted to do — so having something to do with the draft would have been my perfect world. Took a weird path to get there.”
His early break came thanks to meeting Jay Rothman, who was working as a producer with ESPN.
“I got a FedEx package in college from ESPN and it was all of their research notes for the draft,” he explained. “I thought that was pretty cool and it opened up some avenues for me.”
Jeremiah eventually helped answer the late Chris Mortensen’s phone and was sent a guide by ESPN’s legendary draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. every year to help him prepare.
The busy journalist co-hosts the ‘Move the Sticks’ podcast with Bucky Brooks, is a color commentator for Los Angeles Chargers games on KFI, and at 47 years of age, has plenty of time to add to an impressive CV.
He has been linked with a front office return but is wary of spending too much time away from his family
“Those two years in the office were probably the toughest two years for our family, just because my wife, we lived two minutes away from the facility, and I never saw her,” father of four Jeremiah told The Athletic in 2019.
“So that was a hard, hard, hard time. Especially with two little kids. She’s away from her family. And I’m not really around. So that was a hard, stressful period.”
We will be seeing a lot of Jeremiah between now and April’s NFL Draft. He put in the hard yards to get there.
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