The Dorchester native and Brighton High School product is eyeing a leap to the NFL as he checks in from the Scouting Combine.Mike Dussault
Indianapolis, IN – If the Patriots want to beef up their defensive entrance this season they may look to faucet a neighborhood product, Dorchester native and Brighton High School’s personal Jerrod Clark, who’s right here in Indy participating within the 2023 Scouting Combine.
Predictably, the Patriots of the early-2000’s considerably impacted Clark rising up.
“Wilfork, Gronkowski, Edelman, of course, Tom Brady, LeGarrette Blount, Sony Michel, just growing up watching those guys,” mentioned Clark recalling his favourite Patriots rising up. “The 2004 Super Bowl was the earliest I could remember and from then on I started paying more attention to football as I got older.
“Definitely seeing them play on Sundays and win championships was what motivated me to play soccer early on, however early on I simply wished to have enjoyable.”
Clark hopes to follow in the path of fellow Boston native and Coastal Carolina alumni Isaiah Likely, who was drafted in the fourth round last year by the Ravens and went on to a successful first season, grabbing 36 catches for 373 yards and three touchdowns.
Clark and Likely first met while matching up in basketball while both were still in high school before reconnecting when they arrived in South Carolina. The duo still keeps in close contact, with Likely providing some advice for Clark as he embarks on his own draft process.
“Just to soak it in and take a look at to not get too overwhelmed and take one factor at a time,” said Clark of the advice that Likely provided. “Just deal with what you’ve in entrance of you.”
Clark also credited his high school coach for helping him to the verge of an NFL career.
“Our head soccer coach Randolf Abraham, he was additionally one of many deans on the faculty, I needed to see him on a regular basis, see him within the faculty constructing, see him at apply. There was actually no escaping him,” recalled Clark. “I obtained to construct a relationship with him on a private degree, not simply soccer simply speaking about life, speaking about what he sees him in a pupil, but in addition as a younger man. Just having that kind of affect the place you possibly can have a relationship together with your coach and it is not strictly what you may do for them.”
Coach Abraham was named a Patriots high school coach of the week back in 2016.
At 6-foot-3, 342 pounds, the stout defender certainly fits the mold upfront that the Patriots like, while his 82-inch wing span should draw attention when the prospects are officially measured here in Indy in the coming days. That kind of size and length enables Clark to occupy the middle of the line, freeing up those around him to make plays. But despite that size, he still has enough quickness off the ball that he should not be limited by scheme.
After a productive week at the Senior Bowl, Clark’s stock is trending up.
“I see myself doing regardless of the group wants me to do,” said Clark of what he thinks teams might ask him to do at the next level. “I haven’t got a desire for both one. If a group desires me to two-gap I’ll two hole 100 occasions out of 100.”