As part of theRams.com's coverage leading into this year's NFL Draft, we will be taking a look at each of the Top 100 picks of the Sean McVay era in Los Angeles. The series begins with a look at tight end Gerald Everett.
Before joining the Rams
The tight end position has offered several former basketball players a successful transition into a professional football career, regardless of when they began playing the latter sport.
Kent State's Antonio Gates and Cal-Berkeley's Tony Gonzalez are perhaps the most notable examples, playing both basketball and football in college.
The University of Miami's Jimmy Graham played one season for the school's football team after exhausting his basketball eligibility – his first time playing football since his high school days – but what he put on film was tantalizing enough to make him a top 100 pick in 2010 when the New Orleans Saints chose him 95th overall.
Gerald Everett had a similar path.
A three-year letter-winner in basketball and member of the track and field team at Columbia High School in Decatur, Georgia, Everett did not pick up football until his senior season. Still, he put together an all-conference season which caught the attention of Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College, one of the top junior college programs in the country.
After two seasons at Hutchinson, he received a scholarship to the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB), but was forced to transfer to South Alabama after UAB shuttered its football program. Everett's team-leading 41 receptions, 575 receiving yards, eight receiving touchdowns and 12 total touchdowns in his first season at South Alabama earned him first-team all-Sun Belt honors plus a spot in the conference's all-newcomer team.
That production garnered national acclaim. Prior to his senior season, NFL Media draft analyst Lance Zierlein named him one of the top college football tight ends to watch in 2016.
Everett finished with 49 catches for 714 yards and four touchdowns in his second and final season at South Alabama. Four months later, the Rams chose him with the 44th overall pick in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft.
Rams highlights
It didn't take long for Everett to make a strong impression. In Week 2 of his rookie season, he finished with three catches for 95 yards against the Washington Redskins. In his second year, he tallied three receptions for 49 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the Rams' thrilling 54-51 Monday Night Football win over the Chiefs.
Prior to being slowed by injuries late in the season, Everett's 2019 campaign produced three of the top five performances of his career, including a career-high eight catches for 68 yards against the Steelers in Week 10 and seven catches for a career-best 136 yards against the Seahawks in Week 5.
