Calvin Ridley. Jerry Jeudy. Greg Rousseau? Inside Coconut Creek’s first-round NFL pipeline
From the moment Jerry Jeudy arrived at Monarch High for his freshman year in 2013, he was spending virtually all his time with the best player in program history.
Calvin Ridley was setting the standard for the Knights in Coconut Creek. He was an All-American with more than 20 scholarship offers. He went to play for the Alabama Crimson Tide and was a star in Tuscaloosa. In 2018, he became the first — and still only — Monarch graduate to be drafted into the NFL, as a first-round pick by the Atlanta Falcons, no less.
“They were pretty much inseparable,” former Knights coach Calvin Davis said.
Ridley and brother Riley Ridley, now a wide receiver for the Chicago Bears after graduating from Deerfield Beach, quickly understood there was something special about Jeudy. Monarch’s wide receivers corps in 2013 — and particularly 2015 — was loaded and still Jeudy stood out. The young wide receiver clicked with them from a personality standpoint, so the Ridleys took him under their wings. They started to work out together every weekend at Sabal Pines Park. Jeudy became part of their clique, spending nearly every day after school hanging out at Shawn Burgess-Becker’s home. They vouched for Jeudy to 7-on-7 coaches and college coaches alike.
Jeudy quickly earned the label as the next Calvin Ridley. He even followed the wideout to Alabama after wrapping up his high school career with the Bucks like Riley Ridley. On Thursday, he will almost certainly follow Ridley as a first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
“Calvin and them they were like, ‘Coach, him. Coach, him. Coach, this guy right here,’” said Dennis Marroquin, who coached Jeudy and the Ridleys for Florida Fire, a South Florida 7-on-7 powerhouse. “We knew that Jerry was the name to say like, ‘Oh, that’s the next Ridley.’”
‘We were loaded’
Jeudy had no other choice his freshman season with the Knights — he was going to have to play defensive back. The Ridley brothers had two spots locked down at wide receiver. C.J. Riley, who went on to play for the North Carolina State Wolfpack, manned another spot and Burgess-Becker, who later played defensive for the Crimson Tide and Central Florida Knights, was also a fixture at the position.
“We were loaded at wide receiver,” Davis said. “He just enjoyed the process, being able to play with those older guys, being able to learn from those older guys.”
All the while, Jeudy was spending his extra time working as a wide receiver. He would run routes with the Ridleys during their days off in season and he immediately became a 7-on-7 sensation after his freshman season. As good as Jeudy is in real football, 7-on-7 is an even better showcase for the preternaturally quick feet and precise route-running which helped him win the Fred Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top wide receiver in 2018.
“One route,” Marroquin said, “and you already knew he was a player.”
Monarch’s 2014 wide receivers corps, which finally included Jeudy full time, was even better.
The Ridleys and Burgess-Becker were still there, and now Monarch had also added freshman Gregory Rousseau as an oversized jump-ball threat. Now a star defensive end for the Miami Hurricanes, Rousseau is a potential first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
A single wide receivers corps has already produced one first-round pick and another NFL player, and two more first-round picks could be on the way in the next year.
“It was really competitive. It was always like everyone was trying to one-up the other one,” Rousseau said. “If one person ran this in the 40, the next person tried to run this. If this person had this many touchdowns in the last game, then this person’s trying to do the same thing, but just a little bit more.
“You’ve got to like surround yourself with people that are on the same time as you, that have the same goal and same mission.”
‘He wanted to be great’
The wide receivers plus Marvyn Rousseau — the young athlete’s older brother — became a clique of like-minded prospects. They spent their afternoons together at Burgess-Becker’s house, watching highlight videos and playing video games. They were just as competitive in Madden NFL as they were battling for playing time on Monarch’s practice field.
Jeudy eventually did the same for Rousseau as the Ridleys did for him, pointing him out to coaches, including Marroquin, as the next star in line from Coconut Creek. Jeudy trusted in the competitive environment he and his friends had fostered.
“These guys push each other to the limit,” Marroquin said. “That’s what they do.”
When Jeudy got to Monarch, he saw Calvin Ridley reach all the heights he wanted —the Alabama offer, the All-American recognition, the clear path to the NFL — and so he had the perfect template to follow.
At first, Jeudy was just following the Ridleys around, Davis said, and eventually they bonded over their similar personalities and shared love of football. They had a reputation as team pranksters away from the field, while still being the hardest workers in the weight room or in practice.
Ultimately, all they cared about was football and finding someway to make it their livelihood.
“He wanted to be great. He wanted to get better, so he would kind of follow those guys around and they all just became friends,” Davis said. “They really, really helped each other in every aspect.”
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 1:07 PM.
