Miramar’s Shemar Jean-Charles went from 2-star to All-American. Now he heads to Green Bay
Shemar Jean-Charles hardly had any college interest when he graduated from Miramar. He redshirted his first year for the Appalachian Mountaineers and didn’t become a full-time starter until his redshirt junior season.
Now he’s headed to the NFL.
The Green Bay Packers selected the cornerback with the 34th pick in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft on Saturday — No. 178 overall — after Jean-Charles blossomed into an All-American as a redshirt senior in Boone, North Carolina.
Jean-Charles was a first-team All-American, according to the Walter Camp Football Foundation, despite not starting a single game until he was a redshirt junior in 2019.
As a redshirt senior, Jean-Charles had 35 tackles, one tackle for loss and one interception. He also led the nation with 16 pass break-ups and 17 passes defended.
It was a long road from South Florida to the NFL for Jean-Charles. He was only a two-star cornerback, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings, and not even a top-2,000 prospect in the Class of 2016. He only had seven scholarship offers and none from Power 5 Conference programs.
He rose into a prominent role for Appalachian State by starting off as a special-teams ace. The defensive back combined for just 15 tackles and six passes defended in his first three years with the Mountaineers before they finally turned to him as a starter. He was a third-team All-Sun Belt Conference selection as a redshirt junior after starting 13 games and solidified himself as one of the nation’s top corners as a redshirt senior in 2020.
Jean-Charles also earned second-team All-America honors from Pro Football Focus and the Sporting News, and got third-team recognition from Phil Steele. He was a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award as the top defensive player in college football and a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, which goes to the nation’s top defensive back.
