Hanging Out with Rookie Fifth-Round Pick Jamari Thrash | Cleveland Browns

Hanging Out with Rookie Fifth-Round Pick Jamari Thrash | Cleveland Browns

[Music] hi again everybody welcome into the cross country mortgage campus here in Berea this is the best podcast available and Jason Gibbs with you we’re going through our draft class and happy to be joined by our fifth round pick Jamari thrash from Louisville by way of Georgia State I want to give a lot of credit to Georgia State because I feel like they they got you to that next level so when you got to Louisville you were able to Showcase everything in a power five type conference um let’s let’s let’s start there and your journey through um from Georgia MH you had a number of offers for colleges why Georgia State um Georgia State always just kept in touch with me to be honest they would they had I had the best relationship with them they came to my school every Friday they never missed a game they even came to my basketball games and they was right up the road they was an hour away so I just feel like I just had a great relationship with the coaches there so at Georgia State you have a good relationship you go there what were your goals going into going into college um my goal of going into college really just go out and just be myself U when I got there you know my first me I played probably like two or three games but I a red shirted so after that you know I just want to take time you know build my body learn more uh and just study the game so you had a did you have a chance to go leave earlier or did you wait until after your four years of Georgia State uh you time I get in the portal yeah um I think I no no no okay no um actually the the year that I blew up well the year my my best year I had there I actually had the two guys that were heading me all those following years they actually left so that’s what kind of led me to stay gotcha gotcha so at Georgia state is there a memorable moment that stands out to you um probably when we beat Tennessee I was a freshman so I didn’t I didn’t play that game but just being there um being on the sidelines being on in the sideline uh and it just got loud like probably the loudest game I played in was probably Auburn um when they they blocked the kick and I swear to God I felt the ground shake like I ain’t never F I ain’t never been in the stadium that loud Auburn got loud but that was probably my my biggest or my best memory probably we played um Tennessee and we beat them all right so you have you have a very good career number one you you were a great high school player uh you go on to Georgia State you have a lot of success transfer portal after 4 years you end up in Louisville what made you decide on Louisville um well to be honest with you I got in Portal kind of late cuz I was going to stay I was going to stay at Georgia state but I talked to my parents and you know they just felt like that was the right decision for me to make so when I got in the portal I got in the portal on a Thursday and it closed on a Sunday so I had a short window to you know choose my school so once I got in the port on that Thursday I went to work I went to I had a job so I was going to work um my phone was blowing up blowing up blowing up blowing up so I just had to take time off my job and go answer phone call talk to different coach um but so I went to Auburn first I went to Auburn Auburn is only like an hour away from my hometown I was Auburn fan I went to Auburn um things didn’t really go right with the academics so I went to Louisville on that Friday went Louisville on that Friday and stayed all the way until Sunday and so when I went to Louisville went to a basketball game with Coach Braum and fans were coming up to Braum telling them how excited they were about him coming back and over time I’m learning I’m learning a lot I’m picking up information so I didn’t know Coach Brown was from Louisville I didn’t know he played there I didn’t know his brother played there like he’s got real history there like him and his family so um just over time I started hearing stuff and started picking up on a lot of stuff and um it just felt like it just felt right and just seeing what he did for Charlie Jones the year before and KN I played the same position as Charlie Jones you know it just made a lot of sense for me to go there what was the best part of Louisville not necessarily affiliated with football uh probably the the community um when I got there and that’s another thing that made me go there as well uh it remind me of my hometown a lot so when I got there I was just able to fit in with the community um fan base and just everybody there so yeah probably the community okay so you work your way through you go to Louisville uh you have a lot of success and also having a lot of success while dealing with a hand injury how tough was that mentally physically and how do you think that made you a better football player at the end of the day um i’ so I never missed a game ever in my life I never until I broke my hand and I still play I came back the following week and played and I think I the week after that I skipped the game but once I broke my hand you know it taught me a lot lot about you know adversity adversity and uh mentally and not only mentally but and physically um so you know I’m practicing I’m I got this big thick pad in my glove I’m trying to catch but I can’t catch the ball so and I’m and nobody’s nobody’s hard on me nobody’s harder on me than myself so if I drop a ball you know I’m hard on myself but I also had to take the time I had to tell myself like man you just had surgery yesterday like like I had surgery I had emergency surgery Sunday came back to practice on like Tuesday I’m still trying to catch I’m like all right thash you got to realize like just you fresh out of surgery like everything going click soon you just got to be patient so that’s something that I just really just was on my in my head about but over time I started I was able to catch the ball swelling head started going out a little bit so over time I was slowed again back to myself yeah I mean you were leading you were one of the leading receivers if not the leading receiver on that football team when when you got hurt is there a moment that stands out to you from your time at Louisville on the football field definitely when we beat Notre Dame uh we beat Notre Dame crowd storm the field and that was something that I’m not used to so yeah I wasn’t used to that and then just taking picture with fans you know when I went to Louisville I actually got treated like like I was one of those guys so I could go to grocery store people know who I am so that was kind of adjustment I had to make when I went to Louisville but it’s all love okay Jamari thrash joins us a wide receiver fifth round pick uh out of Louisville and Georgia State and happy to have him here on the cross country mortgage campus you go to the senior bull after uh your college days are done uh Kelly Bronson wide receiver coach but on the other team but someone saw something in you at the Senior Bowl and and this Browns regime has done a great job year in and year out of finding Talent at the Senior Bowl every year to draft whether it’s on day two whether it’s on day three what was that experience like and did you get a feel that the Browns at that point might be interested in you during the senior bow nah um the experience I had at the senior B was a great experience uh first and foremost uh just being in that same room with I was in the room with lad uh uh Xavier get just being in the same room with those guys and seeing you know what separates them from everybody else and seeing What Separates Me from those guys and just being in the competition well the comp the competitiveness in that room it just brought a lot out of me so and just seeing that I when I actually went to the Cene I was like okay like I’m actually here like I’m actually like I might be good at football like so uh I think you were pretty good before that so when I got there that kind of solidified me uh I feel like that kind of solidified me as you know I’m I’m actually pretty good at football so just being in the same room with those guys and just learning uh different things from them and different things cuz I think uh Coach Brown yeah Coach Brown was our head coach from New England so he was our um he was our head coach so just being there pretty good coach to learn from too so just learning different schemes and being able to show my versatility it helped me a lot throughout this process all right so when was your first interaction with the Browns uh probably the combine okay all right did you meet with them in the in the booth what was that interview process like um what was that whole interview like those are pretty intense sessions yeah I I just went I was just being myself um coach Coach O actually did my interview he actually drove a couple plays had me uh speak a lot of football speed a lot of football knowledge back to him and he wanted to see how fast I retain a lot of information so I just went in there just being myself and just was able to talk ball with coach and that translates into rookie mini camp weekend obviously and you we’ll I’ll ask you real quick about the draft in just a moment but uh I I watched something from Dan orlovski from ESPN and he pulls out his rookie mini camp Playbook or you know the the the Playbook that they were given it was Kyle shanahans from the Houston Texans in like 2007 and he’s like you know the amount of things that get thrown at you rookie M mini camp weekend because it’s all designed to see how much you can retain and how quickly you can retain it and take it to the football field have you noticed that here in your first couple days yeah yes sir uh well right now they got me playing they got me doing a lot of moving around so and coach coach showed me he told me I’m doing a pretty good job of you know retaining a lot of information and handling it so yeah I think I’m doing a pretty good job of it so far good glad to hear it the draft call where were you what was going on in your house and what what was it like uh we I mean I was just sitting there waiting waiting on waiting on my phone call uh I I thought I was going to get picked early so the first round they took seven receivers in the first round so I’m like okay I could possibly go third I wasn’t thinking I was thinking third I didn’t get picked third and so now I was in Atlanta too but matter of fact I was in Atlanta uh family friends around so we just sitting there waiting waiting waiting and it was so crazy um I was showing my brother cuz my agent came told me he was like all right look like these next five teams they could possibly grab a receiver he was and my name was on the board next well I was like on the on NFL Network I was like one of the best available receivers so U it was like it was New England was on the board it was Cleveland think like the Panthers Dallas and somebody else so showing my brother I’m showing my brother like the list I’m like all right I get picked up by one of these teams when as soon as I showed him Cleveland I had a it was something Ohio something Ohio number so I answer like hello like hey this is Cleveland Browns we’re going to FaceTime like cool so I go get I go upst I’m trying to grab my grab my hat trying to grab my hat I’m talking to um talking to uh Mr Barry on the phone he like yeah man we’re F to select you with the uh in the fifth round so I’m looking for my hat I’m grabbing my hat so I told my people like yeah it’s Cleveland so now we just waiting on the um pop up on the TV it’s weird because you know before it happens so it’s like you’re already excited but you got to kind of hide the excitement a little bit but that moment I’m sure when it comes up on the TV for you and your family something you’re never going to forget yeah and it’s it’s super surreal because like me I’m a I’m I’m a real laidback kind of guy like I don’t really show a lot of emotion so you know once I got my name called it didn’t really hit me yet it didn’t really hit me until I got up here that I’m actually in the NFL so yeah so really I just really trying to take everything a day at a time what are your goals uh as you get ready here I mean there’s a lot being thrown at you it’s rookie mini camp then you’re going to go into the offseason program and join the vets and then all leads into mandatory mini camp what’s your goal what do you want to you know really work on in hone before training camp at the end of July um probably you know just get a lot faster get faster um stronger I want to be able to uh I don’t want to say yeah I want to be able to master Playbook I want to be able to master the Playbook because they’re throwing a lot at me right now but it’s nothing I can’t handle so whenever I come back I just want to be able be on my p’s and q’s I know you got places to be I meetings and uh some more practices here before things are all said and done welcome to Cleveland we’re excited to have you uh I will tell you I was going back through history Antonio Brown sixth round pick Tyreek Hill Stefan digs fifth round picks like make a name it starts on special teams and and goes from there I know you were gunner in college but I wish you all the best of luck enjoy Bubba ventron because he’s a wild and crazy guy but he’s awesome uh and Ken DOR and Kevin stansky and Coach O’Shea are really going to take your places wish you all the best of luck and Contin success thank [Music]

Jason Gibbs sits down with rookie fifth-round pick Jamari Thrash to discuss playing at Louisville, the transfer portal, and playing at the Senior Bowl. On this episode of the Best Podcast Available! #bpa
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