Ranking every Notre Dame football first-round draft pick of the last 25 years
13. . DL. Los Angeles Chargers. Jerry Tillery. 28. player
No. 8 Notre Dame football first-round draft pick of the last 25 years: Jerry Tillery
2019 NFL Draft: Round 1, Pick 28
Los Angeles Chargers, 2019–2022
Las Vegas Raiders, 2022–present
Jerry Tillery had a strong start to his career with the Los Angeles Chargers, amassing 10.5 sacks in his first three and a half seasons in Tinseltown before the relationship between the franchise and the Shreveport, Louisiana native disintegrated rapidly this past November.
“The relationship between the Chargers and former first-round pick Jerry Tillery dissolved so quickly and dramatically this week that he was suddenly waived (November 10),” the Los Angeles Times’ Jeff Miller reported. “On Friday, coach Brandon Staley explained that the team and the player had ‘competing visions’ of Tillery’s role, particularly after starting defensive lineman Austin Johnson was lost for the season Sunday. This week, tensions escalated between Tillery and some of his teammates and members of the Chargers’ coaching staff.”
Tillery is now a member of the Las Vegas Raiders, and his story can now go one of two ways.
Either he shows the Chargers what they were missing and continues to develop into a fearsome trench defender, or the issues between the DL and Los Angeles are a sign of Tillery not focusing on the right thing, aka the game of football.