It was something of a miracle that offensive lineman Jason Poe even landed a UDFA deal with the 49ers. His college, Mercer has zero players in the NFL. Their last alum to play in the NFL was Wesley Duke in 2005, and he only played basketball for the school since they didn’t have a football program then.
Poe’s miracle began well before that though, and his climb from square one to the NFL was terrifically detailed by Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle.
While plenty of players have stories of overcoming adversity to make it to the NFL, Poe’s story begins somewhere just south of rock bottom.