Kirk Penner

Nate Boerkircher had one scholarship offer coming out of high school and it was from a Division II school, and six years later Jacksonville took him in the second round. He grew up in Aurora, Nebraska. The 2020 census put the population at 4,678. When the four Boerkircher kids went through the high school there, the graduating classes were around 100. He had knee surgery before his junior season and missed the start of it. He came back in time to catch two touchdown passes from his quarterback, a kid named Baylor Scheierman who now plays for the Boston Celtics, and Aurora finished 13-0. Nobody offered. He did not care. "I was shocked when he said he's going Division I or he wasn't going to play and just go to college," his mother Sherry said. So he walked on at Nebraska in 2020. His older brother Ian had walked on there the year before, after starting out at Division II Nebraska-Kearney. Ian wore 58. Nate wore 49. On September 3, 2022, Nate caught a 19 yard touchdown pass against North Dakota, and Ian came sprinting off the sideline to grab him. "Thank God they got that picture," Ian said. "I'm running onto the field to celebrate with him because I had the biggest adrenaline rush of my life seeing him score." The newspapers in Lincoln and Omaha ran no comments from Nate that night. Nobody asked. "That was one of the most amazing days," Sherry said, "because my boys were on the field at the same time for Nebraska and they got to celebrate together and play together." Nebraska put him on scholarship before the 2023 season. Year four. He caught 11 passes over the next two years. In five seasons there he had 19 catches total. He put his name in the portal in December of 2024 and called a coach he knew at Texas A&M himself. Three games into that season, on fourth down with 13 seconds left in South Bend, he caught an 11 yard touchdown to beat Notre Dame 41 to 40. His parents had driven from Nebraska and were watching from the opposite corner. "Very emotional," his father Matt said. "It's still emotional. Right underneath Touchdown Jesus." He finished his college career with 38 catches. Jacksonville drafted him 56th overall anyway. The reaction online was not kind, because almost nobody had heard of him and the draft boards had him going on the last day. "He's been a steady climber all of his life," Matt said. Before this season, his father and his brother had never been to an NFL regular season game in their lives. TONIGHT, in Baltimore, Nate Boerkircher caught a 52 yard pass. It was the longest play of the game and it set up the first touchdown. Somewhere in Nebraska there is a photograph of his brother running onto a field to hug him.