'I know how the bottom feels': Tank Dell rises from overlooked recruit to NFL draft pick

Those who know him best will tell you that football's not just everything to Tank Dell — it's the only thing.

From the time he turned 5 and buckled his chinstrap to join the Daytona Beach Buccaneers' Pop Warner program, Dell knew exactly what he wanted out of life. And he was ready to go to any lengths to achieve that dream, in spite of seemingly long odds.

"I was actually trying to get him into baseball around 6 or 7 years old. He was good at that, but would look at me like, 'What's the point of this?' " Porsche Dell, his mother, said.

"Football was his go-to ever since he was small, kid you not.  … He always felt it was never enough, that he could be better than what he was. There was nothing really outside of football for Tank."

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Decades of dedication, and years of proving doubters wrong, are finally about to pay off. The 5-foot-8, 165-pound slot receiver and Mainland High grad is expected to become the 29th Volusia-Flagler player selected in the NFL draft this weekend.

As far as reality sinking in, Dell said, "I wouldn't even say I got the chance."

"I've been on the move like crazy ever since coming out of my college season. … It's been good, though. It's a blessing to be where I'm at and where I'm going. I can't complain. I like being busy, especially when it comes to doing something good with my life."

Call me Tank

No one calls Nathaniel Jasper Dell Jr. by the forename written on his birth certificate. No one.

Not himself, not his teammates, not his coaches, not even his parents. On the contrary, Porsche Dell created the nickname shortly after her middle child was born, though Tank is actually the shorthand version.

"Tankhead," she said when asked of the origin story. "His head was bigger than his body."

But it stuck; through childhood, and especially as he approached high school where the moniker almost became ironic. The undersized Dell tried out for Mainland's football team ahead of his freshman year, but was forced to wait his turn.

He spent nearly two years on JV behind a logjam of quality wide receivers: Wilfred Taylor, Kaylo Hannah, Brant Williams, Will Collins, Randy Baker and others. Terry Anthony, Mainland's athletic director and wide receivers coach, said Dell was not ready to contribute right away.

"He was a smaller guy, and he was not ready for varsity football at that time," Anthony said. "He paid his dues on the JV squad his freshman year. Sophomore year, he started on JV and moved up. He never let anyone deter him because of his size. It's what he's had to hear all his life, that he's too small."

Dell earned a full-time spot as a junior, and became the focal point of Mainland's offense ahead of his senior year after a stellar summer of 7-on-7 tournaments. He attracted the interest of Florida International with his performance at its mega camp, landing his first Division I offer.

Playing through an ankle injury as a senior in 2017, Dell earned All-Area second team honors with 34 receptions for 354 yards as part of a receiving corps that had three D-I signees (Brian Jenkins Jr. and D'Marcus Adams being the others). In the team's regional semifinal showdown against Miami Carol City, Dell kept the Buccaneers within arm's length of the favored Chiefs by rushing for 51 yards and a touchdown as a Wildcat quarterback.

"He has the heart (the size) of a tank, I'll tell you that," Anthony said. "Regardless of what the situation was, Tank Dell wanted the ball. I don't care if it was 4th-and-30, or a 5-yard slant, he wanted the ball to come to him. That Wildcat situation was made just for him. We knew going into it that we had no option to throw the football. With his shiftiness and his heart, we knew he was going to make something happen."

A 'really dark space'

Determination can't be measured, yet college coaches remained skeptical when evaluating Dell because of his slender frame and diminutive stature.

Florida International told Dell to hold off on making a verbal commitment from the get-go, and later pulled his offer ahead of the December signing window. The sudden uncertainty left Dell in a "really dark space," feeling angry that the nights spent running in the Daytona Beach sands until 10 p.m. were seemingly all for naught.

"I was showing love to all my brothers; (Florida State signee) D'Marcus Adams, that's my closest friend. He was getting all the big offers, and I was congratulating him and happy for him," Dell said. "I was just waiting for my time to come. When your closest friends are getting blessed, that means there are blessings in the neighborhood. I felt like I was always going to be next up, but I never got that call from those schools.

"I was angry, but it motivated me at the same time — just wanting to go hard, not wanting to be around people at some points and be by myself to work out and go home."

Dell's anger was shared by Mainland's coaching staff.

"I was livid and, to this day, I still hold personal grudges about the way Tank Dell was done in the recruiting process. It was done unprofessionally, and that's just how it is," Anthony said.

Alabama A&M emerged as a late option when former Bethune-Cookman head coach Brian Jenkins Sr. accepted the position of running backs coach and special teams coordinator on Connell Maynor's staff. Jenkins was given the green light not only to offer his son a spot on the team, but Dell too as a package deal.

Making a 'business decision'

Dell missed the majority of his freshman season at Alabama A&M due to a hip injury, but he electrified in the Magic City Classic — the annual rivalry with Alabama State that pits the state's two largest historically Black universities head-to-head. He torched the Hornets for 204 yards and two touchdowns on just six receptions in a 27-10 win.

Playing four times as a freshman, the maximum number of games allowed by the NCAA to protect an extra year of eligibility, Dell harbored ambitions of a grander stage. So he made, what he described at the time, a business decision upon returning from winter break at the start of 2019.

"He told me about transferring on a Monday, there were no talks between us on Tuesday or Wednesday. By Saturday, he had the room extremely clean," Jenkins Jr. said. "He ended up leaving Sunday, going home to Daytona and flying to Independence that next week."

Dell chose to enroll at Independence Community College in Kansas, a program that gained national attention as the subject of the Netflix documentary series "Last Chance U." He impressed then-receivers coach Kiyoshi Harris from the moment he took the practice field.

"The biggest thing is his work ethic and attention to detail when he's practicing. Football is the world to this kid, and he'll outwork anyone," Harris said. "It was never an issue about the classroom with him, either. He loved getting better at the game of football. He'd do whatever it takes to get better. It's something a lot of kids don't have. I think that is why he'll have a long career playing the game."

Dell dominated in his Independence debut, catching six balls for 148 yards and three touchdowns. The Pirates' offensive coaches quickly realized Dell needed the ball frequently — not only to win games, but to give the redshirt freshman as much exposure as possible.

"We knew he could play at the FBS level, but we needed to showcase his abilities and his route-running, get that output from him and put it on tape to sell him as an FBS wide receiver," Harris said.

South Florida offered Dell two days after his first game at Independence. Dell was enticed at the idea of returning to his home state and ready to lock in a commitment with the Bulls. Instead, USF's interest waned and eventually fell off altogether as the team struggled mightily in Charlie Strong's third season, resulting in his firing that December.

Most feedback, Harris said, was all too familiar — even as Dell finished the campaign with 52 receptions, 766 yards and eight scores: "The coaches were like, 'He's a heck of a player. His film pops. But he don't pass the eye test. It would be hard for me to take him to my head coach.' "

'You my guy'

Tyron Carrier, on the other hand, took a hardline stance. He'd been told there was a kid at a Kansas JUCO who resembled his playing style and had the same mentality, so he had to take a trip to see for himself.

Carrier visited Independence in mid-November 2019, and met face-to-face with Dell in the coaches' office. He explained, directly, that Dell was the only athlete he wanted to take with him to Houston.

"We almost looked eye-to-eye; he was taller than me," said Carrier, who caught 320 passes for the Cougars and tied an NCAA record with seven kickoff returns for touchdowns. "He looked over at me and said, 'Hell yeah, coach. I want to play for you.'

"I saw the fire and passion. His eyes watered up when I told him, 'You my guy.' "

Carrier said he was met with initial reservations from other members of Houston's staff, but Dell was his top target. Dell committed on Dec. 9, 2019 — three days after spending an official visit — and signed his letter of intent the same month.

It proved to be an enormous boon to the Cougars' passing attack. In three seasons, Dell caught 211 passes for 2,904 yards and 28 touchdowns. And he saved his best for last, leading the Football Bowl Subdivision with 1,398 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns while finishing second in catches (109) during the 2022 season.

"None of this is a surprise to me. None of it," said Carrier, now the wide receivers coach at Grambling State. "The concerns were always that he's small and he might get hurt. You gotta hit him first."

Senior Bowl standout

It's been a year of role reversal for Dell; a player deemed undesirable for far too long is now one of the NFL draft's most intriguing and coveted prospects.

Dell earned invitations to both the Reese's Senior Bowl and the NFL combine, lighting up social media with his crisp releases off the line of scrimmage, sharp breaks at the top of routes and elusiveness with the ball in his hands.

"It makes defenders nervous to see players with Dell's speed and separation ability lining up across from them on Sundays," NFL.com writers Lance Zierlein and Eric Edholm wrote in February. "As was the case during the 2022 college football season, Dell has basically been unstoppable in one-on-one matchups and has clearly created buzz with scouts I've spoken with in Mobile."

Yet, if you ask Dell, those viral clips were nothing special whatsoever.

"I watched them, but I really wasn't too high on them. You can ask all my brothers here in Houston; shoot, you can go all the way back to when I was playing in high school at Mainland. Those weren't even some of the best routes I've ran," Dell said.

"I feel like those were average routes. That's just something I do. I wasn't too excited. But it was good that it put my name on the map even more, and shouts out to (Senior Bowl Executive Director) Jim Nagy."

At the combine, Dell measured in at 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, and ran the 40-yard dash at an official time of 4.49 seconds. Since Houston's pro day, Dell told The News-Journal he has taken top-30 prospect visits to the facilities of the Cleveland Browns, the Houston Texans and the Tennessee Titans, and worked out privately for the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys.

Most pundits expect Dell to be selected on Day 2 of the draft. Pro Football Focus listed him as a mid-second round pick in its seven-round mock draft, NFL.com's Chad Reuter, The Athletic's Dane Brugler and ESPN's Matt Miller each believe Dell will go off the board in Round 3.

'A symbol of hope'

Adonis Boone remembers making a pact with Dell shortly before their graduation at Mainland.

Boone, another draft hopeful following a five-year run along the offensive line at Louisville, first met Dell when they were 12 years old on Thunderbird Drive in Daytona Beach, just a few blocks from Derbyshire Park. The best memories Boone has of their friendship are the battles they shared playing basketball within the neighborhood — all love at the end of the day, but with fiery competitive spirit.

Before going their separate ways for college, Boone said that he and Dell told one another they were going to succeed.

"In the city, we only really have two choices: make it out or succumb to our environment," Boone said. "He may have been disappointed that people overlooked him, but he never once doubted his own abilities. He's a real stand-up guy. Nobody can take that confidence."

Jenkins, a graduate transfer at Prairie View A&M, said Dell is living out both of their dreams, describing his friend as the "true definition of a triumph story."

"Tank is a symbol of hope," Jenkins said. "There's such a long, storied history in Daytona Beach of athletes that did not make it. He's from the west side of Daytona — played for the Bucs, ran for the Supersonics. To see one of your own, where you're from, growing up underprivileged in the 'hood a little bit, when he wins, we all win."

But, for Dell, the story is just starting. Overcoming the odds and earning a spot in the NFL is a challenge all its own, but it's one he will soon conquer. The next one is sticking in the league and becoming a playmaker on Sundays.

Dell still sees opportunities to wake up those who continue to sleep on him, and he possesses that same level of hunger and tireless attitude to improve.

"I know how the bottom feels, and how it feels like when you don't have anybody to lean on and you've got to pick yourself up," Dell said. "You've got to put your back against the wall every day and do it for you.

"The road I had to take, I'll never take that for granted. If I had to, I'd go back down that same road to get to where I am today. Knowing that I had to take this road and knowing what I had to go through to get here, that's enough motivation for me.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Tank Dell rises from overlooked recruit at Mainland to NFL draft pick