Duncanville product Ennis Rakestraw Jr. has grown into legitimate NFL draft prospect

The journey is what makes this special for Duncanville product Ennis Rakestraw Jr.

He was not recruited by a Power 5 school until the last half of his senior season, but no one should doubt him now. He’s a legitimate NFL draft prospect.

Rakestraw will have two NFL draft parties next week hosted by his mother, Shamika Jones, and his stepfather, Walter Quigley Jr. The Missouri cornerback is expected to be off draft boards after Day 1 or Day 2.

The doubt continues to spark him, though.

“When I was in high school, I told everybody that I talked to they didn’t think I’d be in this situation that I’m in now,” he said. “So I’m extremely grateful and I’m just soaking it all up. So for me being here in front of [reporters] I didn’t think a couple of years [ago] I’d be here. That’s how my mindset has been with everything. I always [look] at myself as an underdog, so I can always stay hungry and strive for me.”

The ‘here’ was the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. It’s a level Quigley didn’t believe was possible when he signed up Rakestraw for football when he was 4.

“To see our first blossom it’s a surreal moment,” Quigley said. “And we have friends like, ‘Man you used to be hard on him. I see how it paid off and it turned out pretty good.’ That’s a for real moment. It was hard. Some kind of way God let us make it through. We’re here now.”

In four seasons at Missouri, Rakestraw overcame a torn ACL (2021) and a groin injury (2023) to emerge as a talented player sought by NFL teams. Last season, he recorded four pass breakups and 35 tackles while covering some of the top receivers in the SEC, such as LSU’s Brian Thomas and Georgia’s Ladd McConkey. In the previous season, he rebounded from the knee injury with 12 pass breakups and one interception.

Rakestraw enters the draft with questions about his size — he’s 5-11 — but that’s something he’s always had to overcome, especially in high school.

As he entered his senior year at Duncanville he made an unofficial visit to North Texas. He wanted to commit, but Quigley told him to be patient. Air Force, Army and Grambling State had scholarship offers. He wanted something bigger. His dream school was Alabama, but there were no signs of interest from the Crimson Tide.

“Actually he took it kinda hard,” Jones said. “He felt like he was putting out the work and nobody was looking at him and the coaches would say, ‘He is too small,’ and it did get under his skin.”

Rakestraw informed his mother a recruiter from the Army was going to reach out. Quigley, again, told him to be patient.

A former Duncanville player told David Gibbs, the secondary coach at Missouri, about Rakestraw.

Gibbs saw something in Rakestraw few did at the time. Missouri offered Rakestraw a scholarship. He still waited. There was an official visit to Colorado State. He waited.

During his senior year, Rakestraw didn’t allow a touchdown the entire season and held five-star recruit Rakim Jarrett from Washington, D.C., to five catches for 36 yards and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, a four-star recruit from Rockwall, to five catches for 37 yards.

Duncanville coach Reginald Samples said the game against Smith-Njigba, an Ohio State signee and future first-round pick, put Rakestraw “on the map.”

When the season was over, Rakestraw was named The Dallas Morning News’ Defensive Player of the Year.

“He wasn’t heavily recruited until the last five days of his senior year,” Samples said. “He was just one of those guys [that] came out of nowhere. He was always real talented. … I didn’t know he was the player that he was, my assistant coaches said this kid really got it.”

Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Miami, Baylor and Michigan State offered. Then Alabama coach Nick Saban visited the Rakestraw household.

Loyalty is big with Rakestraw and his family.

He picked Missouri.

“Missouri was my first offer, my first Power 5 offer,” he said. “So I had a lot of loyalty to them. I actually was committed to Alabama. I told Nick Saban the day before signing day. [I] got to the table [at signing day] and told my mom something wasn’t right. I’m going to Missouri. She said why? I said the reason I went to Missouri was because I wanted to go to a program that wasn’t already built up and structured and make them a winning program. I think in my four years, my senior, year we finally got it done.”

The Tigers finished the regular season 10-2 and defeated Ohio State in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl. Rakestraw had morphed from a three-star prospect with no offers entering his senior year into a can’t-miss NFL prospect.

The journey is something his family won’t forget.

“My mom had me three days before being 16, so a lot of people told my mom we wouldn’t be in this situation we’re in now,” he said. “A lot of people talked down to my mom. My recruitment didn’t blow up until my senior year, so a lot of people doubted me as a player, I put them two together and made something positive.”

What brings a smile to his mother’s face is the four seasons where Rakestraw made SEC academic honor rolls while also handling his business on the field.

“That young man has never given me life problems,” she said. “So far he could have done something else even when I wasn’t looking and he didn’t.”

Twitter: @calvinwatkins

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