Grey Zabel unrecognizable as high school senior

Seahawks guard Grey Zabel won a game by over 100 points in high school and that's one of the least surprising facts about him

Many of us put on weight in college. I bet that that none of us knew how to turn “the freshman 15 x 4” into an $18 million job offer.

Just to think of all the times I could have bought La Croix instead of store brand water if I was able to convert my pounds into dollars.

Grey Zabel’s journey as the first Pierre, South Dakota native (pop. 14,000) to reach the NFL is incredible for many reasons. He is just the eighth first round pick in NFL history from South Dakota and the first since the Lions picked Riley Reiff, also an offensive lineman, in 2012. Zabel is the highest drafted South Dakota native since the Vikings picked linebacker Chad Greenway 17th overall in 2006.

He is also the highest drafted offensive lineman in the history of the FCS, which is the level of college football below the FBS schools that most people follow, and the only non-QB out of North Dakota State to ever be taken in the first round (Carson Wentz, Trey Lance are the only QBs). He is only the 24th FCS player ever drafted in the first round.

But Zabel didn’t just make history several times over as a 2025 first round pick, he did it as a 312 lb offensive lineman who looked like this five years ago:

Imagine if Jesse Plemons went from looking like he did in Friday Night Lights to playing Grey Zabel in a movie. (Plot twist: It’s actually a movie about Jalen Sundell.) Zabel’s body transformation for his art is the dream of method actors.

You may have already heard by now that Zabel was also a standout pitcher in high school, posting a 0.68 ERA and hitting the 90s with his fastball. One of his high school coaches still insists that Zabel was better at baseball than football; I only wish that had Zabel pursued pitching instead of blocking that he would have still gained 65 lbs and become the heaviest player in MLB.

But adding weight wasn’t the only transition that Zabel had to make to go from a 0-star recruit who only had offers from schools with “Dakota” in the name as a graduate in 2020: He had to choose a position because in addition to offensive line, baseball, basketball, and farming, Zabel was also a standout defensive end at T.F. Riggs High School.

Zabel was named to the All-State team as a junior in 2018, but as a defensive end:

End: Grey Zabel, Pierre (Jr., 6-6, 235)

Zabel had 32 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, and five sacks on defense. He was also the center of a Govs team that averaged around 37 points per game.

“Grey is our do-it-all offensive lineman,” Steele said. “He is the leader of our offensive line, and is our most football smart player. Grey really blossomed on the defensive side of the ball this year as well.”

I haven’t heard of anyone with this much range since…Jesse Plemons.

The Game is Riggs

Similar to the story I wrote about Jalen Milroe last week, another player who helped turn around a high school program, Zabel’s high school team was just 5-6 under head coach Steve Steele when he was a freshman. The next season, T.F. Riggs went 9-3 and they won the Class 11AA state championship. During Zabel’s junior season, when he was named as an All-State defensive end, Riggs went 10-2 and this time they won every playoff game in a blowout.

And when Zabel was a senior, T.F. Riggs went 12-0 and this is the real score of their first playoff game that year:

T.F. Riggs led 42-0 at the end of the first quarter and Steele said after the game that he felt “sick” about how his team must have made the other team feel that night. But probably not that sick…

Losing coach Chad McCarty told reporters that Steele was clearly going for 100 points, faking an extra point when they were up 54-0 and continuing to pass the ball late into the game. Steele insisted that the fake was not called and that he spoke to the player who threw the (incomplete) pass. This all has very little to do with Zabel who, as you can imagine, didn’t get his name in the papers often because he was an offensive linemen…this whole story was just fascinating to me.

However, Zabel did punt in Riggs’ 103-0 win:

As you probably guessed, T.F. Riggs won the next game 57-7 and then the state championship 32-16 en route to a third straight title. Zabel was honored as the most outstanding lineman (he played tackle in the game) of the state championship. This is him being mesmerized by the award, which I guess could be like “the Oscar” of South Dakota high school sports, I’m not sure:

A year after his write-up as an all-state DE, Zabel now hit the paper for the other side of the trenches as an all-state OL:

Played center for an offense averaging 60 points and 500 yards a game. All-ESD selection twice. Was an All-State DE as a junior.

“Grey is a born leader,” Steele said. “He loves to hit and loves OL play. He has a great football mind, and he loves the sport.”

For anybody who actually wants to get that deep into the woods, Zabel’s high school highlights are posted on Hudl.

It’s not in itself amazing that a player becomes a local hero in high school sports. Maybe locally it’s a big deal — sure — but there are countless stories that start like Grey Zabel’s and end about six weeks after winning the state championship.

It’s not so special in itself that Zabel’s teams went 31-5 and won three straight state championships with him personally receiving all-state honors on BOTH sides of the ball and at the same time rejecting a potential professional baseball career so that he could pursue football at an FCS program because his only offers were from North Dakota State, South Dakota, and South Dakota State.

I’m not saying it’s not-not special because obviously Zabel had the best athletic traits in an entire state. But his story was supposed to end there.

It’s not like Zabel was Quenton Nelson coming out of high school. Nelson’s path to the NFL was much more obvious as a recruit: 5-star tackle goes to Notre Dame. Easy pickings.

But Zabel was unseen, unranked, barely recruited, and couldn’t hit 260 on a scale unless he was holding a very large baby. There are a lot of NFL players who didn’t generate interest out of high school, but the vast majority — like almost 100% — of recruiting profiles that look like this do not reach the pros:

Yet somehow Zabel was able to do more than reach the pros. He has already made history before he’s even played in his first game.

But if Zabel wants to make a habit of it, there is not really a true-blue South Dakota native in the Pro Football Hall of Fame yet.

Norm Van Brocklin was born in South Dakota, but raised in California. Jim Langer, a Hall of Fame center who was on the undefeated Dolphins team in 1972, played at South Dakota State but raised in Minnesota. And Adam Vinatieri, who grew up in Yankton, South Dakota and played at South Dakota State, has yet to make the Hall of Fame although he probably should be in soon.

As a “Zabel”, he’s probably used to hearing his name called last. Maybe that’s why he’s so determined to be the first.

Seaside Joe 2303