Jake Curhan

Curhan was born in Larkspur, California, about 16 miles north of San Francisco, and is Jewish.[1][2][3] His father, Greg Curhan, had attended Dartmouth College, and his mother, Randi Curhan, had attended the University of Pennsylvania.[4][5] He grew up in Corte Madera, in Marin County, California, with his parents and two older brothers.[6] Every summer he went to a Jewish summer camp on the east coast of the United States.[6] He played competitive travel basketball, and his mother recalls that because of his size: "Kids would always be kind of ricocheting off of him in the game. He was like a wall."[7] He lives in Larkspur.[8]

Curhan attended Redwood High School (2016) in Larkspur.[9][5] He played one season of high school basketball.[4] He only began to play football when he was a sophomore in high school.[4][10] He started on the offensive line for three seasons, from 2013–15, even though 2013 was his first time playing the sport.[4] As a junior, he was Honorable Mention Marin County Athletic League on both the offensive and defensive lines.[4]

As a senior, he moved to left tackle and played on the defensive line.[4] Prior to his senior season, he earned preseason All-Northern California honors from SportStars, was listed at No. 8 among players to watch by the San Francisco Chronicle, and was named the No. 2 player in the North Bay Area by North Bay Preps.[4] In his senior season he was team captain, and was named Lineman of the Year by the Marin County Athletic League, first-team All-State Medium School by Cal-Hi Sports, and San Francisco All-Metro.[7][4]

In 2016, Curhan was a three-star scholarship recruit to University of California, Berkeley (B.A. in Business Administration; 2020), spending his first year as a redshirt.[11][4][3] In 2017, Curhan started in all 12 games on offense for the California Golden Bears, playing right tackle while earning Pac-12 All-Academic honors.[4] He adopted the nickname on his Instagram account of "the Bear Jew."[12] Following a game against Ole Miss, he was named the team's player of the week.[3]

As a sophomore in 2018, Curhan started in all 13 games, earning Pac-12 All-Academic honors for the second consecutive year.[4] He also made two tackles on offensive turnovers.[4]

Prior to his junior year, he was named fourth-team preseason All-Pac-12 by Athlon and Phil Steele, and honorable mention by Pro Football Focus.[4] Curhan was a first-team midseason All-Pac-12 selection of SB Nation, and a second-team selection of the Bay Area News Group (BANG).[4] He started every game for the third straight year as a junior in 2019, was named All-Pac 12 honorable mention, earned All-Pac-12 honors from Phil Steele and Pro Football Focus, and served as team captain.[4]

Before the 2020 season Curhan was a Preseason All-California Region selection by SportsPac12, was named to the preseason Outland Trophy Watch List, and was named second-team (BANG/Jon Wilner, Pac-12 Media, Phil Steele) and third-team (Athlon, Lindy's Sports, Pick Six Previews) preseason All-Pac-12.[4] In a shortened 2020 season that included just four games, he made two starts, only missed two due to Covid contact tracing. He was given honorable mention All-Pac-12 honors by the conference's coaches.[3][10] As a junior he was a member of the conference's initial Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll that replaced its Pac-12 All-Academic teams.[4] In his college career he was a starter in all 40 games he played, all at right tackle.[13] Rather than play an additional season, Curhan declared for the NFL Draft.[3]

On January 30, 2021, Curhan played for the National team in a 27-24 victory over the American squad in the 2021 Senior Bowl.[4] The Pro Football Network reported: "Curhan showed potentially underrated athleticism at 6-foot-6, 323 pounds, and his length also gives him utility in the trenches."[9] He posted a 5.42 40-yard dash at Cal's annual Pro Day on March 18, 2021.[4]

The website Walter Football ranked Curhan as the No. 16 offensive tackle in the draft, described him as a "steady pass protector and quality run blocker," and projected him as being picked in the third to fifth round.[17] He was not selected in the 2021 NFL Draft on April 29 to May 1, 2021.[11]

Curhan was then signed by the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent, receiving the largest signing bonus among the team's undrafted class; he was the only undrafted free agent to make the Seahawks’ regular season roster in 2021.[18][19] After impressing the team in back-to-back preseason starts, with coach Pete Carroll noting that he gave up only one pressure on “27 or 28″ pass attempts playing right tackle during the preseason, he was given a spot with the team on the final 53-man roster on August 31, 2021.[20][18][11][21]

He made his NFL debut in week one against the Indianapolis Colts on September 12, 2021, appearing on four snaps in the 28–16 win.[22] He made his first start on December 12, at right tackle.[23][19] In 2021 he played 405 snaps in 15 games, making five starts (in which the team won three games), and wasn't penalized a single time.[24][25][1] He started the last five games of the season at right tackle, playing all offensive snaps in each game.[23][24] During that span, Pro Football Focus graded him as the 16th-best run blocking tackle out of 54 qualified players.[24]

• List of select Jewish football players

• Jake Curhan on Instagram
• Career statistics and player information from NFL.com · Pro Football Reference
• Seattle Seahawks bio
• California Golden Bears bio