INDIANAPOLIS – Zachariah Branch was met with a blast from the past in his formal interview with the Raiders at the NFL Combine.
As the Georgia receiver sat down with the coaches and front office staff, they pulled out a childhood picture of Branch, who grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In the photo, Branch is posing with the many track medals he racked up. They were lined up across his arms and his neck, serving as a portent at an early age of the athlete he’d become. The Raiders staff asked Branch to share what comes to mind when looking at the picture.
“I was like, ‘The first thing you see man, there ain’t too many bronze up there.'” Branch joked when relaying the story to the media Friday. “You see the gold and the silver on. It was pretty cool interview overall. I had a good time especially [being my] hometown team.”
Before committing to the USC Trojans to follow his older brother Zion, he was a five-star athlete out of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. ESPN and 247 Sports ranked him as the top prospect from the state of Nevada and nationally, the top wide receiver in the 2023 class, having won multiple state titles in football and track. His father, Shéva, is the track & field sprint and strength coach at his high school alma mater.
“I feel like I’ve been a pro since I was in middle school,” Branch said. “My dad has a great background of training. … I’ve been doing cryotherapy, laser therapy since I was in middle school. Keeping on my protein shakes and everything since I was in middle school. When I was younger, I might’ve been like, ‘Ahh! I don’t really like it,’ but I figured out what works for me and I felt like I had a good system around me and a good platform around me that set me up to be ready for this moment.”