How A.J. Terrell Jr. mentored his brother, Avieon, who's set to join the All-Pro in the NFL

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. -- Avieon Terrell waited by the gate for his older brother, A.J., to come off the football field. Tears started to well up in his eyes. It was his turn.

Aundell and Aliya, the boys' parents, knew exactly what Avieon wanted, because it was a scene that played out after most of the 7-year-old A.J.'s games and practices. Avieon couldn't wait to put on his big brother's uniform.

"He's so small, big helmet, and he's crying because he wants to put the helmet on, put the shoulder pads on," Aundell, their father, recalled to ESPN. "So, he's walking and people looking at us like, 'He's too small for that.' But it's OK, this is going to keep him quiet."

Avieon eventually got his own uniforms. Those looked a lot like A.J.'s, as well. Avieon followed in his brother's football footsteps, starring at both of his alma maters: Westlake (Atlanta) High School and Clemson.

Now, it's Avieon's turn as a pro. On April 23, he is expected to be selected in the first round of the 2026 NFL draft. Avieon plays cornerback, like his brother. A.J., though, is privately hoping Avieon doesn't end up like him this time -- being drafted by the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons do not have a first-round pick, in any case, but A.J. believes it's time for his little brother to carve out his own path.

"I want to play against him and see him walk on the sideline," A.J. said. "I want to see him play and I want him to have his own story somewhere else. I don't want the narrative to be the Terrell brothers."

Avieon knows he has been in A.J.'s shadow. He felt the weight of expectations with every accomplishment. A.J. was a high school All-American, then first-team All-ACC at Clemson, then the No. 16 pick in the 2020 draft for their hometown team, the Falcons.

"My mindset at that time was, a lot of pressure," Avieon said. "It was a lot of pressure. At that time, it was just, all right, I'm going to go out here and prove everyone wrong."

At clinics, camps and workouts, Aundell remembers Avieon being pointed out by other parents and coaches because of who his brother was.

"It was a mindset thing walking through the door with Avieon with somebody saying, 'Hey, I want to go against him,'" Aundell said. "A.J. didn't have to worry about that. He just kind of did it, and it was like, 'Oh, OK. Who is that kid? OK, he's pretty tall.' But Avieon had to deal with the next father telling [his kid], 'Hey, you want to shine today, you need to beat that kid over there.'"

AVIEON'S FOOTBALL JOURNEY started when he was 5 years old -- four years after he'd begged to put on A.J.'s jersey. Right away, it was clear to his family that while the path might have been forged by A.J., and to a degree his two sisters, Avieon was going to walk it in his own way.

Ariel, the firstborn of the Terrell family, was a college athlete in track and field at Western Kentucky. A.J. came next and then Arieaunna, who also ran collegiate track at West Georgia. Avieon is the baby of the family, and watching his three older siblings excel in athletics made him feel like it would be only a matter of time for him.

A.J. briefly quit football when he was 6 -- he said he didn't like the physicality of it -- before eventually returning and excelling. He was hesitant, the kind of kid who would think things through carefully before making a decision. Avieon was different; he threw himself into things without any reluctance.

"I'll just say he's just a daredevil, bro," A.J. said. "He just does stuff that I used to question. Certain things, I just say, getting on a roller coaster or swimming, jumping in the deep end. Football, basketball, any sport, he just had a knack for proving himself right and just going out with supreme confidence early and just having fun with stuff."

Avieon was a star at Westlake and said it was early in his high school career when he started thinking of A.J. as a peer as well as an older brother. When the two would work out together then, while A.J. was at Clemson, Avieon said he could feel a difference. A.J. didn't have to look back at him anymore to make sure he was doing the drill correctly.

That led to an increased competitiveness between the two brothers, though in a healthy way. Avieon said he felt pressure the more A.J. accomplished, especially when he was drafted by the Falcons. But A.J. was never the one putting the pressure on -- instead he was helping alleviate it.

Avieon arrival at Clemson is when he felt like he was seeing the game on a greater level -- as he needed to -- and that deepened the conversations between the brothers. They said they stay in communication throughout the week.

"I would say he was competitive as a mentor," Avieon said. "He's been a mentor my whole life. So, somebody I can look up to, been looking up to since I've been knowing football, first since I was 5. And then the competitive part, we're still competitive to this day. I want to do everything he does. We got that type of relationship."

There were some things Avieon didn't get the opportunity to do at Clemson that his brother did. A.J. had a 44-yard pick-six to help the Tigers win the national championship in 2019, beating favored Alabama 44-16.

Those expectations, Aliya said, made for a more difficult path for Avieon, who compiled his own accomplishments at Clemson. Avieon was a 2025 All-American, a Jim Thorpe award semifinalist and an All-ACC first-team selection. And he set two Clemson defensive backs records for forced fumbles -- in a season (five in 2025) and over a career (eight).

"I see Avieon, both him and A.J., they feed off of each other," Aliya said. "A.J. will see Avi's game, he'll dissect Avi's game and tell Avieon his flaws and what he could have done better. And then vice versa. Avieon will watch A.J. and they kind of critique each other. ... If one gets an interception, the other wants it. If one gets this, the other wants it. So, they kind of feed off of each other's play from a Saturday to Sunday. It's going to be very interesting to watch them both go at it on a Sunday-to-Sunday level."

AUNDELL WROTE A.J. a note before he went to the NFL combine in 2020. Aundell folded it up and stuck it in A.J.'s wallet. A.J. discovered it when he opened the wallet to pay for gas.

The message was personal. Aundell wrote about how much A.J. meant to him as a son and the difficulty of A.J. leaving him a second time, with the first being him going off to Clemson. But Aundell also wrote that A.J. now had to be a professional in everything he did. Be on time to meetings. Don't miss your physical therapy appointments. Work hard. Not that Aundell had a single doubt -- A.J. was always the most prepared player he could be, he said.

The day before Avieon went to Indianapolis for the combine this February, A.J. sent his brother a long text message. He had not even realized he was emulating the same type of thing their father did for him six years earlier. It was almost exactly the same type of message: nostalgic but not sad.

"Just taking him back on all the work we did, all the work we put in, just talking about how much he means to me on a personal note, just seeing how he grew up and took everything in and ran his own race -- always being doubted and things like that, and just still coming out on top," A.J. said.

A.J. told Avieon to be himself -- the daredevil -- when being interviewed by coaches. Shake their hands firmly, look them in the eyes and be confident. Not that A.J. had a single concern about that -- confidence was always the trait he admired most in Avieon.

"It was one of those paragraphs I needed," Avieon said. "... Just on how proud he is and how it's time to go show everybody why you're here and he's been watching since he was a kid and how he's proud that I'm here."

The next day, Avieon got up to the podium in front of reporters and said matter-of-factly he wanted to "destroy" all of A.J.'s times at the combine.

"I want to be able to talk junk to him," Avieon said.

Someone dropped the interview in the family group chat, and A.J. said all he could do was laugh.

"He don't mean no harm," A.J. said with a smile.

Avieon didn't run the 40-yard dash, but he did top A.J.'s marks in the vertical leap (34 inches) and bench-press reps. Avieon has been dealing with a hamstring injury that he aggravated last week at his pro day at Clemson, but "I'm good," Avieon said.

After he found out that Avieon did 17 reps at 225 pounds on the bench press, A.J. went to his home garage to see how many he could do right now.

"I hit it like 10 times," A.J. said with mock sadness.

What's the next milestone to break? A.J. said he'd like to see Avieon become All-Pro his rookie season. A.J. did it in 2021, his second year in the league.

"All-Pro rookie year, we're doing that," Avieon said.

Aundell said that when he would come home from work when Avieon was a baby, he'd arrive to see his youngest running around the house wearing A.J.'s too-big-for-him football uniform.

The brothers have come a long way from those days, though maybe not that far. The biggest difference is Avieon has his own gear now. And it fits him perfectly.

"He got to buckle up his boots a little bit, tighten up his belt and just stay locked in differently than A.J.," Aundell said. "I already understand that. I'm not worried one bit because I know who Avieon is. The moment the lights come on, you're going to know Avieon is on the field. Period."