Lil’Jordan Humphrey caught the first Broncos TD pass of the season yesterday.
Is this breaking news to you? It is to me, a person who endeavors to follow a handful of the New Orleans Saints awesomest undrafted receivers of the past few years, as their careers unfold elsewhere. Why? How? I don’t know. Fantasy, probably? Regardless, it’s a great hobby for a middle-aged man.
I don’t cheer for the Saints much. They’ve always had talented wide receivers who played the game with their own… (you know where this link is headed) distinctive panache. Right now they obviously have a bunch, beyond Michael Thomas, like Chris Olave, Tre’Quan Smith, and a new-ish undrafted WR Rashid Shaheed (who caught a TD yesterday).
NFL rosters are always in flux. So unfortunately some dudes do not remain. And since the retirement of Drew Brees and Sean Payton the Saints identity has been up for grabs. Going from “Who dat?” To “who are they?”. A mediocre team? I dunno. This is not about them, now! It’s time to look at the subheader of this post again and realize we are moving on. While I’m sad they’re not all playing for the Saints anymore, I’m glad they’re not relying on Derek Carr to throw them the ball.
Tommylee Lewis
Just let me embed the goddamn video. It’s worth watching.
The world does not make any sense to me if a guy named Tommylee cannot stick on an NFL roster. Undrafted out of Northern Illinois (where he even threw a TD pass), Lewis, just 5’7”, had a handful of magical moments for the Saints over the years, and also texts with Bill Parcells a lot in the wee hours of the morning. Most of his snaps came as a returner, but he’s probably most known for a catch he was not allowed to make.
If Tommylee catches that pass, maybe the Saints go back to the Super Bowl. Two months later he was not a Saint anymore. But over the next couple of years, they kept bringing him back. They could not get Tommylee Lewis out of their system! Now he’s a Calgary Stampeder in the CFL. Calgary btw is the “Denver of Canada” and has well over a million residents. Ok.
Bonus Tommylee vid:
Marquez Callaway
First things first. Pronounce it correctly. Even when saying it silently to yourself.
Undrafted out of Tennessee amidst the pandemic in 2020, Marquez Callaway signed with the Saints and went to work, making one-handed catches …
and more one-handed catches and still more heroic catches I can’t embed …
Callaway was not offered a contract this off-season and hooked back up with Sean Payton in Denver briefly, before joining the Raiders practice squad moments ago. That seems to be temporary. He’s too good to be relegated there for long.
LIL’JORDAN HUMPHREY
From his Texas Longhorns player page:
Lil’Jordan Humphrey’s name is somewhat of a contradiction. At 6-foot-4-inches, 222 pounds, he is not what most would call “little,” but as a compromise for his older brother — who wanted him to be named ‘Michael’ for Michael Jordan — his mother went with “Lil’Jordan ...
If you collected a golden coin for every time an announcer said. “...who is not that Lil” you’d be rich. After a dominant 2018 season for the Longhorns, Lil’Jordan went — please guess — undrafted in 2019. He, too, bounced between practice squad and roster. But made some great plays. You’ll notice they were losing most of those games. Again, that’s not Saints football. The dream is over. My memories are all gauzy about what probably could never have been, for any of these guys in New Orleans, moving forward. That’s why there’s like 31 other teams.
He caught on with the Patriots last year and made this epic special teams play. This year he reunited with Sean Payton in Denver and made the team.
DEONTE HARTY
Undrafted out of mega football powerhouse Assumption University ?? in 2019, Harty made the Saints roster and the fucking Pro Bowl. The first undrafted Saint rookie to do so. He’s now a Buffalo Bill!
BONUS Take a listen to Ugarles & L Ron Mexico’s Saints Podcast: City Saint & Country Saint
