THEM'S THE BREAKS
Undrafted Cager impressing after injury-plagued colleege career
This was not the NFL Scouting Combine experience that Lawrence Cager had been dreaming of. It was 11 hours in an Indianapolis hospital undergoing a medical check, with doctors pulling and pushing on the ankle he had surgically repaired months earlier. There was no 40-yard dash. No chance for the Georgia wide receiver to run routes on the NFL Network.
He spent most of the combine staring at the inside of an MRI tube.
“It killed me not being able to show off my talents,” Cager said Monday.
But Cager was able to interview with NFL teams at the combine and one of those teams was the Jets. He instantly felt a connection to coach Adam Gase and wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson. The Jets subsequently scheduled a visit with Cager at Georgia where they wanted to get a look at his teammate Andrew Thomas as well. That visit was canceled when the pandemic hit. But Cager did have a Zoom call with the Jets a few weeks later.
When the draft came, Cager did not hear his name called. An injury-plagued career first at Miami and then Georgia likely doomed him. But when the draft ended, he had his choice of teams to go to and he knew where he wanted to sign.
“I wasn’t expecting to go undrafted but that’s life,” Cager said. “It’s another obstacle you have to face. Either way, this is where I wanted to end up. Going through the process, meeting with coach Gase, coach Jefferson, if I could pick where I wanted to go this is where I wanted to be at. God works in
mysterious ways and I ended up in the place I wanted to be at. I’m not complaining at all.”
Neither are the Jets. At 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, Cager stands out on the practice field. The undrafted rookie has been getting more and more reps at training camp for the Jets with injuries to receivers Breshad Perriman, Denzel Mims and Vyncint Smith. On Saturday, he made two spectacular touchdown catches, showing his ability to go up and get the ball. He did it again on Sunday.
Cager still faces an uphill climb to make the Jets. With no preseason games, undrafted free agents are going to have a tougher time than ever making the team, but he is catching the coaches’ eyes.
“He’s a quick study, very, very intelligent,” Gase said. “He’s obviously a very big body, smooth runner. He really tries to be a detailed route runner, he tries to do the little things right when we’re talking about certain routes versus certain techniques. He’s just got to keep playing. I think when he gets opportunities like he did [Saturday] and he makes those plays, it’s encouraging for us to see because it’s hard to find guys that are that big that run as smooth as he does and are as sharp as he is. So, he’s a guy that has obviously came in here with a very big chip on his shoulder and he wants to prove a lot of people wrong.”
Cager was star at Calvert Hall High School in Baltimore. He chose the Hurricanes out of high school and played in 11 games as a true freshman. He tore an ACL as a sophomore and missed the entire year. As a junior, he had 16 catches for 237 yards and three touchdowns. In his final year in Miami, he had 21 catches for 374 yards and six touchdowns.
He decided to go to Georgia as a graduate transfer after Miami underwent a coaching change. He was familiar with the Bulldogs coaches and thought he could improve as a player there. Through Georgia’s first 10 games, he led the offense with 33 catches and four touchdown receptions. He had 132 receiving yards in a win over Florida. But he broke his ankle during a late November practice and could not play in the SEC title game or Georgia’s bowl game.
“It was kind of devastating right before the SEC Championship game,” Cager said. “It hurt a lot. It just made me mentally stronger. That’s the only thing I look forward to. I can get through anything after an ACL surgery back sophomore year and now this. Mentally, nothing can hurt be. That’s why I think it was a blessing in disguise.”
The injury probably led to him being undrafted and that led him to the Jets. It could end up being a blessing for both Cager and the Jets.