LSU Football's Justin Jefferson, Clyde Edwards-Helaire to Face off Against Saints in New Orleans

Louisiana natives have plenty of success in Superdome, will look to continue it as NFL rookies

Growing up in Louisiana as a young football player, the ultimate dream and goal, starting in high school, is to represent your town, your state, in the Superdome. 

For two former LSU players from Louisiana in the 2020 draft class, those dreams will finally come true. They were just in the Dome winning a national championship five months ago and now come to New Orleans as NFL rookies.

With the Minnesota Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs both slated to visit New Orleans for regular season matchups, it means that Louisiana legends Justin Jefferson and Clyde Edwards-Helaire will return to the bayou.

The Chiefs will travel to face the Saints on Dec. 20 at 3:25 p.m.

It will see the return of the Catholic High School graduate Edwards-Helaire, who not only won a national championship with LSU in 2019 but a state championship with the Bears in 2015. The Superdome is a stadium he's had a ton of success in, combining for 249 yards in the state title win over Rummel.

Edwards-Helaire also rushed for 110 yards and added another 54 yards through the air in the Tigers 42-25 win over Clemson in the Dome. Saints fans can probably expect him to be well integrated into the Chiefs system by the week 15 matchup.

"He is, he's a great kid and such a special football player," coach Andy Reid said of Edwards-Helaire after the pick. "You saw what he did with the national champs this past year and you talk to the different people there and they tell you what a great competitor he is and what he lacks in size he's got in heart and work ethic. So we sure welcome him to the Chiefs. We're excited to put him in this offense and cut him loose."

The Saints are then slated to take on the Vikings on Christmas Day just five days later at 3:30 p.m. It will mark the return of Jefferson, the New Orleans native who attended Destrahan High School before breaking onto the scene in 2018 with the Tigers.

Like Edwards-Helaire, Jefferson starred in LSU's win over Clemson, hauling in nine receptions for 106 yards in the championship win. 

Jefferson will likely spend most of his time on the outside with the Vikings, as opposed to the 2019 season when he spent the majority of his snaps in the slot.

“I was very small, undersized, lightly recruited, the whole thing,” Jefferson said. “Definitely didn't think that this would be coming and just to be -- being in this situation, not a lot of people can say that they have been drafted or even been in the first round. Definitely blessed to be in this situation.“

Edwards-Helaire and Jefferson will surely feel a wide range of emotions in their returns to Louisiana as they both have similar stories. Both weren't heavy recruits out of high school but they found a way to make historic impacts with the Tigers in their short-lived careers.

You better believe they'll want to continue that trend in New Orleans against the hometown Saints come next season.