An Injury to Second Round Pick Denzel Mims Is Allowing Undrafted Lawrence Cager to Impress

Second round pick Denzel Mims' hamstring injury is opening the door for Lawrence Cager to get more reps. The undrafted rookie is impressing.

It is a tale of two wide receivers for the New York Jets. One, the highly-touted Denzel Mims, a second round pick, has yet to truly launch. The other, undrafted rookie free agent Lawrence Cager, is making waves and taking advantage of extra snaps in practice.

It was another day on the sidelines for Mims, who continues to recover from a hamstring injury suffered last week. Taken No. 59 overall, the expectation was that Mims would make a big impact as a rookie, especially after a senior season at Baylor where he had 66 catches for 1,020 yards and 15 receiving touchdowns.

Instead, Mims has been spending training camp so far rehabbing and watching practice.

“We’re going to have to put it in fast forward and do everything we can and get him as ready as possible – we just have to get him ready to go,” Jets head coach Adam Gase said on Saturday during virtual press conference.

“It is what is it is with training camp and when you have an injury, we just have less time to do it.”

Cager was a bit of a steal for the Jets as an undrafted signing, especially as he was considered to be a likely Day 3 pick in April’s NFL Draft. A transfer to Georgia for his senior season, he had 33 catches for 476 receiving yards and four touchdowns in eight games.

An injury cut short his senior season just as he was putting together a stretch of several solid games.

He’s now making an impression with the Jets, the undrafted rookie free agent turning out plays as he takes advantage of the snaps vacated by the higher draft pick Mims.

“He’s a quick study, very intelligent. He’s obviously a very big body, smooth runner,” Gase said.

“He really tries to be a detailed route runner, he tries to do the little things right and we’re talking about certain routes versus certain techniques. I think he’s just got to keep playing. When he gets opportunities like he did today 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 as sharp as he is. He’s a guy who came in here obviously with a very big chip on his shoulder he wants to prove a lot of people wrong.”

The issue with Cager has never been about his physical ability. At 6-foot-5 he has a good frame and wingspan. It has always been about focus and production.

Before his senior season was ended by injury, he was just starting to turn the corner and producing in some big games. He spent his first three seasons in college at Miami.

As for Mims, it isn’t all doom and gloom when it comes to his injury. The speedy wide receiver could be back in time for the Jets season opener at the Buffalo Bills.

“We’re obviously shooting for that. Hopefully we can get him back sooner than later,” Gase said.

“I don’t want to do a prediction on soft tissue injury because all it takes is – he’s running one day, he goes and cuts and it doesn’t feel right. It can set you back a couple of days. I don’t want to jinx it.”


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