Earlier than he earned the prospect to play extensive receiver for the Jets on Sundays, chase data at Baylor on Saturdays, or fly previous opposing defenses in small-town East Texas on Friday nights, Denzel Mims was the quarterback of the long run at Daingerfield Excessive College.
Till one wet Thursday evening in 2012, when the Tigers’ junior varsity workforce was in want of a spark to win a sloppy recreation at Mount Vernon.
Mims was a tall, skinny freshman quarterback who was nonetheless working by way of his fundamentals as a passer, although his expertise and athleticism have been plain. So on the final play of the sport, the teaching employees determined to place within the backup quarterback and line up Mims at extensive receiver.
“We throw somewhat slant to [Mims] and he goes about 80 yards for a landing,” former Daingerfield varsity coach, Aric Sardinea, advised The Put up.
“I checked out my offensive coordinator and stated, ‘He’s going to play receiver for now on.’ ”
It was a prescient name.
Eight years later, Mims is the latest hope to change into the Jets’ massive playmaker. The 6-foot-3, 207-pound goal fell to them within the second spherical of final month’s draft, the place basic supervisor Joe Douglas drafted him with the No. 59 choose. If Mims is ready to conquer his newest problem the way in which the Jets imagine he can — and the way in which he has with all of the others which have come his means — Mims could possibly be catching passes from Sam Darnold for years to come back.
Sitting on a sofa between the 2 girls who raised him — his grandmother, Glinda, and mother, Peggy — Mims acquired the life-changing name from Douglas on the second evening of the draft. Douglas stated he was searching for a playmaker and requested if he had discovered one.
“Most positively you discovered one,” Mims stated. “Everybody else is gonna pay for it.”
The chip on Mims’ shoulder was there even earlier than he had an extended wait than he hoped for on draft evening.
He grew up in Daingerfield, a small city with a inhabitants of about 2,380. Its highschool has a proud soccer custom — six-time state champs, together with the 1983 workforce that’s considered among the best to ever play in Texas, and now has seven gamers drafted into the NFL with a handful of others making it as undrafted free brokers, together with Mims’ cousin and uncle.
However, there’s a small-school mentality that comes with rising up in a city that has an space of two.four sq. miles and a high-school enrollment of 296 college students.
“As a recruiter … you’ll be able to nonetheless miss a child. You possibly can drive proper by Daingerfield Excessive College attempting to get to Longview Excessive College,” Sardinea stated, referring to the alma mater of Chris Ivory, Trent Williams and, amongst others, Matthew McConaughey.
They finally discovered Mims, although.
The youngest of 4 football-playing brothers had moved on from quarterback by his sophomore yr, however was nonetheless taking part in different positions than simply extensive receiver, the place he had battles in opposition to future first-round cornerback Jeff Gladney. Mims was additionally a rising expertise at security and cornerback, a lot in order that Sardinea and school recruiters as soon as thought both place could possibly be his ticket to the NFL.
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It was Mims’ work on the monitor that helped his recruiting take off. In Could of his junior yr, Mims ran a blazing 200-meter sprint in 21.30 seconds to win the Class 3A state championship. Days later, Texas Tech was the primary college to supply him, with Arkansas State, Tulsa and Texas State quickly to observe.
Alongside the way in which, Baylor assistant Randy Clements had gotten phrase of a tall, lanky, athletic child in Daingerfield who was a little bit of “a late bloomer,” he stated. The employees seemed up his monitor instances, however they weren’t flashy till Mims went deeper into the postseason. They realized he was solely working as quick as he wanted to — it simply took some higher competitors to push him to raised instances.
That June, Mims attended Baylor’s satellite tv for pc camp in Marshall, Texas. His efficiency confirmed what the state monitor time urged.
“He was simply fully dominant,” stated former Baylor assistant coach Tate Wallis, who helped lead Mims’ recruitment. “He may actually run and go get the ball and no one may cowl him one-on-one. … Only a monster of an athlete.”
Baylor provided him a scholarship and Mims dedicated that weekend, finally signing even after Oklahoma made a late, onerous push to get him.
By his senior yr, Mims was now not a lot of a secret. Sardinea needed to get inventive to get the ball in his palms. That meant Mims typically lining up at quarterback or working again so defenses wouldn’t double-team him. Typically, it didn’t even matter in the event that they did.
“He had gotten to the purpose the place I began utilizing him with the mindset I had [with] Marquise Goodwin,” stated Sardinea, who was the offensive coordinator at Rowlett Excessive College for Goodwin, now a receiver with the Eagles. “After we would throw the ball to Marquise, it wasn’t even a match, whether or not individuals would double-team him or not. … Simply take your steps, take your drops and throw it as much as Denzel.”
Mims arrived at Baylor in 2016, simply as this system was mired in a sexual assault scandal. He determined to remain when many others have been leaving, taking part in his freshman yr below interim coach Jim Grobe earlier than Matt Rhule got here in and commenced to scrub issues up.
Earlier than Rhule and his employees acquired to know Mims, they have been instantly struck by his bodily traits reminiscent of his size, pace and catch radius — measurables that on the NFL Scouting Mix garnered comparisons to Julio Jones. All of them acquired put in motion his sophomore yr when Mims flourished, making 61 catches for 1,087 yards and eight touchdowns.
After taking part in by way of a damaged hand in his junior season, Mims bounced again with an enormous senior yr, catching 66 passes for 1,020 yards and 12 touchdowns. As Baylor surged into the Prime 25, Mims was there to make loads of massive catches in crunch time. That included a pair of landing catches in a triple-overtime win at TCU — one on fourth-and-5 from the 20 within the second OT to increase the sport after which the game-winner, leaping as much as seize a fade route with a cornerback draped over him — to maintain the Bears undefeated at 9-0.
“It simply appeared like this yr, any time we actually wanted a play to be made, the ball type of discovered him and he made it,” former co-offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas stated.
Mims, a brand new father to a child lady, grew right into a management position as properly, usually letting his work ethic converse for itself. It led to Rhule saying final November that Mims had “come so far as any participant I’ve ever been round.”
“I simply assume he’s a kind of younger folks that solutions the decision, man,” Rhule stated after Mims’ massive recreation in a win over Texas to clinch a spot within the Huge 12 Championship. “He solutions the problem. You possibly can problem Denzel. He steps up. Man, he fights for it. He finds a approach to make it occur.”
Wherever Mims’ soccer journey has taken him, his grandmother has been by his facet.
Glinda Mims labored at Daingerfield Excessive College and was at all times round at any time when he wanted one thing. She was the individual Mims needed to discuss with earlier than he dedicated to Baylor and she or he is usually the loudest voice within the stands at Mims’ video games.
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“His grandmother’s his rock,” Sardinea stated.
Mims’ humility — and his acts of kindness, just like the evening Baylor had rented out a bowling alley, when Mims noticed a father and son being turned away and as an alternative invited them to hitch his lane — comes with a facet of tenacity when the lights activate.
“There’s one thing burning within him,” Wallis stated.
Maybe it’s the ingrained small-school mentality, the journey the place nothing was given to him, or notion that he’s simply at all times been underrated.
Now, Mims has the one factor he’s ever wanted to succeed: a chance to shine.
“Going from Daingerfield to Baylor to New York is a large soar for him, however simply being the kind of individual he’s with the character he has, I imagine he’ll be fantastic there,” Sardinea stated. “I feel the Jets are getting an incredible younger man. I simply hope they’ll construct round him and provides him these alternatives to steer.”