On Saturday we mentioned the story of Jaguars rookie receiver Jaydon Mickens, who arrived in Jacksonville three months ago and initially lived in his car, in order to save money. He’s now putting himself in position to make plenty of money in the NFL.
Mickens, twice named the AFC special-teams player of the week for punt-return skills, had four catches for 61 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday in a 45-7 rout of the Texans. Not bad for a guy who had only one catch for 11 yards in seven prior games.
“I usually get four or five plays per game,” Mickens told PFT by phone after the game, adding that he would have gotten that same workload but for the injury that knocked receiver Marqise Lee out for the game early.
Mickens joins DeDe Westbrook, Keelan Cole (who had seven catches for 186 yards and a touchdown on Sunday), and Larry Pinkard as rookie receivers who are currently on the depth chart.
Mickens added that he slept in his car -- a Nissan Maxima -- for two weeks after arriving in Jacksonville. Mickens’ goal was (and is) to save as much money as he can, because he wants to open a child-care center with his mother. Mickens, 23, spoke passionately about his business aspirations and projects he has in mind for helping underprivileged youth in his hometown of Los Angeles.
If he keeps playing like he did on Sunday, he’ll be able to do all of that and more.