| Movin' On Up: Panthers' Jeffers
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DATE: Dec. 17, 1999
PUBLICATION: NFL.com
All Patrick Jeffers needed was a chance.
On the college level, he had to walk on. In the NFL, he waited his turn behind vaunted receivers in Denver for two years, Dallas for one and Carolina in 1999.
In limited action in Dallas, he showed enough to become the team's third receiver, even producing a seven-catch, 92-yard showing in the Cowboys' wild-card loss to the Arizona Cardinals. It was enough to convince the Panthers to sign him as a restricted free agent in the spring, but not enough to allow him to crack the starting lineup. He was signed as a third receiver, and remained a third receiver.
Then, in October, fate intervened. In the Panthers' first meeting with the San Francisco 49ers, a rash of injuries decimated the receiving corps. Jeffers responded with brilliance, catching six passes for 93 yards and two scores to make George Seifert's homecoming a successful one.
With the exception of an injured groin that kept him out against the Atlanta Falcons on Halloween, he hasn't left the lineup since. Perhaps it's the lessons he learned in his meandering NFL career, encompassing three cities in four seasons, that have made him into one of the NFL's most reliable young receivers. After all, he learned at the feet of standouts Ed McCaffrey, Rod Smith and Michael Irvin.
"You try and learn things by watching, especially those guys, who've had longer-than-average careers," Jeffers said in the days leading up to Saturday's meeting with the 49ers. "To have a successful career, you've got to watch and learn from the guys who've been around a long time."
It was the experience of watching those receivers — especially in Denver, where he caught three passes in two years — that allows Jeffers to think of his years on the bench as time well-spent instead of time wasted.
"I've got nothing but good things to say about the organization," Jeffers said. "(Watching them) was probably the best thing for my career."
Indeed, he has demonstrated the breakaway speed of Smith, the courage to go across the middle of Irvin and the physical prowess of McCaffrey to catch 43 passes for 619 yards this season, including 15 for 254 in the last two weeks.
What allows him to excel beyond expectations is a speed that one doesn't expect from a receiver of his lanky build. For although he possesses the build of a gazelle and the guile to take a hit across the middle, he also is blessed with the ability to go into overdrive when he finds the open field.
"The more he's been given opportunities during a game, he's been taking advantage of them and getting more of a feel for everything that's going on," Seifert said. "He's developed into a fine receiver."
Jeffers' skills were never more apparent than in the fourth quarter of the Panthers' Week 13 game with the St. Louis Rams. Only 10 points behind and less than 30 seconds in, he took a pass from Steve Beuerlein and outran one of the league's best cornerbacks, the Rams' Todd Lyght, down the sidelines for a 71-yard score that put the Panthers at victory's doorstep.
Things didn't work out on that Sunday. One week later, though, Carolina finished the job against the Green Bay Packers, and with it, turned their barely flickering playoff hopes into a vibrant flame in the chill of Lambeau Field. Much of the credit went to Beuerlein for his heroic leap at the goal line on the game's final play, but it wouldn't have been possible had Jeffers not turned in career highs in receptions (8), receiving yards (147) and touchdowns (2).
In the Panthers' biggest game since their 1996 NFC Championship loss to those same Packers on that same frigid turf, Jeffers had responded with the game of his life.
"You could just feel it when you walked out there," he said. "It was different than a normal game."
He'd certainly come a long way from his senior year of high school in Fort Worth, Texas, when his application to the University of Virginia, where his elder sister was matriculating at the time, was rejected. The school only admitted him after he talked to the football coaches and agreed to walk on, without even a thought towards looking at a school in a lower NCAA division.
"I had made up my mind that I wasn't going to a school to just play football," he said. "If it was a choice of going to a good school or a Division II or Division III school, I wasn't going to lower my standards."
In less than two years, he had a scholarship. By the time he left, he was Virginia's fourth-leading receiver. And four years later, he's one of the essential pistons of the Panthers' offensive machine, spurring an unlikely playoff drive.
By moving up the ladder to become the Panthers' No. 2 receiver, the chances continue to increase. Commensurate with the chances comes Jeffers' rise in skill.
"The more chances you get, the better you're going to be," he said.
In the past, he's made the most of limited chances. Now, his chances appear limitless.
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